The 2019-20 Season will forever be remembered as being weird. It just will be. The world will forever remember 2020 as a very dark year. That is just the reality of it all. We need to embrace that if we are to survive it. We need to find ways to make it as interesting as possible. It will be memorable, why not just go with that.
I fully appreciate what the NHL And NHLPA are trying to accomplish right now with all the diligence in their attempt to have some kind of regular season and some kind of normal playoff.. I truly would love to see the players back in June, a playoff in the summer (which is a time of year we actually NEVER see a championship competed for) and then a draft, UFA, etc...The season will be played without fans but not without risk of course. And the more we try to normalize it all, the more risky it all becomes.
I believe in this world the hardest thing to do is long-range planning. If you were having a wedding, you'd have a better shot at pulling that off in early July, then knowing if the virus will hit back in the fall.
The NHL can do all the due diligence they want, but all of it goes up in smoke very easily. The three leading options show that...
Option 1. Quarantined in a few cities. Season Plus Playoffs. No fans. Finish season in July. Playoffs in August and September.
Option 2. Not Quarantined. Season Plus Playoffs. No fans. Finish season in July. Playoffs in August and September.
Option 3. Quarantined 24 teams playoff system in July/August
These options are all requiring long periods of time, and every day longer the possibility that someone gets sick or the world turns even more upside down grows. And through the process of finding a way to finish the season I can't help but think that "Paralysis by Analysis" will take over and the chances that the NHL just decides "in the name of safety" to cancel the season completely grows. I could easily see the NHL saying "we simply can't guarantee player safety for three months, therefore we will wait this out and start the next season in January with fans. It is the safest and most economic solution."
And I don't think anyone would balk at that conclusion. They are right. Quarantine will be needed and doing that for such periods of time is almost impossible.
The NHL needs to take some cues from the Olympics here. The Olympic Village is a quarantined place for less than 30 days with hundreds of athletes living and eating within the walls. It can be done on that scale.
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The regular season is pointless right now. I understand some of the local Fox Sports TV deals have clauses that if they dont finish the season the networks get the next season for free, but this was put in to fight against Strike/Lockout scenarios....not acts of God, surely the US and Canada could step in here and fix that.
The only solution I see here, and the most entertaining (which is why we want them to play, we are dying for something) is a 31 team NCAA basketball style tournament. Every team makes it, with team (Boston) getting a by
*The league would be set into four brackets, with four cities setting up Olympic villages essentially for eight teams to play in a piece. However, unlike the NCAA, after each playoff round the teams would re-seat, so the best team in the regular season (based on winning percentage) would always face the worst team remaining in their bracket/city.
Here are the bracket concepts and the matchups...I made the top seed in each bracket the divisional leaders… The Boston Bracket Bruins get a bye. NY Rangers vs Calgary Pittsburgh vs Buffalo Edmonton vs. Montreal
The St Louis Bracket St Louis vs. Detroit. Winnipeg vs Florida Philadelphia vs New Jersey Dallas vs Chicago
The Washington Bracket Washington vs. Ottawa NY Islanders vs Nashville Tampa vs Anaheim Carolina vs Arizona
The Las Vegas Bracket Las Vegas vs. San Jose (how about that?) Columbus vs. Vancouver Colorado vs Los Angeles Toronto vs. Minnesota
I can already see some intrigue in those matchups, can’t you?
The four winners of each bracket would then go to one of the cities for a final four type of a scenario. At which point you could either have then play best of series or just continue the single elimination.
If you started round one on a Saturday and Sunday and played two games each day the whole first round would be about a week. Example.
Saturday St Louis vs Detroit Winnipeg vs Florida
Sunday Philly vs. NJ Dallas vs. Chicago
Tuesday St Louis vs Dallas
Wednesday Winnipeg vs Philly
Friday St Louis vs. Winnipeg
This whole tournament could be two or three weeks depending on single elimiations or series...There is also a concept of double elimination tournaments where the round one losing teams are put into a bracket of sorts and still alive….
In conclusion…
Why not? This would be memorable for sure and be the NHL’s way of saying thanks to all of their fans. I could see it gain lots of momentum in the sports world because we would be looking at all Game 7s! It is the safest and most memorable option...Best of all worlds in a world that needs that right now.
What Say You?