All the chatter you hear these days seems to center around which team is in which division in the West.
No offense to people from Minnesota, St. Louis or Dallas, but this corner really doesn’t care if they have to watch a few West Coast games on TV at 9 or 9:30 p.m. local time.
There are many bigger issues with a potential start to the season. The league must choose a division configuration, announce a schedule, a playoff format and move forward on a host of other things. We should find out in the coming days if the rumors of a December 28 start to training camp and a January 13 start to the season are realistic.
Consider me very skeptical. But the NHL and NHLPA are said to be working hard on all the details, so I hope to be pleasantly surprised. However, the devil may be in the details and I want to know what the plans are in many areas:
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Tests and protocols: Players were tested daily in the playoff bubbles in Toronto and Edmonton. I guess that won’t be the case now. What is the testing schedule and turnaround time for results? What happens if a team finds out a player tests positive, for example after morning practice? How to contact Trace?
To play or not to play: Does a positive test cancel that night’s game? If one player is infected and the entire team is considered a close contact, is a team out for a week or more? You can’t play doubleheaders in hockey, so an outbreak like we saw in baseball with the Miami Marlins and St. Louis Cardinals could put a permanent damper on the schedule.
The list of injured: Will Covid-19 be considered upper body or the “mid body” created by Lindy Ruff? Seriously, is the league going to hide its positive cases and thus have every reporter cover every team assuming a missing player is infected and not just dealing with a lame hamstring? The NFL has a public Covid list, however, the list does not distinguish between players testing positive and close contacts. If the NHL gets involved in the game, it should be fully informed about what happens with the players if they don’t play.
There was a firestorm in Toronto when Auston Matthews’ positive Covid test was reported in the offseason, with fans insisting Matthews’ privacy had been violated. I disagree, but you can at least make the argument. There is no argument when it comes to not disclosing a positive test during the season when a player is going to miss games and/or practices.
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Taxi squads: The NFL has practice squad players, baseball had extras available at its alternate training site, but what will hockey do? First, you’ll probably have to go to more than a 23-man roster, lest you get a positive test or two on game day. And not every team is like the Sabres, with an AHL team right next door to get a quick addition. Not all teams like Toronto, Winnipeg, Montreal or San Jose have minor league players in town either.
But what happens to the ceiling? In most cases, you can’t just add three or four more players, because that would push teams to the ceiling. Are the guys going to get a salary from the AHL or NHL for being on the NHL taxi squad? And what happens to the Americans if, say, Casey Mittelstadt is on the Sabres’ taxi squad instead of playing in Rochester? It is complicated.
The playoff format: I’m waiting for the NHL to ruin this. It seems likely that the top four teams in each division will get a spot and it remains to be seen if we will see an expansion from 16 teams to 20. If the NHL stays at 16, it will likely retain the top two rounds within the division . continue to limit travel (and who knows if the Canadian border will be open by then anyway). We will then find out how the league manages the final four. No Canadian team has reached the Stanley Cup Final since Vancouver choked in Game 7 at home to Boston in 2011. If you guarantee any of them advance to the final four , this would offer a good chance of participating in the final.
Makeup games: If the season goes completely awry due to cases and postponements, I wonder if the league is preparing to enter hubs as a backup plan. Players want nothing to do with the regular season bubbles, but given the choice of a season or no season – also known as money or no money – one imagines that the most of them would learn to cope with it.
Keep that preseason theory
It looks like there won’t be any exhibition games, and that’s okay. It also shows what a financial drain they are in normal times. If we’re going to start a season in which some teams like the Sabers haven’t played since March and others have only played three or four games since then, it’s clear we think the athletes are on a cycle 12 months to stay in shape.
So why are we wasting time and energy every September with teams playing up to eight preseason games? Is it simply so that places like Toronto, Montreal and Chicago can raise money from the big houses? Of course, that seems to be the case. This is a waste of time in most markets. And with today’s athletes, that’s not necessary.
I’ve always said that preseason should never last more than four games. Maybe only two. But I doubt the NHL will follow my theory.
Scouts may be unlucky
Good luck if you are a scout in this sport.
There were no spring playoffs for the OHL, QMJHL or WHL. The USHL playoffs were won, as was the NCAA tournament. There were no world championships or under-18 world championships. The European leagues have not finished their season either.
What’s happening this season? Cuts all over Europe. No games in the OHL or WHL until the new year and a Covid-riddled Quebec League schedule that is now on pause.
Will NHL teams be allowed to move scouts? The KeyBank Center press box is always a gathering place for scouts from across the league, especially southern Ontario natives. It won’t be like that this season. And in a season where teams have a lot of decisions to make with the expansion draft protected list, that’s problematic.
Many ECHL teams, including the Cincinnati club used by the Sabres, opted out of their season. The AHL won’t play until February. If not at all. And how many of these teams could opt out?
Will we have a Memorial Cup or World Championships this year? Are we going to have another virtual draft in July instead of meeting in one city? Of course, that seems likely.
• I’m pretty sure we’ll quickly tire of hearing about the Canadian Division (or whatever the NHL calls it), especially with all the flattery it’s likely to generate north of the border . None of these teams are too impressive and that includes the Maple Leafs, who might be the favorites to win the division but don’t figure to have much playoff life. The Leafs are not Cup contenders at the moment. You can’t be considered one if you haven’t even won a first round playoff series since 2004.
• Sportsnet’s Elliotte Friedman reported last week that the NHL is considering helmet ads as a way to generate additional revenue. The sweater ads are also due at some point. This corner has opposed those, but the pandemic seems to have made them inevitable and probably necessary. Hopefully the ads stay mostly low-key, like we’ve seen in the NBA.
• The Sabers must cross their fingers and toes that the World Junior Championship continues in the Edmonton bubble and goes off without a hitch. What a developmental opportunity this is going to be for Dylan Cozens and Jack Quinn, their No. 1 draft picks the last two years and two projected studs for Team Canada. And imagine them on a line with Chicago stalwart Kirby Dach, like they were in Friday night’s scrimmage. Youza.
• A stumbling block for teams working on their arena protocol is what to do with their “eyes in the sky” coaches watching the game from the press box. They won’t be up there this year, because media and team personnel will be at a different access level and won’t be allowed through. That means coaches can’t be in the press box and will have to move to fanless building floors, which are nowhere near as visible in the sky.
