Playoff Formats for Suspended Seasons

[T-Funk]

Play to game 72. Best of 5's playoffs.
A linesman and the honor system for penalties.
I don't want Tom Kowal or Tim peel anywhere near the teams. They definitely are both patient zero.

 

[5 Mins 4 Ftg]

Just go Rock Paper Scissors till you have last team standing. Wearing hazmat suits of course.

 

[McShogun99]

If they cancel the season then they should just do the top 16 teams as of now. The 16th place team is the NYR 79 points and 70 games played. Then there are 3 teams with 78 points and 69 game splayed, Vancouver, Florida and Nashville.

They can do a mini, best of 1 tournament with those 4 teams and the winner gets the 16th spot. NAS,@ NYR, FLA @ VAN, then the winners play each other for the last playoff spot.

 

[Soundwave]

Think if they did go with the top 16 teams by best point percentage, the TV partners would be relatively happy.

McOilers in, Toronto in, both New York Islanders and Rangers in, Pitts + Philly in, Vegas in.

 

[5 Mins 4 Ftg]

I honestly don’t think we will have a playoff. I think we’re done. This is going to take 60 days minimum. That is the middle of May when your already down to 4 teams. That’s too long a hiatus.

I also do not think the players and owners will get consensus on this and just write the entire thing off, players will need to get summer training in, teams need to get payrolls and rosters in order, contracts expire July 1. It ain’t happening.

Ladies and Gentlemen, start prepping for the draft and free agent frenzy.

 

[Cloned]

I honestly don’t think we will have a playoff. I think we’re done. This is going to take 60 days minimum. That is the middle of May when your already down to 4 teams. That’s too long a hiatus.

I also do not think the players and owners will get consensus on this and just write the entire thing off, players will need to get summer training in, teams need to get payrolls and rosters in order, contracts expire July 1. It ain’t happening.

Ladies and Gentlemen, start prepping for the draft and free agent frenzy.

At least we had a good season and overall good feelings. McDavid hasn't demanded a trade yet.

 

[5 Mins 4 Ftg]

At least we had a good season and overall good feelings. McDavid hasn't demanded a trade yet.

Another lost season though. Sigh.

Supergirl won’t even be able to save the season I fear.

 

[Cloned]

Another lost season though. Sigh.

Supergirl won’t even be able to save the season I fear.

We could probably all use one of these suits right now

 

[5 Mins 4 Ftg]

We could probably all use one of these suits right now

Do they make it in a 3XL?

 

[Soundwave]

I honestly don’t think we will have a playoff. I think we’re done. This is going to take 60 days minimum. That is the middle of May when your already down to 4 teams. That’s too long a hiatus.

I also do not think the players and owners will get consensus on this and just write the entire thing off, players will need to get summer training in, teams need to get payrolls and rosters in order, contracts expire July 1. It ain’t happening.

Ladies and Gentlemen, start prepping for the draft and free agent frenzy.

I think it's doable, they will simply have to nix the regular season obviously, but they could do playoffs in early/mid-May. 1st round moves to a best of 5. May have to be in front of empty stadiums though.

 

[5 Mins 4 Ftg]

I think it's doable, they will simply have to nix the regular season obviously, but they could do playoffs in early/mid-May. 1st round moves to a best of 5. May have to be in front of empty stadiums though.

Reading and watching they this virus will need at least 60 days to get under control. Minimum. That takes us way past May 1. Formats won’t change. Too big an asterisk on the season. Players and teams will disagree.

It ain’t happening.

 

[Soundwave]

Reading and watching they this virus will need at least 60 days to get under control. Minimum. That takes us way past May 1.

It ain’t happening.

The games don't have to be played in front of people. As long as the players all are tested and are clear of it.

Of course this may require players to voluntarily go into a quarantine protocol for 14 days prior to playoffs starting.

The TV networks still have ad space and sponsors to sell to, in fact if more people are inside, the ratings could be higher than usual.

 

[Cloned]

The games don't have to be played in front of people. As long as the players all are tested and are clear of it.

Of course this may require players to voluntarily go into a quarantine situation for 14 days prior to playoffs starting.

The TV networks still have ad space and sponsors to sell to.

It'd be more than that. They'd have to voluntarily go into quarantine for 14 days prior to starting, for the entire duration of the playoffs, and for 14 days afterwards. And it'd be more than just players. It'd be all major team personnel.

 

[Soundwave]

It'd be more than that. They'd have to voluntarily go into quarantine for 14 days prior to starting, for the entire duration of the playoffs, and for 14 days afterwards. And it'd be more than just players. It'd be all major team personnel.

Which isn't an impossibility. It's not like they couldn't be put up in luxurious accommodations and tested on a regular basis to ensure everyone's safety.

I mean at some point a line in the sand has to be drawn too ... this will still be circulating in September/October next year too ... do you scrap next season also?

 

[Cloned]

Which isn't an impossibility. It's not like they couldn't be put up in luxurious accommodations and tested on a regular basis to ensure everyone's safety.

Then you're talking about having to quarantine all hotel/accommodation staff. It's just a large logistical undertaking, something I'm not sure the league wants to do.

My guess is that all the leagues had the same critical threshold for season suspension: continue playing games until one of our players gets it, then we suspend the season.

 

[Soundwave]

Then you're talking about having to quarantine all hotel/accommodation staff. It's just a large logistical undertaking, something I'm not sure the league wants to do.

My guess is that all the leagues had the same critical threshold for season suspension: continue playing games until one of our players gets it, then we suspend the season.

Lets be honest ... they will do whatever the NBA does. They're like kid brother to big brother there.

If the NBA decides to have playoffs, the NHL will follow suit.

 

[Cloned]

Lets be honest ... they will do whatever the NBA does. They're like kid brother to big brother there.

In this case though it's completely understandable.

Also I would add that being in quarantine for a period of 2+ months (which is what a 16 team playoff entails plus 2 weeks prior and after) is a long ass time to be quarantined. Good luck getting people to agree to that.

 

[5 Mins 4 Ftg]

The games don't have to be played in front of people. As long as the players all are tested and are clear of it.

Of course this may require players to voluntarily go into a quarantine situation for 14 days prior to playoffs starting.

The TV networks still have ad space and sponsors to sell to, in fact if more people are inside, the ratings could be higher than usual.

Has nothing to do with playing in front of people or not. If the virus is still active and out there you can’t resume as another epidemic may start all over again.

It takes 1 media member, 1 airline attendant, 1 security guard, 1 arena staff, 1 team bus driver, 1 idiot fan looking for an autograph and bang, back to square one and Crosby is infected.

Players and team owners between them and with each other will have difficulty coming to agreement on the massively wide array of issues that will need to be solved including who makes the playoffs, seeding, number of games, etc etc.

Now that’s it’s been labelled a pandemic league insurance may also kick in and offer some respite to player salaries and teams bottom lines giving them all less incentive to work out solutions and more incentive to just scrap the season and call it a day.

I don’t see it happening and honestly the champion would have a huge asterisk beside them. So I am not even sure I would care about these playoffs if they had them. It might just all ring hollow to me.

Anyway I am pretty pessimistic about the remainder of the season happening.

 

[Soundwave]

In this case though it's completely understandable.

Also I would add that being in quarantine for a period of 2+ months (which is what a 16 team playoff entails plus 2 weeks prior and after) is a long ass time to be quarantined. Good luck getting people to agree to that.

What would be the reasoning for forcing them to quarantine afterwards? Especially if they're being tested regularly?

It's not like they're playing the games in Wuhan.

They wouldn't be any more of a risk than anyone else sitting at home who decides to go for a jog.

A 14 day pre quarantine could function as basically a playoff training camp for the teams.

 

[Cloned]

What would be the reasoning for forcing them to quarantine afterwards? Especially if they're being tested regularly?

It's not like they're playing the games in Wuhan.

They wouldn't be any more of a risk than anyone else sitting at home who decides to go for a jog.

Better to be safe than sorry.

And really you're still looking at 2 months of quarantine. That's a long ass time to be in quarantine. People were going crazy after 2 weeks. Imagine 8+ weeks.

 

[Soundwave]

Better to be safe than sorry.

And really you're still looking at 2 months of quarantine. That's a long ass time to be in quarantine. People were going crazy after 2 weeks. Imagine 8+ weeks.

It's not rational to do that though, if anything they would have less of a chance of having COVID 19 because they will have been in a controlled environment isolated from the general public versus say random dude standing behind you at the Safeway checkout. You're going to quarantine him too?

 

[Cloned]

It's not rational to do that though, if anything they would have less of a chance of having COVID 19 because they will have been in a controlled environment isolated from the general public versus say random dude standing behind you at the Safeway checkout. You're going to quarantine him too?

You're still looking at 2 months of quarantine even without the 2 weeks after. A 16 team playoff would take about 1.5 months to play out.

 

[5 Mins 4 Ftg]

It's not rational to do that though, if anything they would have less of a chance of having COVID 19 because they will have been in a controlled environment isolated from the general public versus say random dude standing behind you at the Safeway checkout. You're going to quarantine him too?

Your being quite optimistic but I don’t see it happening this year. Seasons over.

 

[Soundwave]

You're still looking at 2 months of quarantine even without the 2 weeks after. A 16 team playoff would take about 1.5 months to play out.

If the players are cool with that, ok. How much family time do they even spend when they are playing in the SCF.

No post quarantine. You get eliminated and you get tested, test comes back clean and you can go on with your summer vacation as you would have anyway.

 

[ConnorMcMullet]

I honestly don’t think we will have a playoff. I think we’re done. This is going to take 60 days minimum. That is the middle of May when your already down to 4 teams. That’s too long a hiatus.

I also do not think the players and owners will get consensus on this and just write the entire thing off, players will need to get summer training in, teams need to get payrolls and rosters in order, contracts expire July 1. It ain’t happening.

Ladies and Gentlemen, start prepping for the draft and free agent frenzy.

I doubt it. Ending the season be unfair to teams that bought at the deadline and revenue will go down the drain. I could see two solutions:

1. NHL immediately calls for games to be held without fans and continues regular season + playoffs as planned (until a player contracts the virus).

2. Hiatus begins immediately, regular season standings freeze, playoffs begin afterwards with potentially a different format. This would likely bump the draft to late July and free agency to the 1st of August, and the 2020-21 season could begin late.