TSN: Finalized Return to Play tenative agreement

[sureLoss]

You can read the details of the "secure zone" here:

https://www.tsn.ca/talent/how-nhl-pl...nton-1.1492443

> In the Bubble: Each team will be permitted to bring a maximum of 52 individuals inside the secure zone, including ownership, players, coaches, executives and staff.

Teams are permitted to bring no more than 31 players. The list of each traveling part must be submitted to the NHL by July 13, the day training camps are scheduled to open.

Each team will have at least one physician, one security representative, one club Phase 4 compliance officer, and one content creator / social media member included in the traveling party.

> Testing: Every person inside the NHL’s “bubble” will be tested for COVID-19 daily via nasal swab, also administered temperature checks and symptom screenings.

The list of people requiring daily testing is massive and includes but is not limited to: all players, staff, officials, arena ice crew, security, hotel bartenders, food service staff, arena food and beverage staff, hotel housekeeping, hotel kitchen and food prep staff, and bus drivers. Simply put, any person who has contact or may come into contact (even indirectly) will be tested daily.

With 24 teams inside the bubble (at 52 people per team), that is 1,248 tests required daily for team personnel only. Add in all of the other levels and it is easy to imagine the NHL requiring upwards of 2,000 tests daily to begin the 24-team tournament. That is 20,000 tests in first 10 days alone.

> Calling it off: At any time before or during play in the 24-team tournament, the NHL and NHLPA have the ability to postpone, delay, move or cancel any games in the event conditions present “risk to player health and safety” and/or jeopardize “the integrity of the competition.”

Those conditions may include “an uncontrolled outbreak of COVID-19 in the players of one or more clubs” participating in the tournament. No specific number of positive cases was provided in the protocol to define the “uncontrolled outbreak” threshold. The NHL has maintained that singular or even multiple isolated positive tests will not halt play.

The NHLPA may contest any ruling from commissioner Gary Bettman in the form of an “expedited arbitration of a grievance” before an impartial arbitrator.

> Compliance: Any team that violates the rules set in the protocol will be subject to “significant penalties, potentially including fines and/or loss of draft picks.” Any player who refuses to follow the testing and monitoring protocol will not be allowed to participate and may be subject to permanent removal from the bubble.

> Opt-out: Any player may choose to not participate in the return-to-play tournament for any reason and without penalty. The deadline to opt-out will be three days after this return-to-play protocol package is ratified by a vote, likely giving players at least until July 13, when the list of each traveling party is due.

> Bubble life: Players will be living in single occupancy rooms, no roommates, with each team assigned designated floors. Players are not permitted to enter each other’s rooms. Housekeeping will be provided every third day. Hotel bars and restaurants will be open and available in the bubble, provided social distancing is followed.

Players will have access to hotel pool and fitness centre. Each club will be provided with a designated meeting space in the hotel. Each person will also have access to contactless room service delivery, as well as delivery from local restaurants available for pick-up.

The NHL is also planning for league-approved “excursions” both inside and outside of the bubble. Think designated tee times at a local golf club, etc. All transportation will be provided to/from the excursion and social distancing, face coverings and personal hygiene measures will be mandatory.

> Masks mandatory: A cloth or surgical mask is required to be worn by any individual in the bubble when outside of their hotel room. Masks may be removed during exercise and play on the ice, as well as when eating and/or drinking. Coaches are not required to wear masks on the bench; on-ice officials are not required to wear masks during games. Broadcasters and players being interviewed are also not required to wear a mask, provided appropriate social distancing is followed.

> Arriving in the bubble: Every person will be tested three times, 48 hours apart, in the seven days prior to their charter flight to the bubble. They will not be subject to quarantine upon arrival, including for teams/players/staff coming from the United States. Daily testing will begin upon arrival. During the first five days inside the bubble (exhibition games), individuals will only be allowed to engage in social interaction with people from their own team’s traveling party.

> Leaving the bubble: Players who are authorized to leave the bubble for a medical reason or extenuating personal circumstance (birth of a child or death of a family member, etc.) will be permitted to return. They will be forced to quarantine on return pending four negative tests over a four-day period - or longer, depending on the location they visited outside the bubble and those circumstances.

> Family visits: Players’ immediate families (spouse/significant other and children only) will be permitted to join the NHL’s bubble during the Conference Finals and Stanley Cup Final in Edmonton. Families will be allowed to stay in the same hotel room as the player, only after an acceptable quarantine and daily testing have been conducted inside the bubble.

That means players advancing to the Conference Final will go a minimum of five weeks away from their families.

> Help at home: While players are gone, NHL teams will offer to assist families remaining at home by providing grocery delivery and errand delivery services.

> Positive tests: Any person inside the bubble who tests positive will immediately be isolated.

A second “confirmatory” test will be administered. If that test returns positive, then that person will be instructed to isolate until medical clearance is administered. Even if that confirmatory test is negative, that person shall remain isolated and will be tested again in 24 hours - only until a second negative test is provided will that person be permitted to exit isolation.

An ‘asymptomatic’ confirmed positive case will be allowed to rejoin after two consecutive negative tests over a 48-hour period, or after 10 days of passage in isolation.

A ‘symptomatic’ confirmed positive case will also be able to rejoin after symptoms have subsided (no fever, no respiratory symptoms) for a minimum of 72 hours, provided the person was in self-isolation for a minimum of 10 days since the onset of symptoms.

> Nondisclosure: No player who tests positive or develops symptoms will be identified to media or publicly, absent approval from the NHL or NHLPA.

> Player safety: Any player exiting isolation must “continue to refrain from exercise for a 14-day period from the time of the first positive test.” After that, players shall receive cardiac testing, including at a minimum: an ECG, echocardiogram and high-sensitivity troponin.

> Contact tracing: Any person considered to be in “close contact” with a positive test case - defined by the NHL as in contact for 15 minutes or longer at 6-feet or less - in the 48 hours leading up to the time of their positive test, will be immediately removed and tested. That person will then be monitored closely for a 14-day period.

> Cleaning procedures: Between every period during games, each bench area must be disinfected, including flooring, bench surface, top of dasher board and water bottle area. Vertical dividers will separate each players’ water bottle. All locker rooms, team spaces and event floor areas will also be disinfected daily.

[browna]

Pretty comprehensive.
A lot of testing.

Why families are allowed in is beyond me though, when things get to the CF and SCF. Hell Sutter took the Flames to a hotel here in town against the Sharks in 2004 to get away from families.

Lol at the grocery delivery and errand services the league are giving the families "left behind". Who's going to get the milk and cut the grass now that Gio is away for a couple months? My guess is the same people that are paid to do it by these multimillionaires over the past months and years, will continue to do it, but if that's not the sign of an NHLPA technicality and point to make to appease their players, dont know what is.

Non disclosure of players testing positive sounds good in theory but won't work in practice. You'll have dedicated media members just looking to dig up this sort of dirt to get thier 5 minutes of "concerned" fame.

Excursions in Edmonton. Fantasyland? BiblioTank? The river valley
52 team members, including 31 players. Leaves 21 coaches,trainers, equipment staff, doctors, etc Not a lot of excess people allowed in the bubble when you think about it.

[Wood]

So now I expect to hear players starting to opt-out

If any Flames players opt-out, can we please be respectful

[GordonBlue]

Originally Posted by Wood

So now I expect to hear players starting to opt-out

If any Flames players opt-out, can we please be respectful

I can't imagine being disrespectful no matter which team the player is from.

[Textcritic]

Originally Posted by browna

Why families are allowed in is beyond me though, when things get to the CF and SCF. Hell Sutter took the Flames to a hotel here in town against the Sharks in 2004 to get away from families...

It isn't 2004 anymore. I suspect this was a sticking point among the players. They likely would not have ratified the agreement without it.

Sent from my SM-G960W using Tapatalk

[Crown Royal]

I like how comprehensive and laid out this is, I think the NHL and the NHLPA have done an excellent job in making this as safe as possible for the players. I think both sides deserve credit for putting this together.

[kurwamac]

By the time they figure out one guy has it, it's highly likely a bunch of guys will have it too. If that takes out a large chunk of a roster, tournament over..


As a side note, going forward it'll be helpful if buildings are designed with integrated UV lights to sanitize high touch surfaces.. should be safe if used with motion detectors + maybe thermal cameras (which could be too expensive), or just turned on manually. If I had a say, I'd have surfaces sprayed with a sanitizer, then hit it with a UV light

[browna]

Originally Posted by Textcritic

It isn't 2004 anymore. I suspect this was a sticking point among the players. They likely would not have ratified the agreement without it.

Sent from my SM-G960W using Tapatalk

You're right, it's not. Clear as day full screen HD video chats over cellular connections are now an expectation, when in 2004 you were relived to see your BBM message get delivered in less then 5 minutes.

I agree the players wanted that, or a faction of them did, but I don't think it matters in 2004 or 2020, when you as a professional athlete get that close to the pinnacle of why you play, any players want more distractions entering into their life, not less, when you get to the semifinals and Finals.

But, they can't have families be entering the bubble in the earlier rounds, because there are that many more teams still in said bubble and the risks are obviously higher.

[Locke]

Originally Posted by Wood

So now I expect to hear players starting to opt-out

If any Flames players opt-out, can we please be respectful

At this point if we get any hockey I think we're playing with 'House Money.'

Its all a bonus.

None of what it happening here is 'for the fans' or 'retaining the integrity of the League' regardless of how much smoke they're trying to blow up our asses...this is pure contractual obligation.

If players dont want to play? Have at 'er!

But it would also be a nice little refresher on how replaceable some people are and maybe a little reality check on salaries....?

[lazypucker]

The nondisclosure of positive tests is dumb. If a player is mysteriously scratched for a game or two, then people would know what's going on...

[ComixZone]

Originally Posted by lazypucker

The nondisclosure of positive tests is dumb. If a player is mysteriously scratched for a game or two, then people would know what's going on...

It’s still someone’s health. Private matter.

[Crown Royal]

Originally Posted by lazypucker

The nondisclosure of positive tests is dumb. If a player is mysteriously scratched for a game or two, then people would know what's going on...

Would be easy enough to hide, just claim it is an upper/lower body injury, or not disclose any injuries either, then we have no idea whether it is injury or sickness

[bobbylouie]

"The deadline to opt-out will be three days after this return-to-play protocol package is ratified by a vote, likely giving players at least until July 13, when the list of each traveling party is due."

I don't understand this one at all. You basically have to opt out before you get there and see exactly what the set up is for there to be no penalty. So what happens if the day after the deadline there are a bunch of positive tests and you realize this ain't for me and want to opt out. And what is the penalty then? Breach of contract? It almost seems like you're encouraging people to opt early before it's too late.

[getbak]

I find it strange that they still haven't said anything about how they're going to schedule the games.

Are they only using one arena in each city, or will they be using two for the play-in and first round? I don't even know if Northlands is still functional at this point. Toronto has their AHL arena at the CNE grounds that could be used in addition to Scotiabank Arena.

If they're only using one arena, how are they going to make it work when they'll have to have 3 games per day some days, and they need to be able to work around the possibility of multiple overtimes, and can't afford to postpone late games if an earlier game goes too long?

They could do a round robin game early in the day and schedule an early afternoon play-in game and pray that it doesn't go into multiple OTs, with another game late.

Round robin at 12:00 noon, play-in game at 4:00pm, and another play-in at 8:00pm would work as long as the 4:00 game doesn't go into double-OT or later.

With the Western play-in series each featuring a Central Time Zone team vs either a Mountain or Pacific Time Zone team (or in Arizona's case, a Mountain team whose clock is the same as the Pacific Time Zone in the summer), I assume they'll have Edmonton and Calgary play the early game on alternating nights with Vancouver and Arizona playing the late game on alternating nights.



I suppose they could also schedule a play-in game early and a play-in game late, with a round robin scheduled in between, and if the early game goes into multiple OTs, they could just bump the round robin to another day since there will be 6 total round robin games and the play-in round will need to run over 10 days.


I guess it's nice that I'm still going to be working from home when all of this is happening, so I'll be able to watch the games even if they are scheduled at noon, but I assume most people will be back to a normal schedule by that time. For a made-for-tv event, that's not particularly tv-friendly. I know some have suggested airing the games on tape-delay and putting an embargo on the results, but I can't see any way they'd be able to stop that information from leaking out.

[JD]

I don't think the game schedule will be that different from normal playoffs.

You have at most 8 series at any given time with each series having games ideally every other night. You have 2 locations, meaning 4 series per location. That's 2 games per day.

The only thing that I can't really figure out is if the first game in a day goes to triple OT or something ridiculous. What happens then?

[transplant99]

Originally Posted by JD

I don't think the game schedule will be that different from normal playoffs.

You have at most 8 series at any given time with each series having games ideally every other night. You have 2 locations, meaning 4 series per location. That's 2 games per day.

The only thing that I can't really figure out is if the first game in a day goes to triple OT or something ridiculous. What happens then?

Id imagine the play in series arent subject to OT after 5 minutes as they arent playoff games. So to a shootout after any unresolved overtime.

Also...12 teams per city = 6 teams/3 games a day. 1 round robin game and 2 play in games.

[getbak]

Originally Posted by transplant99

Id imagine the play in series arent subject to OT after 5 minutes as they arent playoff games. So to a shootout after any unresolved overtime.

No, they announced that the play-in games are going to be played with playoff OT rules. Continuous 5-on-5 hockey until a goal is scored.

[Cali Panthers Fan]

Originally Posted by browna

Pretty comprehensive.
A lot of testing.

Why families are allowed in is beyond me though, when things get to the CF and SCF. Hell Sutter took the Flames to a hotel here in town against the Sharks in 2004 to get away from families.

This is actually a great compromise in many ways. The league is able to limit the number of contacts the players have for the first 5 weeks, which is good for managing the possible infections, but also for managing the resources of the hotels and bubbles. But, as teams begin to be eliminated over a few weeks, most players can return to their families with just a few teams having to remain isolated from their families for a little while longer. Once you reach the conference finals, you're dealing with 4 teams, which means you can easily house the families in the hotels as well and it allows players to resume contact with their families. It would be hard to expect no contact with families for over 2 months, and so the league needs to concede this at some point in the process. You aren't really increasing any risk at that point since the league would be dealing with so many more people at the start of the Return To Play than they would near the end. This was obviously negotiated for the needs of both sides in mind, and I think the timelines, management of resources, and mitigations to risk of infection are all taken into account very well. Pretty smart IMO.

Originally Posted by bobbylouie

"The deadline to opt-out will be three days after this return-to-play protocol package is ratified by a vote, likely giving players at least until July 13, when the list of each traveling party is due."

I don't understand this one at all. You basically have to opt out before you get there and see exactly what the set up is for there to be no penalty. So what happens if the day after the deadline there are a bunch of positive tests and you realize this ain't for me and want to opt out. And what is the penalty then? Breach of contract? It almost seems like you're encouraging people to opt early before it's too late.

They don't need to see the set up, it's laid out very clearly what will occur. If a player has any personal concerns that aren't addressed well by this agreement, they have the option to opt out. If there are a bunch of positive tests, as outlined above, the league or the PA have the option to basically call it quits on the whole thing. That doesn't mean a handful of positive tests would stop play, so a player needs to take that into consideration before agreeing to show up. It's a calculated risk for any player choosing to go forward with this arrangement, but I think it's pretty safe all things considered. Nothing is 100% certain these days, so if a player is still worried about their own health or anything else, simply opt out now and it's no harm, no foul.

However, I think you will only see a handful of players opting out. The hubs they've chosen are good choices for managing community spread, and there's plenty of safety protocols in place to reduce the risk to near zero. I expect this to move forward with little to no problems should all players adhere to the protocols.

[transplant99]

Originally Posted by getbak

No, they announced that the play-in games are going to be played with playoff OT rules. Continuous 5-on-5 hockey until a goal is scored.

Didnt hear that..thanks.

So game times will have to be allotted something like 12, 4, 8?

[Erick Estrada]

Originally Posted by Crown Royal

Would be easy enough to hide, just claim it is an upper/lower body injury, or not disclose any injuries either, then we have no idea whether it is injury or sickness

If teams can lie about injuries that opens up another can of worms. Chances are they will be scratched and some generic reason given. It's not going to be hard to figure out really.