UPDATE: NHLPA votes for further negotiations on 24-team return to play format

[calgarygeologist]

Originally Posted by Weitz

Why would they need to social distance on the bench? They will be in the same cohort.

Originally Posted by Flamenspiel

Yea, surprised that the Bundesliga actually went ahead after suspending an entire team, I guess DD is in DIV 2. The social distancing on the bench in hockey is going to be a challenge. Still soccer is a more amenable game to maintaining physical distance. I tried to watch a bit, it was like watching paint dry.

One more advantage is that Germany has a well funded health system that’s puts ours to shame, let alone the US.

If the NHL were to play again in empty stadiums and had a requirement for social distancing on the bench I think it would be relatively easy for the rinks to extend the benches. Getting rid of a couple rows of seats in the section beside the benches and taking out the glass should be easy enough.

[Manhattanboy]

I’m all in. Let’s get er going.

[Fire]

Originally Posted by calgarygeologist

If the NHL were to play again in empty stadiums and had a requirement for social distancing on the bench I think it would be relatively easy for the rinks to extend the benches. Getting rid of a couple rows of seats in the section beside the benches and taking out the glass should be easy enough.

Social distancing on the bench? That's ridiculous.

[Toonage]

No kidding. People suggesting social distancing on the bench know this is a contact sport right?

[Flamenspiel]

^^Well, that is the point. It’s all kind of ridiculous. The owners are desperate to make money, no real sports value to it all. In particular the teams that sold their real business and are completely reliant to entertainment income as a means to an end. Yes, that’s you Edmonton Oilers.

[Erick Estrada]

The 2019/20 season is over. The league will spend the next few months investigating every avenue but it's just not feasible. At least all these ideas can be used for hopefully starting the 2020/21 season in 2020.

[Mean Mr. Mustard]

I don't think that Darryl Katz is reliant upon the Oilers to make money. He used the Oilers as a means to extract money out of the City of Edmonton with a sweetheart real estate deal, while at the same time having sold a pharmacy chain for 3 billion dollars. The guy is able to do have as much cocaine binged alleged sexual harassment parties as he wants.

[dissentowner]

Originally Posted by Erick Estrada

The 2019/20 season is over. The league will spend the next few months investigating every avenue but it's just not feasible. At least all these ideas can be used for hopefully starting the 2020/21 season in 2020.

I would be willing to bet large sums that the 2019/20 season is most certainly not over.

[FlamesAddiction]

Get everyone who would be involved to quarantine for 2 weeks and test everyone. Once you have a couple rounds of clean tests, stick them on planes and send them to New Zealand. They have 4 or 5 rinks with international sized ice surfaces that could be made smaller. None of the arenas have much seating, but that wouldn't be needed anyway.

I know that this would be very difficult to do and there is a good chance that New Zealand wouldn't go for it, but it would probably be the safest. The players would probably not want to either for that matter. In theory, I think it would be cool though.

[Party Elephant]

Originally Posted by FlamesAddiction

Get everyone who would be involved to quarantine for 2 weeks and test everyone. Once you have a couple rounds of clean tests, stick them on planes and send them to New Zealand. They have 4 or 5 rinks with international sized ice surfaces that could be made smaller. None of the arenas have much seating, but that wouldn't be needed anyway.

I know that this would be very difficult to do and there is a good chance that New Zealand wouldn't go for it, but it would probably be the safest. The players would probably not want to either for that matter. In theory, I think it would be cool though.

I know this is a gag post, but our rinks aren't even on par with the minor hockey rinks in Calgary. Queenstown Ice Arena, where I've played 4 seasons of adult rec hockey, is one of the nicest rinks in the whole country but didn't have toilets or showers in the change rooms until 2 years ago. Before that players had to share toilets with spectators, and this included the local semi-pro team as well as IIHF sanctioned international tournaments!

[Geeoff]

Originally Posted by Reggie Dunlop

Enormous challenges ahead for the NHL's plans

https://twitter.com/user/status/1262059596186660864

I don't get the logic of this Tweet. Bundesliga had a weekend of games and as far I know didn't get re-cancelled. The big controversy was a team celebration?


I understand there are a substantial group of people who think sports should be cancelled until there's a vaccine, that will blow up an incident like this. I mean maybe they're right. I wouldn't accept a hug from a bunch of sweaty men right now LOL.

[chummer]

Chris Johnston saying they are looking at two hubs now, Vegas and Columbus.
Fewer governments to deal with if they stay in one country. Also teams coming from the States to Canada would have to quarantine for two weeks, that just wouldn't work.

[Robbob]

Originally Posted by chummer

Chris Johnston saying they are looking at two hubs now, Vegas and Columbus.
Fewer governments to deal with if they stay in one country. Also teams coming from the States to Canada would have to quarantine for two weeks, that just wouldn't work.

I bet they find a way around or do away with that 14 day quarantine. If a team is quarantined before coming down and have all the documents of being tested regularly (and don't break quarantine to get toothpaste), I could see them waving the 14 days. Also by time this rolls out who even knows if Nevada and Ohio even still have that restriction.

[Toonage]

Originally Posted by chummer

Chris Johnston saying they are looking at two hubs now, Vegas and Columbus.
Fewer governments to deal with if they stay in one country. Also teams coming from the States to Canada would have to quarantine for two weeks, that just wouldn't work.

Flames play well in Columbus. Let's do this.

[Monahammer]

Originally Posted by chummer

Chris Johnston saying they are looking at two hubs now, Vegas and Columbus.
Fewer governments to deal with if they stay in one country. Also teams coming from the States to Canada would have to quarantine for two weeks, that just wouldn't wyingork.

It was pretty obvious a cross border tournament was going to be impossible with the firm extension on border closures and quarantine requirements.

I remain entirely unconvinced that they're going to be able to make it work in two cities even.

some issues i see immediately:
- How many ice surfaces are there in Vegas that are playable for NHL games? Ditto Columbus. With ~14 teams playing games, there's either going to be a really ####ed up condensed schedule with teams playing all throughout the day, or many teams will be playing in sub standard rinks. Would they even be able to televise the games in the sub standard rinks effectively? If not either of those, they could just stretch the number of games out over more days, but without doing the math it seems we'd be playing out the playoffs until November at that pace.

- Vegas is in the desert. I know it's a brand new arena, but how good would the ice surface reasonably be after 3.5- 7 games per day?? I would guess the ice is going to be dog#### at best. Anyone who has been to Ohio knows it can be a humid swamp during the summer too. Can't imagine the ice there will be any better.

- If a team does become infected, what happens? No one has effectively answered this. In the bundesliga it meant that whole team sits and is quarantined. That might work during a regular season setting but certainly wont in a playoff setting. Does it mean forfeiture? I can't imagine the teams will like that.

- If Vegas sees a huge resurgence in cases 2 weeks in as people flock to the strip, what would the league do if a whole hub got shut down?

- Will all international players be forced to live away from their families for the entire duration of the playoffs? We're talking at least 3 months imo. That seems untenable.

These are basic level questions. No answers at all imo. The more complex questions (i.e. what to do if 2 team members test positive? What is the threshold for antibody tests if a player has already contracted the illness?) certainly don't have valid answers yet. It seems woefully irresponsible to charge down this path still.

[Monahammer]

Originally Posted by Robbob

I bet they find a way around or do away with that 14 day quarantine. If a team is quarantined before coming down and have all the documents of being tested regularly (and don't break quarantine to get toothpaste), I could see them waving the 14 days. Also by time this rolls out who even knows if Nevada and Ohio even still have that restriction.

AFAIK the states do not have the same quarantine restrictions that Canada does. I also don't see any Canadian politicians taking the political risk of favoring a population for waving quarantine in this environment, though I believe the only politician with the power to change that rule would be Trudeau.

Nevada does have a recommendation "urging travelers to self isolate and monitor symptoms for 14 days" but as far as I can tell there is no monitoring or punishment for not doing so. https://travelnevada.com/pages/covid-19

[kyuss275]

Originally Posted by chummer

Chris Johnston saying they are looking at two hubs now, Vegas and Columbus.
Fewer governments to deal with if they stay in one country. Also teams coming from the States to Canada would have to quarantine for two weeks, that just wouldn't work.

Almost every writer has had different ideas on where the hubs would be and how many. I don’t think any of them really know what the NHL is thinking . I doubt the NHL has even come to a conclusion yet.

[direwolf]

If they're sticking to one country, then they might be able to pull this off. But there are still so many unknowns, not the least being the inevitable 2nd wave of the virus in the U.S. and how bad it will be.

Also, last I heard was that the players aren't too keen on being isolated from their families for two months, and the league was trying to come up with ways to address that, among several other issues that are currently up in the air.

[dammage79]

Its too much already, just axe the season. It starts to stink badly the harder they push for a restart or playoffs.

Should have been a June draft followed by FA and then try to revamp how the athletes train for next season.

[troutman]

Originally Posted by dissentowner

I would be willing to bet large sums that the 2019/20 season is most certainly not over.

Does the wager include the season re-starting, then stopping again?