Don’t expect bubble repeat, NHLPA’S Fehr says

EDMONTON, Alberta — The 64 days spent in the NHL playoff bubble feel like six months to Barclay Goodrow.

“It’s tough,” the Tampa Bay Lightning forward said. “It’s been a grind.”

It’s a grind he and players won’t do again next season. The league and Players’ Association will meet within the next two weeks to discuss the many possibilities of what the 202021 season could look like, but there’s no desire to stage it entirely within quarantined bubbles.

“Certainly not for a season, of course not,” NHLPA executive director Don Fehr said Sunday. “Nobody is going to do that for four months or six months or something like that. Whether we could create some protected environments that people would be tested and they’d be clean when they came in and lasted for some substantially shorter period of time with people cycling in and out is one of the things I suspect we will examine.”

Not long after the Stanley Cup Final, which ended Monday, the two sides will talk about when next season might start, how many games might be possible, what testing and protocols might be required and whether fans might be allowed into buildings at some point.

A week after Commissioner Gary Bettman said a mid-to-late December or January start was possible, Fehr agreed that the tentative Dec. 1 opening night target date was the “earliest conceivable date” the season could start and there’s good reason to believe it’ll be later.

The NHLPA is in the process of finalizing a committee to start answering the myriad of questions hockey faces in trying to get another season going. And while that and negotiations will begin quickly, the league and players are on the same page, that just like the return to play plan, they want to take time to get this right.

“Nobody is going to rush it,” Fehr said.

It helps the NHL has some time and an opportunity to monitor the NFL, Major League Baseball and college athletics for what’s working and not working in those sports.

But the NHL is the most dependent on attendance, which Bettman said affects at least 50 percent of revenues. It needs fans, but might not be able to get them in all 31 buildings.

The league and players negotiated a long-term extension of the collective bargaining agreement knowing projections for at least next season would be much different given the pandemic. If each team can’t play 82 games with some fans at some point, everyone is likely to take an even bigger financial hit, which could affect player salaries.

“Players are adults. They understand,” Fehr said. “… Nobody likes what we’re living through. But you don’t gain anything by sugar coating or being less blunt than otherwise would be the case.”

Players leaving the playoff bubble were blunt that they don’t want to go through that kind of extended isolation again. Golden Knights forward Max Pacioretty was among them, saying, “I hope we don’t have to do that again.”

“I hope the world takes a turn for the better here and, hopefully, get some normalcy back,” Pacioretty said.