Division-centric sites for season resumption - reported to be Edmonton and Toronto

LadyStanley

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Ok 24 teams. Bottom 8 in each conference have best of 3 play in while top 3 seeds play round robin (with potential reseeding). Then playoffs with 16.

Edmonton pushing lifestyle for their hub hosting opportunities.

Only 7 teams in draft lottery?

Players have Thursday conference call. May be EC vote, may be full union vote. TBD

Lots of questions still to answer. No when, no where...yet.
 

LadyStanley

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My assumption is that NBCSN, NHL Network may be broadcasting ALL restart games. Perhaps even some "prime time" on NBC. (Unless you have a local regional team that may be on RSN.)
 

IU Hawks fan

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My assumption is that NBCSN, NHL Network may be broadcasting ALL restart games. Perhaps even some "prime time" on NBC. (Unless you have a local regional team that may be on RSN.)
Definitely think RSNs will get to show the play-in and R16. Think going to 24 teams is motivated by being able to give the RSNs makegoods.
 

LadyStanley

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Players would like to have (conference) games reseeded after every round, not bracket style. And they are asking if first round of playoffs (after play in or round robin) is best of 5 or best of 7.

Perhaps announcement coming Tuesday.
 

mouser

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I doubt reseeding is important to the team owners since they’re not hosting games in their own arenas. Nor would there be potential travel impacts if the rumored two site plan happens.
 

LadyStanley

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From today's presser.

Still in contention hub cities include:

Columbus, Pittsburgh, Toronto; Chicago, Dallas, Edmonton, Las Vegas, Los Angeles, Minneapolis/St Paul, Vancouver. (I kinda divided them by conference, but don't know how they will be divided.)

Cities won't be selected until closer to actually dropping the puck in qualifying/round robin round.
 

Ernie

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Aug 3, 2004
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A little bit of a disconnect in hosting a hub city in Canada. Jason Kenney, the premier of Alberta, says that he's asking the federal government to waive the 2 week quarantine for NHL teams, which Daly made a requirement for hosting the games.

However, British Columbia's Provincial Health Officer, Bonnie Henry, is saying that nobody should be exempt and BC is requesting the federal government not to make any exceptions. While BC doesn't have control over the borders, the Provincial Health Officer has wide latitude to make orders as she sees fit. And she'll have public support for that stance - she can basically walk on water right now in the public's view. BC has the lowest deaths of any major jurisdiction in the Western world and much of it is credited to Henry's calm, decisive leadership.

So will Trudeau make an exception for Edmonton (or Toronto)? I doubt it. Canadians' view of the United States has plummeted in recent years and has taken a further nosedive in the past few months. As popular as hockey is, the overwhelming feeling is "Canada First" right now.

With that in mind we can whittle down the possible locations to the US based ones.
 
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LadyStanley

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It might be that the Canadian teams in the playin/round robin may have to head to US NHL team location for camp if things continue like this.
 

Ernie

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It might be that the Canadian teams in the playin/round robin may have to head to US NHL team location for camp if things continue like this.

I think teams will arrange for players to quarantine when they come to Canada before training camp. What the league and players want to avoid is having players come to training camp and then be stuck in a hotel room for two weeks before immediately jumping into playoff hockey. That seems understandable.
 

KevFu

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A little bit of a disconnect in hosting a hub city in Canada. Jason Kenney, the premier of Alberta, says that he's asking the federal government to waive the 2 week quarantine for NHL teams, which Daly made a requirement for hosting the games.

However, British Columbia's Provincial Health Officer, Bonnie Henry, is saying that nobody should be exempt and BC is requesting the federal government not to make any exceptions. While BC doesn't have control over the borders, the Provincial Health Officer has wide latitude to make orders as she sees fit. And she'll have public support for that stance - she can basically walk on water right now in the public's view. BC has the lowest deaths of any major jurisdiction in the Western world and much of it is credited to Henry's calm, decisive leadership.

So will Trudeau make an exception for Edmonton (or Toronto)? I doubt it. Canadians' view of the United States has plummeted in recent years and has taken a further nosedive in the past few months. As popular as hockey is, the overwhelming feeling is "Canada First" right now.

With that in mind we can whittle down the possible locations to the US based ones.

I think there's confusion over the Kenney request due to a wire report combining two statements from two government officials in one article without a clear transition:

British Columbia Premier John Horgan said he will not look to ask the federal government to waive any rules regarding the 14-day quarantine period. Alberta Premier Kenney wants the NHL exempt from travel restrictions so they have have NHL games in the city.

That makes it sound like Kenney IS asking the federal government to waive a quarantine for the NHL. The issue isn't the quarantine (The NHL return plan HAS ONE IN IT, although it's impractical to do it twice: once to start camp, once to travel to Canada).

The REAL obstacle to an NHL hub city in Canada is the OTHER big travel restriction: Non-citizens cannot enter Canada from the United States for the purpose of tourism, recreation, entertainment. That was extended a week ago to run through June 21.

Kenney is looking for an exemption to THAT restriction so the non-Canadians can get from the US to an NHL hub in Edmonton.

You can work around the quarantine issue: Eight Western teams could train in Canada, quarantining first upon arrival and then get to Edmonton for NHL games with no two-week break.

But you can't do that if any non-Canadian who's been in the US these last few months simply can't get into the country. Kenney basically wants the NHL players/staff to be categorized as essential instead of non-essential.
 

Ernie

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Aug 3, 2004
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You can work around the quarantine issue: Eight Western teams could train in Canada, quarantining first upon arrival and then get to Edmonton for NHL games with no two-week break.

That would require the 8 teams to leave their home markets to run their training camps in Canada. They would have to relocate for 5 weeks before they even play a single game.

Given the pushback from the players about being in lockup for this long, I would expect it would be a non-starter.

Makes more sense to have the hub cities in the US where there is plenty of private medical infrastructure to do testing and no quarantine.
 

LadyStanley

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Athletic pundit for Las Vegas looks at what NHL could be offered to play as hub city.

TMobile plus five sheets of ice, plus two more at Orleans and MGM Grand.

That last might not be as available with MGM including the Grand in its reopening. (Excalibur, Luxor, Mandalay Bay/Delano/Four Seasons and MGM Park, across the street from TMobile, are not yet open)
 

LadyStanley

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31 Thoughts: Fun week, but high hurdles remain for NHL resumption - Sportsnet.ca

NHLers have been told that coming back to finish this year might save them seven or eight points on escrow (probably moving it down from 35 to 27 or 28). There are some — again, I’m not sure how many — who don’t think that’s worth it. I do believe the league is willing to ease that number by collecting those payments over several years. But I’m not sure a full CBA can be done by the time games will be played, and is the NHL prepared to make that deal without a long-term commitment? It’s a delicate dance, because the owners will argue (if pushed) that their bottom lines are getting hit hard, too.

Unlike the MLB fight over $$.


And other nuggets from recent stuff.
 

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