Per Larry Brooks and the NY Daily News...
The NHL is now looking into NOT Quarantining players in the same city, but rather playing the games in their home cities in front of empty stadiums and traveling around. The players are apparently NOT thrilled with the idea of being away from their families and sequestered for up to three months.
My take...
After Brooks' great reporting I called two owners and two team people....
Talking to some on the NHL side of this it's apparent what we are seeing here is the NHL/NHLPA looking at every and all options... Due diligence in a situation that requires immense fluidity.
I am not hearing the players have laid down the law here or anything like that. There is no ultimatum and the conversations between the players and NHL are still highly productive.
"Every scenario has to be played out, and if the players aren't OK with the sequestered aspect of this we will play that scenario out as well. It complicates things, but no more than what is already an incredibly complicated situation. We owe it to them to play out the scenario of playing in the regular cities with the authorities, health experts, governors, mayors, etc..."
It is really all how you look at it.
I asked, "If the regular season resumes in July in arenas, is is not completely impossible that we could see some fans, socially distanced in arenas, by the end of the playoffs in October/November?"
"Yes, I suppose it is in some places...like Edmonton or Florida..." my source replied, "Some states are already beginning their re-opening right now. but I don't think you will see fans at games in places like Boston, Philly or Toronto...or maybe you will..if the places opening up now indeed turn out to be opening up way too soon, and see relapse, it could be the Phillys and Bostons that do it right and are more safe come October. But then again if a group of players from Philly are traveling to a new hotspot, like Florida and returning to Philly infected?"
In my source's thinking you can see how logic just spins out of control based on all the possibilities here... SO how could this play out?
My initial feeling talking to my sources is this...
The concept of traveling around, living at home, and simply not having fans in the seats is not at all possible. Too many variables. Yet, the players concerns of being trapped in hotels for extended periods of time is also understandable. It truly is.
You see start to see the solution here and one source agreed it was pretty obvious.
The source, who is one of the brighter hockey people I know, put forth this scenario as where he sees this headed:
"If the players are not OK being sequestered for the three months required to complete the remainder of the season and playoffs, Ok. We can shorten that up. The doctors will likely say the "four city quarantine" is almost a MUST. But we can skip the regular season. I really think we can. We go to the 24 team playoff concept (see yesterdays blog) shorten the first rounds to best-of-fives have a best of 7 Conference and Cup Final, maybe, and be done the 2019-20 season in about 6 weeks. If we started that July 1, we would be clear by August 15th. That would get us out of this season BEFORE the predicted fall relapse, hold a draft, UFA period and allow us to start in November or December if all is well. With fans as early as December..."
The NHL wants to play a full 82 games with fans next season...It needs to.
more to come...
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