Calgarypuck Forums - The Unofficial Calgary Flames Fan Community - View Single Post - UPDATE: NHLPA votes for further negotiations on 24-team return to play format

getbak · 04-23-2020, 01:00 PM

Last week, when there was talk of running the playoffs from a single city, I started thinking about the logistics of doing that, and the more things you consider, it starts to become unwieldy quickly. It's not just 20 players per team, but it's all the support staff, it's additional players who will need to be ready as injury replacements, and it's arena and hotel staff as well.

It's one thing to ask players who have millions of dollars at stake to sacrifice and go into isolation for potentially 3 months, it's a lot tougher (and probably impossible) to ask someone who is making minimum wage in the housekeeping or catering departments of a hotel to do the same. Even the "Black Aces" players you'd have to have waiting in the wings would be doing it for their per diem (would they even receive the per diem if they're having every meal provided for them?).

Even if they are able to completely isolate the teams from direct contact with the outside world, there will still be indirect contact any time they eat a meal or take the bus from the hotel to the arena or practice facility.

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I started thinking about the likely process to get this started...

The league books the arenas and hotels for all of the teams in the chosen cities. All of the hotels are cleaned from top to bottom before any player arrives and strict processes are put in place for any contact between hotel staff and team personnel. The same would need to happen at the arena and any practice or training facilities that would be used by the teams.
Players and staff begin to arrive from wherever they've been since March (some travelling from overseas).
Players arrive at the hotel and go through a medical check and take an initial COVID test. Because there's no way of knowing who the players may have come into contact with while travelling, they would all need to go into strict personal isolation for 2 weeks. During the 2 week isolation period, the players can't leave their rooms and their only human contact is with the hotel staff member who brings them 3 meals a day and a medical person who performs a daily health check (all of whom are wearing full-body PPE). The only exercise they can do during this time is whatever they can do within the confines of their hotel rooms.
Once the 2 week personal isolation period is over, players and staff would be given the all-clear and can now enter team isolation. They can intermingle with their teammates and coaches, but they still have no contact with anyone outside that bubble and they can only leave the hotel property when travelling to and from the practice rink and/or main arena.
Once the players are allowed to leave personal isolation, the teams can begin their 2-week practice/training camp sessions before the resumption of the season. The team isolation would continue until the team's season is over.

At this point, the players have been in isolation for 4 weeks and still haven't played a game.

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Now, they're talking about playing the rest of the regular season. I don't see any way that can be a viable option. Every team has a minimum of 11 games left, Carolina and the Islanders (both in the thick of the playoff race) have 14. There's no realistic way they could play out the regular season in less than 3 weeks. Even 14 games in 21 days is a lot. That means we'd be at least 7 weeks into this process and the playoffs haven't even started.

A reduced regular season would be more-realistic, but the more they reduce it, the more-pointless it becomes. Let's say they decide to resume and play enough games for every team to finish with 74 games played... That would mean 9 teams would already be eliminated from the playoffs before they even began their quarantine.

Setting the season at 74 games (and assuming the wild card is dropped and the top-4 in each division make the playoffs), would see the 4 playoff teams in the Atlantic Division already set. They'd just be playing for ranking. In the Pacific, Arizona would have an outside shot of making the playoffs and bumping the Flames or Canucks out. Otherwise, that would just be a battle for ranking. The Central and Metro Divisions would have interesting fights for the playoff spots.

If you're a player on one of the eliminated teams, why would you agree to subject yourself to the whole quarantine process for no reason? In those situations, I could see a lot of veterans coming down with season-ending injuries just before they had to enter quarantine.

Also, resuming a regular season means that almost twice as many teams need to be accommodated in each city. That's twice as many hotel rooms needed. How will ice time and workout facilities and dressing rooms be handled if there are 8 teams all playing in one city? Those things are a lot easier to deal with if they jumped right into the playoffs and only had 4 teams per city.

Going straight to the playoffs would be extremely difficult, but restarting the regular season seems impossible.

04-23-2020, 01:00 PM	#134
getbak Franchise Player Join Date: Feb 2006 Location: Calgary, AB Exp:	Last week, when there was talk of running the playoffs from a single city, I started thinking about the logistics of doing that, and the more things you consider, it starts to become unwieldy quickly. It's not just 20 players per team, but it's all the support staff, it's additional players who will need to be ready as injury replacements, and it's arena and hotel staff as well. It's one thing to ask players who have millions of dollars at stake to sacrifice and go into isolation for potentially 3 months, it's a lot tougher (and probably impossible) to ask someone who is making minimum wage in the housekeeping or catering departments of a hotel to do the same. Even the "Black Aces" players you'd have to have waiting in the wings would be doing it for their per diem (would they even receive the per diem if they're having every meal provided for them?). Even if they are able to completely isolate the teams from direct contact with the outside world, there will still be indirect contact any time they eat a meal or take the bus from the hotel to the arena or practice facility. ---------- I started thinking about the likely process to get this started... The league books the arenas and hotels for all of the teams in the chosen cities. All of the hotels are cleaned from top to bottom before any player arrives and strict processes are put in place for any contact between hotel staff and team personnel. The same would need to happen at the arena and any practice or training facilities that would be used by the teams. Players and staff begin to arrive from wherever they've been since March (some travelling from overseas). Players arrive at the hotel and go through a medical check and take an initial COVID test. Because there's no way of knowing who the players may have come into contact with while travelling, they would all need to go into strict personal isolation for 2 weeks. During the 2 week isolation period, the players can't leave their rooms and their only human contact is with the hotel staff member who brings them 3 meals a day and a medical person who performs a daily health check (all of whom are wearing full-body PPE). The only exercise they can do during this time is whatever they can do within the confines of their hotel rooms. Once the 2 week personal isolation period is over, players and staff would be given the all-clear and can now enter team isolation. They can intermingle with their teammates and coaches, but they still have no contact with anyone outside that bubble and they can only leave the hotel property when travelling to and from the practice rink and/or main arena. Once the players are allowed to leave personal isolation, the teams can begin their 2-week practice/training camp sessions before the resumption of the season. The team isolation would continue until the team's season is over. At this point, the players have been in isolation for 4 weeks and still haven't played a game. ---------- Now, they're talking about playing the rest of the regular season. I don't see any way that can be a viable option. Every team has a minimum of 11 games left, Carolina and the Islanders (both in the thick of the playoff race) have 14. There's no realistic way they could play out the regular season in less than 3 weeks. Even 14 games in 21 days is a lot. That means we'd be at least 7 weeks into this process and the playoffs haven't even started. A reduced regular season would be more-realistic, but the more they reduce it, the more-pointless it becomes. Let's say they decide to resume and play enough games for every team to finish with 74 games played... That would mean 9 teams would already be eliminated from the playoffs before they even began their quarantine. Setting the season at 74 games (and assuming the wild card is dropped and the top-4 in each division make the playoffs), would see the 4 playoff teams in the Atlantic Division already set. They'd just be playing for ranking. In the Pacific, Arizona would have an outside shot of making the playoffs and bumping the Flames or Canucks out. Otherwise, that would just be a battle for ranking. The Central and Metro Divisions would have interesting fights for the playoff spots. If you're a player on one of the eliminated teams, why would you agree to subject yourself to the whole quarantine process for no reason? In those situations, I could see a lot of veterans coming down with season-ending injuries just before they had to enter quarantine. Also, resuming a regular season means that almost twice as many teams need to be accommodated in each city. That's twice as many hotel rooms needed. How will ice time and workout facilities and dressing rooms be handled if there are 8 teams all playing in one city? Those things are a lot easier to deal with if they jumped right into the playoffs and only had 4 teams per city. Going straight to the playoffs would be extremely difficult, but restarting the regular season seems impossible. __________________ Turn up the good, turn down the suck!