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

[Textcritic]

Originally Posted by Strange Brew

Yeah I don’t follow. I mentioned last change. I don’t know what else is built into the game as the long line change scenarios are same for both teams.

I think last change is enough. It could be argued that the only advantage to playing on home ice is travel and accommodation, and that those elements are fairly negligible in a seven-game series.

Under the special circumstances which warrant this one-time playoff tournament I am perfectly happy to see all home ice advantages considered as casualties of the pandemic.

[Textcritic]

Originally Posted by ricardodw

Now that the no large crowds in the street has been thrown out...

Is this something that has actually happened?

[MrMike]

Face offs are an advantage as well with the home (or is it visiting) team requiring to place his stock down first. No idea what kind of advantage that gives though.

[Sidney Crosby's Hat]

I feel like there's more pressure on the NBA to do something as for whatever reason home court advantage seems to be a much bigger thing in the NBA. You look at a team like the 76ers, who are 29-2 at home and 10-24 on the road.

[Textcritic]

Originally Posted by MrMike

Face offs are an advantage as well with the home (or is it visiting) team requiring to place his stock down first. No idea what kind of advantage that gives though.

I would argue that this—like the last change rule—provides a very small advantage. Thus, my argument for the anticipated tournament would be for no added home-ice advantages provided to higher seeded teams, since home ice itself provides such a minimal or negligible advantage as to make it essentially moot. The real reward for higher seeded teams is the opportunity for additional playoff revenue, provided by the potential of selling tickets for three or four home games.

[MrMike]

Originally Posted by Sidney Crosby's Hat

I feel like there's more pressure on the NBA to do something as for whatever reason home court advantage seems to be a much bigger thing in the NBA. You look at a team like the 76ers, who are 29-2 at home and 10-24 on the road.

Why does home court make that much of a difference in the NBA? That’s a crazy record.

[Textcritic]

Originally Posted by MrMike

Why does home court make that much of a difference in the NBA? That’s a crazy record.

It may be tied to the higher impact of individual players: the outcomes of games in the NBA are much more predictable because of smaller rosters—which in turn means that far fewer players play many more minutes in each game, and then results in a higher net impact per individual on the outcomes. This is a big part of why basketball sucks so much in the first place.

[getbak]

Originally Posted by Sidney Crosby's Hat

I feel like there's more pressure on the NBA to do something as for whatever reason home court advantage seems to be a much bigger thing in the NBA. You look at a team like the 76ers, who are 29-2 at home and 10-24 on the road.

This is a few years old, but I don't think the stat has changed significantly in recent years:

Between 1999-2008, a team with home-court advantage in the playoffs won more than three out of four series. In the first round, home teams won series at a rate of 81.3 percent. In the conference semifinals, home teams won 80 percent of the time. In the conference finals, it is interesting to note that the winning percentage dropped to 50 percent. In the NBA Finals, it climbed back up to 80 percent.

https://bleacherreport.com/articles/...age-in-the-nba

[MrMike]

Originally Posted by getbak

This is a few years old, but I don't think the stat has changed significantly in recent years:


https://bleacherreport.com/articles/...age-in-the-nba

I don’t believe that has to do with home court advantage though, just the top 4 teams are miles ahead of the next teams.

Makes for really boring playoffs.

[ricardodw]

Originally Posted by Textcritic

Is this something that has actually happened?

Either

The large crowd in close proximity is an epidemic accelerator and need to protest breaking of the mitigation strategy puts the US back to the 2 million deaths scientific projection. This results in no hockey anywhere for 2 years.

OR

The mitigation strategy was a hoax and did nothing but exert government control on the masses.

Why do 20,000 strangers get to stand shoulder to shoulder in a protest and not a hockey game?

[Jiri Hrdina]

Originally Posted by ricardodw

Either

The large crowd in close proximity is an epidemic accelerator and need to protest breaking of the mitigation strategy puts the US back to the 2 million deaths scientific projection. This results in no hockey anywhere for 2 years.

OR

The mitigation strategy was a hoax and did nothing but exert government control on the masses.

Why do 20,000 strangers get to stand shoulder to shoulder in a protest and not a hockey game?

Because one is infinitely more important than the other.
Though I admit I'm keen to understand how those protests, including in Calgary, impact the outbreak curves.
But even if they don't - that may only demonstrate that being outside is less risky than being inside.
So still doesn't really mean much for fans at games.
EDIT: I see you originally were proposing things like outdoor viewing, and yes if these demonstrations don't lead to outbreaks - perhaps that does become more of a possibility.

[Phaneufenstein]

Originally Posted by Textcritic

I would argue that this—like the last change rule—provides a very small advantage. Thus, my argument for the anticipated tournament would be for no added home-ice advantages provided to higher seeded teams, since home ice itself provides such a minimal or negligible advantage as to make it essentially moot. The real reward for higher seeded teams is the opportunity for additional playoff revenue, provided by the potential of selling tickets for three or four home games.

Very small advantages become big advantages with all things equal. Given NHL parity, I'd argue that coaches would consider these huge.

Also I'm not sure I understand how would the league get rid of these advantages? One team has to put their line out first (disadvantage) and one of the two players taking the faceoff has to put their stick down first (disadvantage).

[Textcritic]

Originally Posted by ricardodw

Either ...

In the first place, no, your understanding of what is happening is not a true dichotomy—certainly not between the ridiculous premises you have asserted.

The large crowd in close proximity is an epidemic accelerator and need to protest breaking of the mitigation strategy puts the US back to the 2 million deaths scientific projection. This results in no hockey anywhere for 2 years.

The answer is "Yes."

I don't believe there has been anything official to provide for large crowd gatherings as of yet, but based on the bit I have read now, the chance of increasing the virus spread is substantially escalated by the protest actions in the US:

https://www.theatlantic.com/health/a...ndemic/612460/

Originally Posted by The Atlantic

"The wave of mass protests across the United States will almost certainly set off new chains of infection for the novel coronavirus, experts say.

"The virus seems to spread the most when people yell (such as to chant a slogan), sneeze (to expel pepper spray), or cough (after inhaling tear gas). It is transmitted most efficiently in crowds and large gatherings, and research has found that just a few contagious people can infect hundreds of susceptible people around them. The virus can spread especially easily in small, cramped places, such as police vans and jails.

"As such, for the past several days, the virus has found new environments in which to spread across the United States. At least 75 cities have seen widespread demonstrations and social unrest as Americans have gathered to protest systemic racism and the killing of George Floyd, the black man who died last week under the knee of a Minneapolis police officer."

Let's be clear, though: as far as I can tell, the protest actions are in violation of currently active rules for social distancing and crowd control. The fact that these are necessary protest actions has likely played into the response from authorities, and the situation is IN NO WAY analogous to the expectation that sports fans will be permitted to gather in large groups in order to view games. No team nor league is going to encourage mass gatherings amid the current social-distancing orders, and if people choose to violate these on their own I would imagine that the response from authorities would be considerably more emphatic.

Originally Posted by ricardodw

OR

The mitigation strategy was a hoax and did nothing but exert government control on the masses.

Come on. Can we get real for a moment, here? The fact that tens of thousands of people are breaking social distancing orders with the stated purpose of protest is not an indication of a "mitigation strategy hoax." This is unsurprising nonsense from you.

Why do 20,000 strangers get to stand shoulder to shoulder in a protest and not a hockey game?

Jiri clearly responded why this is happening, and why no one should interpret ongoing protests as even remotely analogous to future allowances made for crowds to watch sporting events.

[Textcritic]

Originally Posted by Phaneufenstein

Very small advantages become big advantages with all things equal. Given NHL parity, I'd argue that coaches would consider these huge.

Also I'm not sure I understand how would the league get rid of these advantages? One team has to put their line out first (disadvantage) and one of the two players taking the faceoff has to put their stick down first (disadvantage).

I am not suggesting they get rid of them. I am suggesting that these advantages—which I consider to be small if not negligible—will continue to have little effect on the outcome of the games in neutral locations.

Like I said, the biggest advantage for teams with home ice in the playoffs is financial—the opportunity to sell tickets to more games than the opposing team. I think some teams can use a building's or a crowd's energy to their advantage—this is something that Colorado did and which the Flames failed to do in the playoffs last year, but this is something particular to individual players or groups, and not universal.

[topfiverecords]

Originally Posted by Mean Mr. Mustard

Bench positioning?

We need a cardboard cutout of Bev in the first row behind the bench.

Can we also get one of Reg in the corner?

[Strange Brew]

Well I don’t really want to see gimmicky changes to allow for some advantage for the higher seed team. In basketball the possession at the start of each quarter for the home team makes some sense to me. Can’t think of a comparable for hockey.

[Poe969]

I still think they should cancel the season. This year has gone from bad to worse, then worse...then even worse and it seems like there is even more bad on the horizon. Take your financial lumps and call it a season before something even worse happens.

[Textcritic]

Originally Posted by Poe969

I still think they should cancel the season. This year has gone from bad to worse, then worse...then even worse and it seems like there is even more bad on the horizon. Take your financial lumps and call it a season before something even worse happens.

It may come to that yet, but I get why the League is doing everything it can for as long as they can to play. There are hundreds of millions of dollars at stake.

Sent from my SM-G960W using Tapatalk

[Strange Brew]

Originally Posted by Poe969

I still think they should cancel the season. This year has gone from bad to worse, then worse...then even worse and it seems like there is even more bad on the horizon. Take your financial lumps and call it a season before something even worse happens.

This year is going from bad to worse, no argument there. It has been a true nightmare.

But I'm not quite ready to curl into the fetal position yet.

[Tyler]

Are teams who didn't make the playoffs complaining about the timing of things yet?

Given the late playoff start and potentially late Q4 new season start, these guys could be out of action for nearly a year. That seems like an insane wait if I'm not one of those 24 teams.