Multiple news sources are today reporting that the NHL and NHL Players Association have by and large cleared up their financial issues and are now planning for a January 13th start to the season. This will be a short season that only has a 52 or 56 game schedule.
Ref:
ESPN: Sources: NHL, union clear hurdle, eye Jan. 13 for start of 2020-21 season
The NHL says, come hell, high water, or corona virus the season will still start on January 1st.
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| Lake Louise, Canada, elevation 5,600 feet |
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| MSG Hopes |
(#6) Carolina Hurricanes vs. (#11) New York Rangers
Saturday, noon, Aug. 1: Rangers vs. Hurricanes (home team)
Monday, noon, Aug. 3: Rangers vs. Hurricanes (home team)
Tuesday, 8pm, Aug. 4: Hurricanes vs. Rangers (home team)
Thursday, Aug. 6: Hurricanes vs. Rangers (if necessary)
Saturday, Aug. 8: Rangers vs. Hurricanes (if necessary)
24 Teams Will Resume Play
Top 12 in each Conference (includes Rangers, 11th place, 0.564%, and Islanders, 7th place, 0.588% )
Every week brings new rumors and rumblings about when and if the NHL will restart their season. Time is not on the side of the NHL. Time marches on and various new restart scenarios bubble up every day. Trying to figure out what is really going to happen is like practicing haruspicy, inspecting the entrails of a sacrificed animal in order to devine the future. New ideas are offered up every day for sacrifice.
Here are some recent restart offerings to the hockey gods that caught our eye:
NY Post/Brooks:
NHL restart plans intensify with player health concerns at forefront —
Reopening the league will be a massive task. Every “i” must be dotted, every “t” must be crossed. For if the NHL reopens, this will be one time when hockey will be a life and death proposition.Fansided:
According to former NHL forward and All-Star Game MVP John Scott, teams will start having training sessions starting on June 1.The Athletic:
...the NHL is currently in the process of vetting 12 NHL cities for the purpose of using four of them as centralized sites. (for a season resumption)NBC Sports:
The sense from the NHL and NHLPA is that there are plenty of possibilities still there to finish the regular season, complete a two-month Stanley Cup playoff and begin an 82-game regular season for 2020-21 sometime starting in November.
Large sporting and entertainment events probably will not make the cut (for opening up) for a long time; the economic benefit of the live audience doesn’t measure up to the risk of spreading the infection. Other activities fall into a gray area, such as church services or a high school soccer game with a few dozen people on the sidelines.
The NHL is saying May looks like the earliest possible restart date. The AHL also released an official statement saying their suspension of "play will not be lifted before May." Major League Baseball wants to start their season in May. So we wait and hope that something will happen in May.
One rumor floated via TSN analyst Darren Dreger is that the NHL is looking at a 24 team playoff format. This means the Rangers are in the playoffs! Sounds good to us.
The proposal allegedly on the table would be a format that has the top 12 teams in each conference qualify for the playoffs. The top four teams in each league would get a bye to the second round. East bye teams would be Boston, Tampa, Washington, and Philly. West would be St Louis, Colorado, Vegas, and Edmonton. Then you'd have a 5 vs 12, 6 vs 11, 7 vs 10, and 8 vs 9 in each conference. How real is this idea? According to Dreger it is a "strong" option.
