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Originally Posted by troutman
1. No home ice advantage - that is normally your reward for a good regular season. Higher seeded teams will not get to enjoy this benefit. Lower seeded teams don't have to face the adversity of a hostile building.
2. Long break - Beat-up teams have had a chance to heal. You could say that this is the same for all teams, but it penalizes the teams with depth that were built for a long distance run.
3. No fans in the building? Now it's a reality show, not the Stanley Cup playoffs. The electric atmosphere in the buildings is what makes the playoffs extra special.
4. Teams are rusty - there could be a fluke champion.
5. Match-ups may not be fair if all teams did not play equally balanced schedules.
6. Extra teams in the playoffs that don't deserve a spot.
7. Distracted players that may not want to be playing right now.
8. The ice could be terrible in July and August.
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All of these things are true, and I still want hockey, because hockey with the risk that these problems materialize is still hockey.
[quote]I'm not saying don't play hockey. Just don't award the Stanley Cup for this. Maybe give out the President's Trophy for the winner instead.
In addition to completely disagreeing with you (I will be placing no asterisk next to any team that wins a cup under these circumstances), you're living in a fantasy land. The NHL is not going to bring back hockey and hold a playoff tournament in order to recoup whatever revenues it can while simultaneously withholding the Stanley Cup from the winner. That's tantamount to telling your audience, "watch our product for two months, but just understand that the outcome doesn't really matter".
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What happens when 1-2 players test positive?
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They probably don't play for the next week or so until they're recovered. What happened when a bunch of people got mumps? This isn't some sort of death sentence.