There are only 10-12 games for many teams in the regular season -- noting that not all teams have played the same number of games to this point is a bit of a problem too.

However, my main issue is understanding why the 24 team playoff is better than finishing the regular season in a semi-expedited fashion, and then going to the playoffs as usual...push back the start date of next season, but shorten the calendar a bit next season (maybe move all-star week o end of season, remove the week off mid-season as well, etc) so that it doesn't go too far into the summer, and then be back on track for Oct 2020...

This 24 team playoff just all seems like a lot of pain for no real reason, wrt the schedule at least.

There are only 10-12 games for many teams in the regular season -- noting that not all teams have played the same number of games to this point is a bit of a problem too.

However, my main issue is understanding why the 24 team playoff is better than finishing the regular season in a semi-expedited fashion, and then going to the playoffs as usual...push back the start date of next season, but shorten the calendar a bit next season (maybe move all-star week o end of season, remove the week off mid-season as well, etc) so that it doesn't go too far into the summer, and then be back on track for Oct 2020...

This 24 team playoff just all seems like a lot of pain for no real reason, wrt the schedule at least.
- mventres

The 7 teams that are effectively eliminated aren’t going to risk anything, and rightfully so. It’s more money for the league to dole out money x 7 more teams also. It’s going to be very expensive for testing, lodging, expenses, etc for the NHL to pay for. It’s just not prudent to play reg season games any longer. The only argument people can make other then 24 teams is 16 instead. But that isn’t fair whatsoever to the bubble teams.

I’m convinced the whole hockey world hates the. habs, outside of Mtl, because this wouldn’t be such an issue otherwise

There are only 10-12 games for many teams in the regular season -- noting that not all teams have played the same number of games to this point is a bit of a problem too.

However, my main issue is understanding why the 24 team playoff is better than finishing the regular season in a semi-expedited fashion, and then going to the playoffs as usual...push back the start date of next season, but shorten the calendar a bit next season (maybe move all-star week o end of season, remove the week off mid-season as well, etc) so that it doesn't go too far into the summer, and then be back on track for Oct 2020...

This 24 team playoff just all seems like a lot of pain for no real reason, wrt the schedule at least.
- mventres

Only a guess, but they're trying to minimize the number of games overall because they're going to be limited to a handful of areas where they can play. Not to mention, the more you play, the more likely someone tests positive. Would anyone really be surprised if they get a week or two in and someone is positive for COVID-19 and they shut everything down again?

That's why I think I'd rather they just don't do anything, see how bad a second wave is going to be (either now due to everyone thinking it's over or in the Fall) and postpone next season to December. To me, that makes much more sense than doing all of this just to shut it down again.

what mask
- Streit2ThePoint

your Zorro mask sexy

WE WANT CUP
- DrunkFan

2 girls 1 cup, amiright!??!

I completely disagree.
In fact an asterisk isn’t enough. This now the covid cup not the Stanley cup. Any integrity the process had went out the window with allowing in 24 teams (and then possibly not to reseed?).
As a medical doctor I do not feel this is safe - reopening medically is not supported by the data; I get that it is a political and economic decision and to some extent needs to be. As a season ticket holder (leafs) I also do not want this to happen.
With all the personnel at each hub there will be over 600 people involved. What happens when one or a few from one team test positive? Drop that team? Put everything on hold and quarantine 2 weeks? End it?
And despite your points - some quite valid - there will always be a taint on this year’s winner, even if in the end they actually had to prevail through even more difficulties than in typical years to win. They will not be universally seen as a valid cup winner. Is that victory meaningful? Even as a very long suffering leafs fan - I’ll be 57 by the time the cup gets awarded - I don’t want to win this way.

Deadly? This pandemic is b.s. as is wearing the mask. Wear it for 20 mins and measure your o2 levels. Their recommendation to wear one is detrimental to your health, not to mention the one fact they didn’t tell you is the coronavirus is much much much smaller than what the N95 mask can filter. Ty all for giving up our god given rights for their b.s.

I am an asterix guy (although obelix was good too)

This idiot is wondering why you need professional hockey in order to feel happy.

Maybe you should check in with yourself Ek, 100,000 people in your county have died. The USA is in dire straits and you wanna feel happy again so you look to hockey. The season should be cancelled, no asterix, nothing, and the people in your country (and others) should focus on getting healthy, not paying millionaires to entertain you, Caesar
- Mugozen

Further proof that the majority of us have no concept of true suffering. "Dire Straits." You have a handful of cities dealing with slightly elevated annual flu numbers, based on which news source you choose to believe. In 2004, a tsunami killed over 300,000 throughout the Indian Ocean, in mere hours. And that is in an area of the world where reporting is sub-par. To me, those are conditions that qualify as "dire straights."

My take.... let the players decided. Let democracy reign supreme. If they choose to play, let them play, if they choose to forfeit the season, so be it.
- WayneZ

So 100,000 Americans dying (and millions sick) isn't enough dire straights because you can find something more (frank)ed up and deadly???? WOW!!! Just saying.... but anyway; THE PLAYERS DO DECIDED. The NHLPA gets to vote if the players will participate collectively and EVERY PLAYER has the right to decide if they are going to participate or not.

I completely disagree.
In fact an asterisk isn’t enough. This now the covid cup not the Stanley cup. Any integrity the process had went out the window with allowing in 24 teams (and then possibly not to reseed?).
As a medical doctor I do not feel this is safe - reopening medically is not supported by the data; I get that it is a political and economic decision and to some extent needs to be. As a season ticket holder (leafs) I also do not want this to happen.
With all the personnel at each hub there will be over 600 people involved. What happens when one or a few from one team test positive? Drop that team? Put everything on hold and quarantine 2 weeks? End it?
And despite your points - some quite valid - there will always be a taint on this year’s winner, even if in the end they actually had to prevail through even more difficulties than in typical years to win. They will not be universally seen as a valid cup winner. Is that victory meaningful? Even as a very long suffering leafs fan - I’ll be 57 by the time the cup gets awarded - I don’t want to win this way.
- Dr. Leaf

Doc why not tell them the size of the virus and the filtering capacity of n95 masks. The mask cannot stop the virus.

I completely disagree.
In fact an asterisk isn’t enough. This now the covid cup not the Stanley cup. Any integrity the process had went out the window with allowing in 24 teams (and then possibly not to reseed?).
As a medical doctor I do not feel this is safe - reopening medically is not supported by the data; I get that it is a political and economic decision and to some extent needs to be. As a season ticket holder (leafs) I also do not want this to happen.
With all the personnel at each hub there will be over 600 people involved. What happens when one or a few from one team test positive? Drop that team? Put everything on hold and quarantine 2 weeks? End it?
And despite your points - some quite valid - there will always be a taint on this year’s winner, even if in the end they actually had to prevail through even more difficulties than in typical years to win. They will not be universally seen as a valid cup winner. Is that victory meaningful? Even as a very long suffering leafs fan - I’ll be 57 by the time the cup gets awarded - I don’t want to win this way.
- Dr. Leaf

in a year we can just eliminate the regular season and go to a 32 team playoff, best of 9 games each round, lottery seeding, playoff ticket prices....

Wasn’t there a cup champion of a 48 game season recently ?? Is there an asterisk on the Chicago dynasty?

Wasn’t there a cup champion of a 48 game season recently ?? Is there an asterisk on the Chicago dynasty?
- ClaudeFather

Deadly? This pandemic is b.s. as is wearing the mask. Wear it for 20 mins and measure your o2 levels. Their recommendation to wear one is detrimental to your health, not to mention the one fact they didn’t tell you is the coronavirus is much much much smaller than what the N95 mask can filter. Ty all for giving up our god given rights for their b.s.
- MLew65

Wearing a mask isn't to filter out the virus. It is to greatly reduce the spread of virus containing droplets in your respiration. So if you cough because you are sick it doesn't travel as far and potentially contaminate as many people. So if you sneeze at over 100 MPH someone on the other side of the supermarket doesn't get your snot in their lungs. Do you really not understand how a mask works? I mean forget your bullpoop about giving up your 'god given rights' (like you know what the hell God's intent was anyway) but this is sort of basic medical facts we are talking about.

MEDICAL SCIENCE AND TESTING SPECIFICALLY WITH CORONA VIRUS HAS SHOWN MASKS TO BE EFFECTIVE. This isn't an opinion thing our about your feelings.

Doc why not tell them the size of the virus and the filtering capacity of n95 masks. The mask cannot stop the virus.
- MLew65

A mask alone is not meant to stop the virus. Nothing has been shown to stop it. It is to be used in combination of other healthcare measures like social distancing and washing your hands frequently to help slow the spread of the virus.

Deadly? This pandemic is b.s. as is wearing the mask. Wear it for 20 mins and measure your o2 levels. Their recommendation to wear one is detrimental to your health, not to mention the one fact they didn’t tell you is the coronavirus is much much much smaller than what the N95 mask can filter. Ty all for giving up our god given rights for their b.s.
- MLew65

Jesus, get yourself educated. The virus isnt airborne, it's in the droplets from coughing, sneezing, etc. The mask helps shelter each other if they are asymptomatic from infecting others. Hence masks are a way to assist an unknowing or knowing infected person from spreading it to others. Now where you are right is when people drive by themselves wearing a mask, or walking on the street where they are easily distanced from others, yeah pointless in wearing a mask. But going into stores, restaurants, bars, hair salons, churches & other public places were distancing is or easily compromised... wear the friggin mask!

The 7 teams that are effectively eliminated aren’t going to risk anything, and rightfully so. It’s more money for the league to dole out money x 7 more teams also. It’s going to be very expensive for testing, lodging, expenses, etc for the NHL to pay for. It’s just not prudent to play reg season games any longer. The only argument people can make other then 24 teams is 16 instead. But that isn’t fair whatsoever to the bubble teams.

I’m convinced the whole hockey world hates the. habs, outside of Mtl, because this wouldn’t be such an issue otherwise
- Slimtj100

Not sure about this still. 24 team playoff is at least an extra round of games, potentially 5-7. If this is two extra rounds vs 1 extra round, then we're basically at a regular season anyway. Not sure if the testing costs are really that much for a few extra hockey teams per day, and how the additional revenue for teams playing would offset that.

Also, the games in hand/potential for revenue is not clear either. For example, MTL is the 12 team in Eastern Conference by points, but have played 71 games. Buffalo and NJ are 13th and 14th, with 68 points and TWO games in hand. If I was BUF and NJ, the potential to make playoffs, and the $$ associated seem like good reasons to argue against this. Western conference is more of a separation, but really I see only 4 teams that have a tough case to say they realistically are eliminated (DET is already mathematically eliminated).

I am also curious how the gambling world would react to this. I would imagine there are many, many millions of dollars in season-long assumption-based leagues and how this would be dealt with may get some backlash that could negatively impact things as well. More speculative, as I am not sure how that revenue indirectly impacts league revenue, but I would presume it does in a not insignificant way.

I mean it will be different from the norm which is what the asterisk represents... Writing a blog because you are that worked up simply over people talking about an asterisk seems like more of an issue than the asterisk itself. And I don't see any mention of the 1995 or 2013 seasons. Why no rage over those when people point out the shortened seasons?

It will never happen. The season is over.

It will never happen. The season is over.
- Marwood

https://youtu.be/V8lT1o0sDwI?t=9

If only the idiots would understand that is what it meant.

To me...Part of me wants them to let the season be over, no cup awarded. And come back 100% in the Fall. Let this be like the year without a Santa Claus...

Whoever wins the Stanley Cup in this scenario will have an asterisk.
- bcallaway

Blues repeat, no asterisk being back to back champs.

Ok, no asterisks but what about an ampersand?

Ok, no asterisks but what about an ampersand?
- Only_A_Ladd

The 7 teams that are effectively eliminated aren’t going to risk anything, and rightfully so. It’s more money for the league to dole out money x 7 more teams also. It’s going to be very expensive for testing, lodging, expenses, etc for the NHL to pay for. It’s just not prudent to play reg season games any longer. The only argument people can make other then 24 teams is 16 instead. But that isn’t fair whatsoever to the bubble teams.

I’m convinced the whole hockey world hates the. habs, outside of Mtl, because this wouldn’t be such an issue otherwise
- Slimtj100

(frank) them.

go by points percentage and call it good. The only two teams who have played under 69 games are the Canes and Isles, both of whom would qualify for the playoffs in this situation anyway.

No one has an easy road to the Cup, ever. Same thing this year. If a 17-24 team beats their opponent then they are the better team. If a top ranked team loses to an underdog then the underdog was the better team. You need to win four (or maybe even five) series. Whoever does that earns the title, no asterisk necessary.

I never understood why people put so much thought and worry into getting an “easier” road to the Cup. You may get one opponent who is a better matchup but any team that advances is playing well and will be a tough win. There is no such thing as an easy road to the Stanley Cup. Never has been.