Bettman, NHL focus on safety, integrity in Return to Play Plan

Safety and integrity.

Those were the main takeaways from the Return to Play Plan unveiled by NHL Commissioner Gary Bettman on Tuesday.

The NHL paused the season March 12 due to concerns surrounding the coronavirus. The NHL and the NHL Players' Association will be careful about resuming it, from when they proceed to each phase of the plan, to where they choose to play games, to the precautions they will take each step of the way, most notably testing players each night during competition. That's 25,000-30,000 tests at a cost of millions of dollars, Commissioner Bettman said.

And if they pull this off, the Stanley Cup champion won't deserve an asterisk. How about an exclamation point? The NHL hasn't faced a situation like this since 1919, when the Stanley Cup wasn't awarded because of the Spanish Flu, and this format is unlike any other in NHL history. It's arguably tougher than any other in NHL history.

Twenty-four teams. Two hub cities. The top four teams from each conference will play a three-game round robin for seeding, while the others will play best-of-5 qualifying series to make the Stanley Cup Playoffs. The first two rounds of the playoffs will be best-of-5 or best-of-7; the final two rounds will be best-of-7.

The winner will have emerged from that while living in a bubble, undergoing daily testing and playing without the energy of fans in the arena for weeks (unless the situation changes), after weeks of self-quarantining and voluntary small-group workouts and mandatory training camp. Who wants it more? In this context, the question is not a cliché.

"Obviously, these are extraordinary and unprecedented times," Commissioner 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, 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."

The NHL and the NHLPA have not announced a date for voluntary small-group workouts, let alone for mandatory training camps or games, although they hope to begin workouts in June, camps in July and games in late July or early August.

They have not settled on hub cities, either, although Commissioner Bettman identified candidates, including Chicago, Columbus, Dallas, Edmonton, Las Vegas, Los Angeles, Minneapolis/St. Paul, Pittsburgh, Toronto and Vancouver.

That's because they want to remain flexible in a fluid situation.

Commissioner Bettman said as eager as they are to return, they will not do anything until they are assured by medical professionals and relevant government authorities it is safe and prudent to do so, and they will choose hub cities based on COVID-19 conditions, testing availability and government regulations. Those could evolve in the coming weeks.

NHL Deputy Commissioner Bill Daly said teams would test players at least twice a week during small-group workouts and increase testing during training camps. The League will take over the protocol once teams travel to hub cities, testing players each night and delivering results before they leave their hotel rooms in the morning in case anyone needs to self-quarantine. Daly said isolated tests won't necessarily derail the plan, but the NHL cannot have an outbreak.

That's no small task for the teams, the League or the players.

"I don't think [the players] were concerned about it," NHLPA executive director Don Fehr said. "I think they would have been concerned if we didn't have those kinds of protections in place. Look, they're part of the community. They know what's going on in the world. They want to make sure they're protected but, just as importantly, their families are and everybody else they have to work with and so on."

More telling details: The NHL expects to limit each team to 50 people in its traveling party and to strictly limit the support staff on the event level. It might use an international TV feed and keep broadcasters and reporters off site.

While one hub city will host the East and the other the West, geography doesn't matter except in one respect. The NHL might not have a team play in its own city to prevent any appearance of a competitive advantage. There will be no fans in the stands, and the NHL wouldn't want the players to go home as usual, anyway.

Safety and integrity.

It's hard to imagine Commissioner Bettman awarding the Stanley Cup without fans in attendance, with whoops and hollers of players echoing in an empty arena. But in a time of social distancing, perhaps it could help bring people together.

"That would suggest that the world is beginning to return a little bit towards normal, and that's something that everybody wants and is in everybody's interest," Fehr said. "And we can't forget that."