Season will feel like ‘56 playoff games’
All divisional play could lift rivalries to a higher level
The NHL has started seasons of fewer than 82 games in January and played into the summer to award the Stanley Cup. Just not like this.
When the puck drops on the regular season in five rinks Wednesday, it will be the start of a 56game sprint to the playoffs with all divisional play until the semifinals. That will ramp up the rivalries, reduce travel during the pandemic and make this a once-in-a-lifetime chase for a title.
“We’re going to see a 56-game season, but it’ll be 56 playoff games,” veteran New York Islanders general manager Lou Lamoriello said. “It’s exciting. I think the divisions the way they’re in front of us, it’ll be great for the fans and I think the players will enjoy it, also, so I think the rivalries will just raise to a level we haven’t seen in a long, long time.”
If hockey can navigate the perils of the virus like other sports. Already three teams have been
affected, with Dallas unable to start the season on time.
Fans won’t be able to watch in person at the beginning except in a handful of U.S. Sun Belt markets. Tampa Bay on Saturday reversed course on beginning the season with a limited capacity of 3,800 in the arena that’s also hosting the NBA’S Toronto Raptors, citing the recent rise of COVID-19 cases and hospitalizations in the area.
Teams will play every division rival at least eight times, often consecutively.
That includes a neverbefore-seen all-canadian North Division because of border restrictions. Four
teams from each of the four divisions make the playoffs and play it out until there are four left in contention for the Cup by the start of summer.
Far different than completing the 2019-20 season in quarantined bubbles in Canada with Tampa Bay winning it all. Being out in the world means coaches in masks behind the bench, no venturing outside the hotel and arena on the road, and six months of pure hockey in the hopes of avoiding the kind of teamwide outbreaks that have already hit the Stars and have others on edge.
The Blues’ Brayden Schenn said, “I think the team that at the end of the day is going to be the smartest off ice is going to have the best chance to win because I think that’s going to limit players going down with the virus.”
The schedule and protocols were designed with that in mind. If they work and most if not all games go on as scheduled, it may improve quality of play.
Much of that depends on goaltending, with each team likely relying on more than just its starter given the condensed schedule. Coaching will also be different.
“It changes the coaching side probably more than the playing side,” Colorado coach Jared Bednar said. “You can approach it like it’s a little bit of a playoff series.”
It likely won’t be the same lineup every night, either, given the usual wear and tear of injuries. Because of quarantine measures, each team will have a taxi squad of four to six players and must have three goalies available at all times.
“If ever we were going to need depth at all positions, it’s going to be this year,” new Philadelphia Flyers coach Alain Vigneault said. “It’s going to be a challenge.”