[Sidney Crosby's Hat]

A trio of random thoughts based on a few themes coming up in the thread here.

(1) I feel like the playoffs are going to happen for a few reasons. One is that there's a lot of money to be made and it's all games where players wouldn't get paid anyway. That's one motivator. The other is, if they can't figure out how to put this all together and play some games while the virus is waning in the summer, how are they going to have any season at all next year when there's expected to be a cases spike in the fall/winter?

(2) If they do go straight to the playoffs and it's an expanded format, there's been some talk about the top teams getting a bye. I just wonder if that's what the top teams would even want. The last thing I'd want if I was a first place team like Vegas is having to play a Calgary team that just finished a two or three game series against Anaheim and has probably shaken off the cobwebs. On the other hand, if I'm a team like Calgary, the last thing I want is to play a short series against a team like Anaheim simply because of the rust and losing two out of three games ends your season. I think the NHL will have regular season games. My guess is eight teams per hub means teams will play six games at most and they try to get everyone to 74.

(3) I wonder if even if they complete the regular season they still do expanded playoffs so more teams have something to play for. A 24-team playoff would mean the only teams which would be coming back to meaningless games are Ottawa, Detroit, LA and San Jose.