NHL needs to shut down regular season and use a shortened Stanley Cup playoff format | Sam Carchidi
If all the remaining regular-season games are played, it not only adds at least three weeks to the schedule, but it greatly increases the chances of a player contracting the coronavirus.
The NHL needs to bag the regular season and start preparing for the playoffs, without fans, to start around mid June – provided the coronavirus is under control, of course.
If the regular-season games are played, it will be for one reason: greed. (Read: TV revenue.)
Stop the charade. Cancel the regular season. If you play all the remaining regular-season games, it not only adds at least three weeks to the schedule, but it greatly increases the chances of a player contracting the coronavirus from a teammate or an opponent.
As this space has suggested, go back to the old days and play just three playoff rounds: the Stanley Cup quarterfinals, semifinals, and finals. It would take about six weeks to complete the tournament, which would end around Aug. 1 and would allow the 2020-21 season to start sometime in October.
Less is better
Have just four teams in each conference make the playoffs instead of eight. Base the qualifiers on points percentage of all games played. If that was done, here is how the first-round matchups would look: In the East, Boston (1) vs. Flyers (4), and Tampa Bay (2) vs. Washington (3). In the West: St. Louis (1) vs. Dallas (4), and Colorado (2) vs. Vegas (3).
Yes, teams like Pittsburgh (and their fans) who would have qualified in a “normal” year would be upset they weren’t in the playoffs, but there is nothing normal about these times.
Make the first two rounds best-of-five series and the last round a best-of-seven.
Dr. Anthony Fauci, the nation’s top infectious-disease expert, said earlier this week that if sports return this summer – he was in favor of it – the games should be played in empty arenas/stadiums because of the health risk. He also said athletes should be placed in hotels and tested every week for the virus.
“At the end of the day, we just want to play, so if we can play with no fans, we’ll do it,” Flyers rookie winger Joel Farabee said on Thursday.
Yes, it would be odd to play without spectators, without much noise except for what is generated by skate blades, shots, saves, and body checks.
‘Unfamiliar’ times
“Right now, our whole life and experience is defined by strange and unfamiliar, right?” Valerie Camillo,president of business operations for the Flyers and the Wells Fargo Center, said on Friday. The times are strange “in every facet of our life, and this will be another one. But I know the players are eager to get back on the ice and eager to finish out the season. I think people from home are really starved for things to watch that aren’t the news. I think the country is ready for sports to come back.”
There have been many NHL restart plans going around since the season was suspended on March 12.
One playoff proposal, floated by TSN in Canada, has the teams rolling back to 68 games – the most contests every team has played. (The Flyers have played 69.)
If you go back to records after 68 games, the Flyers and Capitals both had 89 points, but the Capitals would win the tiebreaker and finish first in the Metro thanks to a 37-36 advantage in regulation and overtime wins.
Washington would play Carolina, the top wild-card team in the 68-game rollback format, in the first round, and the second-place Flyers would play the third-place Penguins.
In their plan, 16 teams (eight in each conference) would still make the playoffs. That’s too many. That would take four playoff rounds to determine a champion.
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Higher risk
As mentioned, the more games, the higher the risk that someone will get the virus.
And if one player tests positive, the whole team would have to be quarantined for two weeks. That makes me wonder if the NHL should just forget about the playoffs, too.
But finishing the season would add some normalcy, so I can understand trying to hold the playoffs in, say, June after a two-week training camp.
Play fewer games. Play in closed arenas. Keep the players sequestered in a hotel. Give the shut-in fans something to watch. Give the NHL and the players some TV money to divide, but only if the health risks are minimal.
And if a player competing in the playoffs tests positive for the virus and forces a team to be quarantined for two weeks? It would create too much chaos, and would ruin the fairness of the tournament, which should cause the league to cancel the playoffs.
From here, it’s worth the risk of trying to play playoff games, but only if the medical experts say its viable, only if it’s a shortened tournament, and only if there’s an understanding that there’s a chance the Stanley Cup champion may not be crowned this year.