Playoffs to reseed after each round
Team practice facilities will open to small groups of players on Monday
The NHL’s return-to-play plan came into sharper focus Thursday.
If the league is able to resume this summer, the playoffs will feature the traditional four rounds of best-of-seven series, after an added qualifying portion. The NHL announced the 24team format last week, but had yet to iron out some specifics, including the length of the first two rounds.
Also, teams will be reseeded after each playoff round. NHL commissioner Gary Bettman said last week that the league favoured a bracket, which has been in place since 2014. The players, however, made the case that reseeding would be more fair this year and won out.
The return blueprint — which will eventually require the approval of health and government officials to get off the ground, in two hub cities to be announced — would begin with separate, three-game roundrobin tournaments for the top four clubs in both the Eastern and Western Conference. The league said any ties at the end of round-robin play will be broken by regular-season points percentage.
The other teams would take part in eight best-of-five qualifying series, leaving the NHL with the usual 16-team playoff field.
Maple Leafs captain John Tavares, who was a member of the NHL/NHLPA Return to Play committee, said last week that players were intent on making sure there’s no asterisk if a team eventually lifts the Stanley Cup at the end of the season.
“Anyone who gets their name on it wants to earn it,” he said. “I think it’s going to be a very worthy and deserving Stanley Cup champion.”
Boston, Tampa Bay, Washington and Philadelphia would compete for the No. 1 slot in the East under the plan, while defending champion St. Louis, Colorado, Vegas and Dallas would play in the West.
The East’s best-of-five qualifying or play-in series would see No. 5 Pittsburgh vs. No.12 Montreal, No. 6 Carolina vs. No. 11 New York Rangers, No. 7 New York Islanders vs. No.10 Florida and No. 8 Toronto vs. No. 9 Columbus.
In the West, the best-of-five matchups are No. 5 Edmonton vs. No. 12 Chicago, No. 6 Nashville vs. No. 11 Arizona, No. 7 Vancouver vs. No.10 Minnesota and No. 8 Calgary vs. No. 9 Winnipeg.
The league, which paused its schedule in March and declared the regular season over last week, also announced the second phase of its return protocol will start Monday. That will see practice facilities opened to small groups of players for on- and off-ice workouts under strict health and safety restrictions.
The hope is that teams will be able to hold training camps (phase three) some time in July before resuming play either later that month or in early August (phase four).
Buffalo, New Jersey, Anaheim, Los Angeles, San Jose, Ottawa and Detroit each saw their seasons end last week.