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

[jayswin]

Originally Posted by dino7c

how much of an advantage is an arena with no fans?

He's probably speaking more to sleeping in your own city/bed. It's not just the fans that give home ice advantage, it's the home living and routine. Not that I subscribe the above conspiracy theory.

[Cali Panthers Fan]

Originally Posted by jayswin

Yeah, if the US was the same as Canada I could see some hope. But the White House has literally told the covid team that they're "winding down" while they open up every state while cases are still accelerating in much of the US.

Not a chance the US doesn't get hit with a massive second wave and not a chance pro sports don't get shut down again when that wave happens.

The US has ****ed this up royally and most of their citizens don't even understand what is coming.

Oh no, we know it. There's just not a whole lot we can do about it.

I've been having conversations with lost of people around here, and it's simply being put between a rock and a hard place. We are going to be dealing with this for the rest of this year at least without much relief.

[getbak]

Originally Posted by jayswin

He's probably speaking more to sleeping in your own city/bed. It's not just the fans that give home ice advantage, it's the home living and routine. Not that I subscribe the above conspiracy theory.

If this does happen, I can't see them allowing the home teams to break the quarantine and just go home at night. They'll need to isolate the same as all the other teams.

Although, if they did allow players with local homes to go home, the Flames could benefit because Talbot's offseason home is in Edmonton. I'm not sure if Lucic kept a place there too.

Also, if they did allow it, I'm sure we'd see players on all the teams rent houses or condos for the duration of things.


One advantage a home team could have would be if they were allowed to have exclusive use of their own dressing room and facilities because the home team's facilities are always much better than what is provided to the visiting teams. It sounds like that wouldn't be happening because they'd have to rotate through the use of the dressing rooms in the arenas in order to properly clean them after each use. Even if that did happen, Rogers Place was recently voted as the best visitors' dressing room in the league, so it wouldn't be like playing out of the broom closets that some arenas put the visitors in.


When it comes down to it, the biggest advantage the Oilers will have if Edmonton is a hub city is that they're all used to the smell by now.

[TheScorpion]

Originally Posted by Reggie Dunlop

https://twitter.com/user/status/1257759570195353604

Sens "thanking" fans? Philadephia and New Jersey offering ticket refunds/credits?

Sounds like the non-playoff teams (at the very least) are all done for the regular season.

Philadelphia is one of the top teams in the league, though.

[dissentowner]

Originally Posted by TheScorpion

Philadelphia is one of the top teams in the league, though.

Teams are just refunding tickets because no fans will be able to attend.

[Strange Brew]

Originally Posted by Cali Panthers Fan

Oh no, we know it. There's just not a whole lot we can do about it.

I've been having conversations with lost of people around here, and it's simply being put between a rock and a hard place. We are going to be dealing with this for the rest of this year at least without much relief.

Yes. I don’t subscribe to the belief that somehow living south of the 49th makes you dumber than those to the north and unable to grasp the reality of the situation. This is after all the same country that elected a black man to be its leader for two consecutive terms. So you know, we’re not all ignorant down here.

The situation is a bad one and the sound bites from the White House are childish to say the least. But to suggest that US citizens don’t know what’s going on is just an uninformed view based on generalizations.

[getbak]

Earlier today, The Athletic posted the results of an anonymous poll they did with the players about their thoughts on resuming the season: https://theathletic.com/1795143/2020...019-20-season/ (if you subscribe)

They had responses from 57 players on 22 teams (5 contenders, 4 playoff locks, 8 bubble teams, and 5 lottery teams), so it's not a huge sample, but it's something.

From those players, 63.2% are in favour of resuming with some regular season games, 24.6% are in favour of skipping right the playoffs, and 12.3% are in favour of just cancelling the season.


Going beyond the hard numbers, the comments from the players show that the support is very conditional. They want to make sure things are done safely and that it will be worthwhile to do it. Even though a large majority of the players are in favour of returning to play (which is understandable), it is definitely not unconditional support (also understandable).

[Reggie Dunlop]

Originally Posted by TheScorpion

Philadelphia is one of the top teams in the league, though.

They share a venue with the 76ers, which rules them out of being a hub location (along with other dual NBA/NHL cities).

[kyuss275]

Originally Posted by getbak

Earlier today, The Athletic posted the results of an anonymous poll they did with the players about their thoughts on resuming the season: https://theathletic.com/1795143/2020...019-20-season/ (if you subscribe)

They had responses from 57 players on 22 teams (5 contenders, 4 playoff locks, 8 bubble teams, and 5 lottery teams), so it's not a huge sample, but it's something.

From those players, 63.2% are in favour of resuming with some regular season games, 24.6% are in favour of skipping right the playoffs, and 12.3% are in favour of just cancelling the season.


Going beyond the hard numbers, the comments from the players show that the support is very conditional. They want to make sure things are done safely and that it will be worthwhile to do it. Even though a large majority of the players are in favour of returning to play (which is understandable), it is definitely not unconditional support (also understandable).

My guess is that the 5 non playoff teams make up most of the 12.3% that want it cancelled. I don’t blame them . Can’t say I would have any interest in coming back just to finish the regular season .

[FlamesAddiction]

My first thought was that of course they would lean towards finishing the regular season rather than just skip to the playoffs because they don't get paid in the playoffs. But of course, there would be pretty big financial escrow and revenue splitting issues next season without the playoffs which I imagine is worse in the long run.

I suppose that means that the players don't view a playoffs without a complete regular season as meaningful? Assuming of course this survey is representative of the general opinions.

[kyuss275]

So BC announced today that without a vaccine , Canucks will not be playing home games with fans. I believe Chicago Illinois said the same thing. I was thinking maybe a season start in December but now think there will be no NHL next season at all.

My guess is the do play out this season this summer with no fans , only for the fact that they won’t have to credit advertisers when they come back a full year later. They should also shut down the idea of having draft in June. There will be plenty of time to do it in the fall/winter.

[Derek Sutton]

Originally Posted by kyuss275

So BC announced today that without a vaccine , Canucks will not be playing home games with fans. I believe Chicago Illinois said the same thing. I was thinking maybe a season start in December but now think there will be no NHL next season at all.

My guess is the do play out this season this summer with no fans , only for the fact that they won’t have to credit advertisers when they come back a full year later. They should also shut down the idea of having draft in June. There will be plenty of time to do it in the fall/winter.

Maybe not for this thread but.... 1, There may never be a vaccine and 2, are they going to mandate having a vaccine before attending any type of event?

[Strange Brew]

It seems strange to make absolute declarations about anything so far in the future.

[Textcritic]

Originally Posted by Derek Sutton

Maybe not for this thread but.... 1, There may never be a vaccine and 2, are they going to mandate having a vaccine before attending any type of event?

They won't need to. If enough of the population is vaccinated, it should contribute to herd immunity, which will protect everyone out and about

Sent from my SM-G960W using Tapatalk

[Winsor_Pilates]

Not sure if already posted here somewhere, but the German Bundesliga is the first major soccer league to get the green light on planning a reopening.

I'm sure all sports will be watching to see what they plan; although considerations across sports and countries will obviously be different.

Bundesliga to Return

[Strange Brew]

MLB presenting their return to work plan to the players in the next couple of days. That will be interesting as hell.

https://www.espn.com/mlb/story/_/id/...ek-sources-say


One thing I read was that owners want players to take pay cuts. Apparently MLBPA agreed to pro rate their salaries based on games played which of course doesn’t account for empty stadiums without fans. At lest the NHL doesn’t really need to argue over that point.

[ricardodw]

Premier John Horgan tells NHL B.C. is interested in hosting games

The article makes a point about Metro Vancouver having 5 venues for NHL games

Possible sites for games include Rogers Arena, UBC’s Thunderbird Arena, the Pacific Coliseum, the Langley Events Centre and the Abbotsford Centre.

[Sidney Crosby's Hat]

Originally Posted by getbak

If this does happen, I can't see them allowing the home teams to break the quarantine and just go home at night. They'll need to isolate the same as all the other teams.

Although, if they did allow players with local homes to go home, the Flames could benefit because Talbot's offseason home is in Edmonton. I'm not sure if Lucic kept a place there too.

Also, if they did allow it, I'm sure we'd see players on all the teams rent houses or condos for the duration of things.


One advantage a home team could have would be if they were allowed to have exclusive use of their own dressing room and facilities because the home team's facilities are always much better than what is provided to the visiting teams. It sounds like that wouldn't be happening because they'd have to rotate through the use of the dressing rooms in the arenas in order to properly clean them after each use. Even if that did happen, Rogers Place was recently voted as the best visitors' dressing room in the league, so it wouldn't be like playing out of the broom closets that some arenas put the visitors in.


When it comes down to it, the biggest advantage the Oilers will have if Edmonton is a hub city is that they're all used to the smell by now.

There's also the Oil Kings dressing room and WHL visitors which are also quite nice.

[The Yen Man]

Originally Posted by kyuss275

My guess is that the 5 non playoff teams make up most of the 12.3% that want it cancelled. I don’t blame them . Can’t say I would have any interest in coming back just to finish the regular season .

If I was a player on Detroit or LA, there's no way I'd want to risk getting Covid19 just to finish out a meaningless season, so I understand where they're coming from.

To me, I still think the fairest way to do this is to roll all the games back to game 68 and cut off the regular season there. I know it's not the perfect solution, but i like that solution better than the pts %, as this essentially means all stats end at game 68, for better or worse.

[troutman]

Originally Posted by getbak

Earlier today, The Athletic posted the results of an anonymous poll they did with the players about their thoughts on resuming the season: https://theathletic.com/1795143/2020...019-20-season/ (if you subscribe)

They had responses from 57 players on 22 teams (5 contenders, 4 playoff locks, 8 bubble teams, and 5 lottery teams), so it's not a huge sample, but it's something.

From those players, 63.2% are in favour of resuming with some regular season games, 24.6% are in favour of skipping right the playoffs, and 12.3% are in favour of just cancelling the season.


Going beyond the hard numbers, the comments from the players show that the support is very conditional. They want to make sure things are done safely and that it will be worthwhile to do it. Even though a large majority of the players are in favour of returning to play (which is understandable), it is definitely not unconditional support (also understandable).

That is interesting to see. Would also be interesting to poll the players' wives.