10 things to know about NHL’s Return To Play Plan & how it impacts Bruins

The NHL took a massive step forward in its goal of resuming the 2019-20 season and awarding the Stanley Cup this fall, as league commissioner Gary Bettman announced the NHL’s official “Return to Play” plan on Tuesday afternoon. 

Many details are what many of us already know — as the NHLPA’s Executive Board signed off on the league’s proposed 24-team tournament last week. Boston will hold court as one of the eight teams exempt from a play-in round that will see the remaining 16 clubs battle it out for a chance to hoist the greatest trophy in sports in the coming months. 

Still, even if the basic outline of the NHL’s plan was mapped out previously, Bettman did unveil plenty of new developments and timelines during both his official address and subsequent media availability Tuesday evening. 

Here are 10 things you need to know about the NHL’s plans of bringing hockey back in 2020: 

1. 24 teams will get a shot at lifting the Stanley Cup: 

Let’s go through a quick refresher of what fans should expect from the NHL’s revamped format if the 2019-20 season resumes: 

In total, 24 of the NHL’s 31 teams are still in the running for the Stanley Cup — with the Anaheim Ducks, Buffalo Sabres, Detroit Red Wings, Los Angeles Kings, New Jersey Devils, Ottawa Senators, and San Jose Sharks officially out of the picture and finished this season. 

The group of 24 eligible teams will be composed of the top 12 teams in each conference — sorted by points percentage. 

The top four teams in each conference will take part in a three-game, round-robin tournament in order to determine seeding for the official “first round” of the playoffs. 

While that round-robin tournament is underway, the remaining eight teams in each conference will take part in best-of-five series in order to qualify for that “first round” of postseason hockey — which, by the time the round-robin tournament and qualifying round is over — would feature the regular playoff grouping of 16 teams. 

Here are the matchups in both the Eastern and Western Conference for that qualifying round: 

EASTERN CONFERENCE

TOP SEEDS: Bruins (1), Lightning (2), Capitals (3), Flyers (4) 

PLAY-IN MATCHUPS: 

Penguins (5) vs. Canadiens (12)
Hurricanes (6) vs.Rangers (11)
Islanders (7) vs. Panthers (10)
Maple Leafs (8) vs. Blue Jackets (9)

WESTERN CONFERENCE

TOP SEEDS: Blues (1), Avalanche (2), Golden Knights (3), Stars (4) 

PLAY-IN MATCHUPS: 

Oilers (5) vs. Blackhawks (12)
Predators (6) vs. Coyotes (11)
Canucks (7) vs. Wild (10)
Flames (8) vs. Jets (9)

2. The Bruins' spot atop standings could help during round-robin tournament: 

While the Bruins will be able to avoid the dangers of potentially getting upset in that best-of-five qualifying round, the current system of the round-robin format could prove costly for Bruce Cassidy's club — given that the tournament will be used to determine seeding once the regular 16-team playoff format gets underway in the following round.

As we noted before, even though the Bruins were the most consistent team in the East and held eight, 10 and 11-point leads over Tampa Bay, Washington and Philadelphia in the standings at the time of the pause — a sluggish start to this tournament could suddenly have the Bruins opening the next round as the No. 4 seed.

Not ideal, to say the least, but no team is going to be particularly thrilled with every facet of this new format.

Of course, the Bruins could just win the tournament outright and avoid worrying about a drop in seeding. But even if all four teams in the East are evenly matched, record-wise, by the end of the tournament, Bettman did note that ties in the standings would be broken by regular-season points percentage. As such, the Bruins would have the edge over the rest of the field if its tied at the top.

One thing to keep tabs on, however — these round-robin games will be played with regular-season overtime rules. So that means, yes, the shootout is very much in play. Not what the Bruins want to hear.

3. The 2019-20 regular season is over: 

With seven teams officially shut down for the rest of this year, Bettman noted the obvious — the 2019-20 season is officially in the books.

Such news shouldn't come as much of a surprise, given the extended ramp-up schedule needed to accommodate extra training camps and a revamped playoff format. Still, it's a shame that the Bruins won't be able to fully see through a regular season that saw them become the first club to break triple digits, points wise, in the standings and featured a number of individual milestones.

With the regular season now in the rearview, the Bruins are technically the Presidents' Trophy winners off of their 100 points and 44-14-12 record. With 48 goals apiece, David Pastrnak and Alex Ovechkin will share the Maurice "Rocket" Richard Trophy, handed out annually to the player(s) with the most tallies at the end of the regular season.

https://twitter.com/ConorRyan_93/status/1201323522376818688

Tuukka Rask should also be a lock as a finalist for the Vezina Trophy — as he finished off the regular-season campaign first among all goalies in GAA (2.12), second in save percentage (.929) and second in shutouts (5). Both Rask and Jaroslav Halak will also take home the William M. Jennings Trophy — handed out each year to the goaltender(s) "having played a minimum of 25 games for the team with the fewest goals scored against it" during the regular season.

4. The NHL will travel to hub cities — at least at the start: 

Under this new format, each conference will be assigned a "hub city" in which they will carry out their games during the postseason.

Along with the actual venue for these playoff games, these hub cities will also provide the 12 teams in each conference with secure hotels, practice facilities and in-market transportation.  Each NHL club will be limited to 50 personnel when the time comes to move to these hub cities.

While no final decisions on venues have been announced just yet, Bettman did note that the two winners will be chosen out of a shortlist of 10 candidates:

Chicago, IL
Columbus, OH
Dallas, TX
Edmonton, AB
Las Vegas, NV
Los Angeles, CA
Minneapolis/St. Paul, MN
Pittsburgh, PA
Toronto, ON
Vancouver, BC

Bettman added that there could be a chance that the Conference Finals and Stanley Cup Final could be played in the home city of the teams involved, if such an environment was deemed safe. But the first step will be to identify these two cities for each conference, with Bettman adding that a decision on the two hub cities will likely need to be made within three or four weeks.

5. Late July is a target for games, but not established timeline has been set: 

With the NHL looking to implement Phase 2 of its return — featuring small-group, non-contact practices at team facilities — in the coming weeks, Bettman was noncommittal on set dates and timelines for the next steps in the league's return.

For now, the tentative game plan is:

Phase 2 – Early June

* In early June, it is expected that teams will be permitted to return to home facilities for small group, voluntary, and on and off-ice training.

Phase 3 – No earlier than start  of July

* Not earlier than the first half of July, formal training camps will begin after guidance from medical and civil authorities.

Phase 4 – TBD

24 teams begin play in two hub-city venues.

Given that there is no set date for when games will resume, Bettman said that it's all but a certainty that the 2020 Stanley Cup Final will not be concluded until the "early fall," at least.

One way that the league could shorten the amount of time needed to conclude the playoffs and prep for the 2020-21 season would be to shorten playoff series. While Bettman confirmed that the play-in rounds will be a best-of-five format, he added that both the following two rounds could also be augmented from best-of-seven to best-of-five. However, there will be no change to the regular best-of-seven format with the Conference Finals and Stanley Cup Final.

6. Expect a rapid ramp-up in terms of testing: 

The NHL was already planning on leaving no stone unturned when it came to safety protocols for Phase 2 — with players expected to undergo at least two nasal-swab tests per week and perform temperature checks before gaining access to team facilities.

But by the time the NHL feels as though it is ready to make the move to Phase 3 and beyond, expect those testing resources to expand far beyond the expected amount needed to get team facilities back open.

While he did not go into specifics, NHL deputy commissioner Bill Daly noted that testing for COVID-19 will be more frequent by the time full training camps are allowed to commence. Once the league reaches Phase 4, Daly added that the plan is for every player to tested every evening — with results announced the following morning before said player is allowed to head to the rink.

Bettman added that, by the time the 2019-20 season is finally concluded, the NHL could conduct between 25,000 - 30,000 individual tests for COVID-19 — costing the league "millions of dollars."

As for the potential scenario in which a player tests positive for COVID-19 during Phase 4?

Daly noted: "One single positive test (for COVID-19) ... should not necessarily shut the operation down."

7. This will have a major effect on 2020-21 season: 

Given that there is not a set timeline for the 2019-20 season to wrap up, Bettman did note that the 2020-21 campaign will have to be pushed back.

However, he did follow up by stating that: "We believe 2021 will be played in its entirety. ... We could start November, December, we could start at the beginning of January."

Add in the fact that Bettman hopes that "we’ll be able to have fans there" in 2020-21, and it looks as though the regular season may not be back until early 2021.

Committing to a full-82 slate of games in 2020-21 seems to be a bit unrealistic, especially for teams that could be playing until the end of September in this current tournament. However, Bettman did say that breaking from the regular October-June scheduling for this year and next could give the NHL a chance to reevaluate its calendar going forward.

Don't be surprised if the NHL takes a long look going forward of a potential January-late July schedule, especially if it allows them to escape from the programming and viewership shadow caused by the NFL during its season.

8. Rosters will be expanded for the postseason: 

While teams will only be able to sign future-year contracts this postseason, Daly did note that all teams should expect expanded rosters for when playoff hockey gets underway.

There will be plenty of spots up for grabs in Boston's forward corps once playoff games resume, so don't be surprised if blue-chip prospects like Jack Studnicka and Trent Frederic make pushes for a shot at getting on the ice once Phase 4 is underway.

9. The Bruins will be spared from the mayhem that is the new Draft Lottery:

While the Bruins sacrificed their 2020 first-round pick to the Ducks in the deal centered on Ondrej Kase / David Backes, that move from Sweeney — coupled with the Bruins standing as one of the top-four teams in the East — does help the Bruins avoid having to be embroiled in the brain-numbing procedures involved in the new NHL Draft Lottery.

The format, which will determine the order of the first 15 picks of the upcoming draft, only involves the seven teams already out of the running for the Stanley Cup this year, plus the eight teams that will be sent packing following the qualifying rounds.

Here's the full procedure — give it a read, if you dare. 

10. Tuesday's news doesn't guarantee that the NHL is back

While Tuesday's news stands as the most concrete step put forward by any of the "Big 4" sports leagues in North America, it's far from a sure thing that we'll have live hockey on our TV sets and phones in the coming months.

Even with a plan put in place and goals set for a resumption of play, there are still dozens of hoops for both the NHL and NHLPA to jump through — whether it be venues, travel, broadcast logistics and, of course, the health and safety of all involved.

Still, during a months-long stretch in which positive news has been hard to come by, Tuesday's announcement gave many in the sporting world a glimmer of hope of some semblance of normalcy returning.

Is this new format flawed? Perhaps. But this is better than no hockey at all in 2020.

"Obviously, these are extraordinary and unprecedented times," Bettman said. "Any plan for the resumption of play, by definition, cannot be perfect. And I am certain that, depending on which team you root for or which team you cover, you can find some element of this package that you might prefer to be done differently.

"But we believe we have constructed an overall plan that includes all teams that, as a practical matter, might have had a chance of qualifying for the playoffs when the season was paused. And this plan will produce a worthy Stanley Cup champion who will have run the postseason gauntlet that is unique to the NHL."