The night against Saturday meant great progress for a restart of the NHL. The NHLPA, the players' union in the league, voted during the night yes to continued negotiations regarding an endgame format with 24 teams for the start of the league. Nothing is written in stone, but the decision means a big step forward for the opportunities to crown a Stanley Cup champion in 2020, Canadian website TSN.com writes.
However, many problems still need to be solved. Playgrounds, coronation tests, the limited mobility of European players and the quarantine requirement for all residents of Canada are just some of the knots that the players' union and league have to sort out before there can be any play.
"Still a lot to fall into place and details to work through, but it's great that progress is being made and we will see what happens," Colorados team captain Gabriel Landeskog writes in a text message to Aftonbladet.
According to Sportsnet, the plan is to play an endgame with the 24 teams with the best score percentage (percentage of points taken), 12 from each conference. The four best-ranked teams from the two conferences would avoid the first round while the others play five-man against the twelve, six against the elf, etc. After the first round, the playoffs are played as a regular 16-team decision in meetings best of seven.