The ongoing pandemic has had a devastating effect on sports all over the world. Seasons were suspended or canceled and major international events were postponed; including the Summer Olympics. As the situation improves in some areas, an ever-increasing number of sports leagues are now considering plans to resume their suspended seasons in formats adapted to the new reality.
Right now, players are, just like the rest of us, confined to their homes, with little more to do than watch reruns of games on TV and play ice hockey games at the 7Sultans Casino. Fans are eager to see sports resume – at least on TV, as most events will likely take place behind closed doors anyway.
The NHL is among the sports leagues planning to resume the season. While a lot depends on how the pandemic evolves – and what measures authorities will take – the officials of the league are exploring their options. Two of them, to be exact.
The Options
Sources told Long Island newspaper Newsday that the first option involves a 24 of the 31 NHL teams making the post-season. The top four teams in each conference would head directly to playoffs, and the bottom teams would stage a short postseason play-in tournament. The second scenario would involve just 16 teams heading directly to the playoffs, with no regular-season games to be played. But, of course, nothing is confirmed yet. NHL deputy commissioner Bill Daly has previously said that “every option remains on the table”.
Commissioner Gary Bettman has said that he considers the ideal option would involve playing out all the remaining games in the season. The public health situation, in turn, may beg to differ.
What Others Are Doing
Across the Atlantic in Europe, the situation is not much better. Several major European ice hockey leagues announced the cancelation of their seasons as early as March, including Germany’s Deutsche Eishockey Liga (DEL), Austria’s Erste Bank Eishockey Liga, Norway’s GET-ligaen, and the Polish Leagues.
In other nations, the regular season’s games were suspended or postponed rather than being canceled. The Ukrainian Hockey League, suspended play shortly before the semifinals and has decided to resume the season in the fall. They have already scheduled games for the beginning of September.
In Spain, the season ended prematurely before the final series of the season. Here, too, the resumption of the matches is scheduled for September. The final series is now scheduled to be played on September 12 and 19, with a third game, if necessary, scheduled for September 20.
Closer to home, Hockey Canada, citing the ongoing pandemic has announced that it has canceled the Hlinka Gretzky Cup, a tournament that features the world’s best U-18 ice hockey players in the country. The event was scheduled to take place between August 3-8 in Edmonton and Red Deer, Alberta.