• Moderators, please send me a PM if you are unable to access mod permissions. Thanks, Habsy.

2019-20 Miscellaneous NHL/Hockey News Thread

The Alaska schools had been subsidizing travel expenses for the rest of the league to make the long road trips. I find all the conference shenanigans distasteful myself (looking at you too, Big Ten) but in the end, sorry to say as a huge Tech fan, but that's just too big a conference footprint to sustain for schools with "mid-major"-level athletic departments at best, in a non-revenue sport.

Geographic outliers are a big problem in ice hockey. There are only 60 schools playing D1 hockey; 20 of them are in D2 or D3 for all other sports, 16 of them play D1 football at the FCS level. UAH cycled through a couple of conferences. The Alaska schools have been a problem. Arizona St. plays as an independent. In the NCHC, even Denver and Colorado College are semi-outliers, although they share a border with Nebraska. The Omaha campus of the University of Nebraska is in the conference, but Omaha might as well be in Iowa. Atlantic Hockey has schools in Massachusetts, Connecticut, New York, Pennsylvania and...Colorado (Air Force Academy)
 
Was the program at UAH because of the big NASA center there bringing in people from up north? Otherwise it doesn't make sense.

No, it goes back farther than that, to when the German scientists came over in the 40s. The Southeast District of USA Hockey held their girls qualifying tournament there one year. The rink was sort of a historical record of hockey in Huntsville.
 
No, it goes back farther than that, to when the German scientists came over in the 40s. The Southeast District of USA Hockey held their girls qualifying tournament there one year. The rink was sort of a historical record of hockey in Huntsville.
Yeah, Huntsville has a lot of social quirks thanks to that influx of Europeans after WW2. It's very much an outlier compared to the rest of the region.
 
the Germans came there because NASA picked that town because they had the Army Redstone arsenal there. It started in 1941 and it's still there separate from NASA. Werner Von Braun was in Huntsville and designed the Saturn V there.
 
Gary Bettman on NBCSN at 4:30, announcing the league’s return to play plan and media availability availability at 6.
 
Gary Bettman on NBCSN at 4:30, announcing the league’s return to play plan and media availability availability at 6.
Ah ... I've said to wake me when we have actual news. I guess I'll have to pay attention to the OG bridge troll this afternoon.
 
Ah ... I've said to wake me when we have actual news. I guess I'll have to pay attention to the OG bridge troll this afternoon.

Supposedly, this will include an update on the draft lottery. One of the rumors that floated over the weekend was that the lottery would include the 7 teams left out of the playoffs and the 1st round losers. So sure, let’s let Pittsburgh or Toronto win the Alexis Lafreniere lottery. Solid plan.
 
Supposedly, this will include an update on the draft lottery. One of the rumors that floated over the weekend was that the lottery would include the 7 teams left out of the playoffs and the 1st round losers. So sure, let’s let Pittsburgh or Toronto win the Alexis Lafreniere lottery. Solid plan.
If 24 teams in a playoff wasn't dumb enough, why not kill the draft lottery too with an equally dumb plan like you mentioned was rumored over the weekend.
 
A summary of Bettman’s statement. Apologies for the typos and capitalization.

- The regular season is complete for record keeping purposes
- 2 hub cities, 1 for each conference.
- team limit of 50 total personnel at the sites
- phase 2 starts early June, teams can return to their facilities on a limited bases as per the memo released yesterday
- phase 3 is training camp, no sooner than July 1
- phase 4 Clubs move to hub cities, no timetable, still TBD by developing circumstances
- hubs not named yet - Raleigh not under consideration. There are 10 hub cties under consideration; Chicago, Columbus, Dallas, Edmonton, Las Vegas, Los Angeles, Minneapolis/St. Paul, Pittsburgh, Toronto, Vancouver
- conference final and Stanley Cup final in one of the hub cities
- they expect to be done with the first 2 rounds in 1 month. First 2 rounds might be best of 5, conference and Cup finals best of 7
- draft lottery as rumored. 7 non playoff teams and 8 losers. Draw on June 26. If the non playoff teams win the top 3 picks, they don’t move to phase 2. If the TBD placeholders win a position, there will be a 2nd drawing after the conference quarterfinals. It’s pretty convoluted.

What wasn’t discussed was how the round robin games between the top 4 teams will factor into the seeding. Are the points incremental to the regular season or will the seeds be determined based solely on the results of those games. Those games will be played under regular season rules for overtime and shootout.
 
Last edited:
You have to make the top 4 teams play for seeding, otherwise that turns into a no contact scrimmage that just looks awful to everyone else playing for their playoff lives in the play in round in my opinion. Vegas still has to be a top choice for the Western Conference hub, anyone’s guess on the Eastern choice. The best part about the announcement is just the fact that it’s at least a starting point to work towards, who knows if it works out, but it’s a start and something to build on over the next two months.
 
First off, thanks for the great summary Andy

Question about this:
- they expect to be done with the first 2 rounds in 1 month. First 2 rounds might be best of 5, conference and Cup finals best of 7

If I'm understanding the system correctly, we will have five rounds now: the play-in plus the usual four rounds. When you say "they expect to be done with the first 2 rounds in 1 month," are you referring to the play-in round and the conference quarter-final or something else? When you say, "[f]irst 2 rounds might be best of 5," are you referring to the conference quarter- and semi-finals or the play-in round and the conference quarters?
 
You have to make the top 4 teams play for seeding, otherwise that turns into a no contact scrimmage that just looks awful to everyone else playing for their playoff lives in the play in round in my opinion. Vegas still has to be a top choice for the Western Conference hub, anyone’s guess on the Eastern choice. The best part about the announcement is just the fact that it’s at least a starting point to work towards, who knows if it works out, but it’s a start and something to build on over the next two months.

I don’t think there is any guarantee that the conferences will play in their geographic regions. Since there are no fans, it doesn’t matter what time the games start for TV purposes. For example, they could start in Edmonton at 5:00 local for a 7:00 eastern TV slot and then in Las Vegas at 7:30 local for a 10:30 eastern TV slot.
 
First off, thanks for the great summary Andy

Question about this:


If I'm understanding the system correctly, we will have five rounds now: the play-in plus the usual four rounds. When you say "they expect to be done with the first 2 rounds in 1 month," are you referring to the play-in round and the conference quarter-final or something else? When you say, "[f]irst 2 rounds might be best of 5," are you referring to the conference quarter- and semi-finals or the play-in round and the conference quarters?

You’re welcome. I was watching on TV, my wife was watching on the NHL website in another room and lobbing questions at me while I was trying to simultaneously listen and type.

The best of 5 refers to all series before the conference finals, as does completing in “about” 1 month (I missed the about part). The only series length set in stone is the qualifying round at best of 5. The next 2 rounds are TBD. With no travel, and every team playing every other day, it’s doable in about 1 month.
 
I don't think they would have 2 cities in the west or east. They will do 1 in each region. they probably really want a Canadian city so that could be Vancouver or Edmonton. For the east maybe Pitt or Columbus.
 
Bill Daly said that the US Department of Homeland Security has declared that professional athletes are essential workers, eliminating many travel restrictions. He also said that Canadian cities can’t be considered without a relaxation of the mandatory 14 day self-quarantine period.
 
Back
Top