NHL clears way for return
Slowly and tentatively, the resumption of the National Hockey League season is coming into view.
With training facilities having opened on Monday for voluntary, small group workouts, the NHL and NHLPA announced Thursday that they have agreed to open training camps on July 10, “provided that medical and safety conditions allow and the parties have reached an overall agreement on resuming play,” according to the joint statement from the league and union.
In keeping with the league’s approach of remaining flexible as it tries to navigate its way to a return through the coronavirus pandemic, no date has been set for the start of Phase 4, which is the resumption of actual games. The league and PA have devised a plan for a 24-team tournament, with the top-four seeds from each conference playing in separate round-robin tournaments to determine seeding while there will be eight best-of-five play-in series.
If Phases 2 (voluntary workouts) and 3 (training camps) go off without major hitches, then actual games could begin by early August.
There will be two hub cities, one for each conference, during this period. Neither of those cities has been chosen. Commissioner Gary Bettman had announced on May 26 the league had narrowed the options down to 10 cities — Minneapolis/St. Paul, Las Vegas, Columbus, Los Angeles, Dallas, Chicago, Pittsburgh, Toronto, Edmonton and Vancouver. The league hopes to announce the two sites within a couple of weeks but, again, everything is subject to change. Not only is the league grappling with the pandemic, but some of those cities on the list have been dealing with riots in the wake of the killing of an unarmed black man by police officers in Minneapolis.
Meanwhile, the training camp start date gives players just about a month to shake off the rust in these socially distanced workouts. The Bruins released photos of linemates Patrice Bergeron and Brad Marchand skating at Warrior Ice Arena on Thursday, though the club has thus far not given a list of players who are in town to skate. This Phase 2 period also allows for players who live in other NHL cities to use other teams’ facilities, a common practice under normal circumstances when players start to ramp up workouts in August and September prior to training camps.
The league has been shut down because of the pandemic since March 12 and, for many players, this is the longest they’ve been off the ice since they’ve become professionals — and probably longer than that.
One of the big concerns of players has been, on top of infection from the virus, vulnerability to injuries such as muscle strains and pulls after being off the ice for so long.
Many players have invested in Peloton stationary bikes and have used any weights they could get their hands on during the lockdown, while teams’ training staffs have sent out detailed workout regimens for players to follow.
But as many players have said, there is no substitute for skating. Even rollerblading cannot simulate the hard stops and quick starts of ice skating. And then there’s the whole hockey part of it.
“That all helps and it’s great, but there’s absolutely nothing you can do to prepare for the ins and outs of a shift and the physicality of it,” said Bruins defenseman Torey Krug in April when the lockdown was still somewhat new. “Not only are you trying to mimic the skating motion, but there’s no way you can train for going into the corner with a guy who’s 6-foot-2, 210 pounds, and trying to out-battle him and get the puck and skate away from him.”