NHL lays out playoff plan

The NHL has a plan. Now it’s hoping to eventually get the green light.

The league unveiled a return-to-play format Tuesday that calls time on the rest of the regular season and would feature 24 of its 31 teams if the 201920 campaign is allowed to resume.

NHL commissioner Gary Bettman announced the regular-season schedule — which was paused March 12 as the COVID-19 pandemic brought most sports around the world to a halt — is “deemed to be completed” and that a round-robin and “play-in” qualifying round would precede a 16-team playoff.

“These are extraordinary and unprecedented times,” Bettman said. “Any plan for the resumption of play, by definition, cannot be perfect ... but we believe we have constructed an overall plan that includes all teams that as a practical matter, might have had a chance @ qualifying for the playoffs when the season was paused.

“This plan will produce a worthy Stanley Cup champion who will have run the post-season gauntlet that is unique to the NHL.”

The league hopes to have players at team facilities early next month under strict health and safety guidelines, hold training camps sometime after July 1 and begin playing games by early August.

“It’s been an important day for sports and for the NHL in this incredibly unique, difficult and trying time,” Bettman said on a video conference call with reporters following the announcement. “We hope that this is a step back towards normalcy.”

Tuesday’s news was just that, but also doesn’t guarantee a return to action.

The NHL still has plenty of work to do, including receiving the go-ahead from government and health officials, determining timing, the location of hub cities and testing procedures and ensuring the safety of everyone involved.

The 24-team plan — which includes every Canadian franchise, save for 30th-ranked Ottawa — would see the top-4 clubs from both the Eastern and Western Conference play two mini round-robin tournaments to determine seeding for the playoffs in a pair of yet-to-be-determined hub cities.

The other eight teams in each conference would play best-of-five “play-in” series — No. 5 vs. No. 12, No. 6 vs. No. 11, No. 7 vs. No. 10, and No. 8 vs. No. 9 — to round out the 16 clubs left standing in the playoffs.

The first — and secondround post-season matchups could be either bestof-five or best-of-seven series, but the conference finals and Stanley Cup will be best-of-seven.

The league is eyeing two cities to serve as hubs — 10 remain on the short list, including Edmonton, Vancouver and Toronto.