NHL commish: Return plan keeps playoffs’ ‘integrity,’ but gives teams like Panthers shot
Gary Bettman had a handful of pressing questions to answer once the COVID-19 outbreak abruptly halted the NHL season in March.
First, the commissioner had to make sure his players would be safe and healthy whenever they returned the ice, both from the virus and the injury potential which comes with a lengthy layoff.
He also had to figure out a way to keep the integrity of the Stanley Cup intact — his 2020 champion had to be able to stand among the rest in the NHL’s history.
More than three months since the regular season came to an unexpected end, Bettman believes he has found a return-to-play format which meets all those criteria.
“I think everybody can feel good, based on the combination of the play-in round and the way we’re going to run the playoffs, that this will be a full competition, which will bring out the best in our teams and our players,” Bettman told ESPN on Monday. “And the Stanley Cup champion will be deserving of that crown and the most storied trophy in all of sports.”
Bettman was one of six American sports commissioners to appear on a special edition of ESPN’s “SportsCenter” on Monday. Anchor Mike Greenberg hosted a series guests, including Bettman, for a “The Return of Sports” episode, allowing each commissioner to outline where his or her league stands in returning to action amid the coronavirus pandemic.
The NHL was the first of the major sports leagues to outline a plan last month and the league still has one of the most detailed plans to wrap up the current season.
The NHL will send 12 Eastern Conference teams to one to-be-determined hub city and 12 Western Conference teams to another to begin a qualifying round in July or August.
The bottom eight teams in each conference will play a series of best-of-five series to fill out a 16-team playoff bracket. Once the final 16 teams are decided, the NHL will begin a mostly traditional Stanley Cup playoffs — teams will play best-of-seven series, albeit at neutral sites and without any fans in attendance.
The Florida Panthers, who sat outside the East’s playoff picture when the regular season ended, will face the New York Islanders in one of the best-of-5 play-in series.
“We did this in consultation with the players that were on the return-to-play committee and they felt as strongly about the integrity of the competition as we did,” Bettman said. “We had 189 regular-season games left as of March 12 when we took the break, so while the regular season was largely completed, we had a number of teams that were on the bubble. And you know that we have extraordinary competitive balance and any of those teams that were on the bubble, outside of the top 16 in each conference, had a legitimate chance of making the playoffs — some more than others — and we decided we needed a play-in round to give those teams a chance to ultimately make the playoffs.”
As the NHL announced its return-to-play plan last month, Bettman also detailed some of the league’s COVID-safety protocol, namely a plan to test players and team personnel every day.
On Monday, Bettman said this is still the plan and a single positive test wouldn’t disrupt the postseason.
As players will be tested every day, the NHL hopes to catch an outbreak before it starts.
If and when a player tests positive for the virus, the player will be isolated and anyone he was in close proximity with him will be closely monitored through contact tracing.
Bettman said the league has been in communication with medical professionals, including guidelines set by National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases director Anthony Fauci, to create a comprehensive plan.
“Obviously for any sport, if you have a major outbreak it’s going to change everything, but we’re being told that an isolated case or a couple of isolated cases shouldn’t interfere with the plans and we should be able to move forward,” Bettman said. Again, the notion and the way we’ve handled this is to create a bubble where we’re basically COVID-19 free.”
The NHL is currently in Phase 2 of its return-to-play plan, which began June 8 and allows players access to team practice facilities for voluntary small-group workouts. Phase 3, the start of training camps, is slated for next month and Phase 4, the start of the qualifying round, is likely to begin in either late July or early August, although no specific date has been set.
The long run-up, Bettman hopes, will make sure players are in shape once the season begins, lessening the chance of injury after a lot of players went “the longest they’ve ever gone without skating,” Bettman said. It will also have the league well-prepared to place its players in a hub-city bubble knowing they’ve been tested and monitored for more than a month prior to arrival.
“By the time we get to what we call Phase 4, which is the actual playing in the two hub cities, we should have a pretty good sense of what our population is,” Bettman said, “and how well they’ve been tested and monitored.”
