COLUMBUS – Columbus is on the list of 10 cities in the running to be “hub cities” where NHL Stanley Cup playoff games could be held when play resumes
The league will abandon the rest of the regular season and go straight into the playoffs with 24 teams instead of 16 if it is able to resume play, Commissioner Gary Bettman announced Tuesday.
The plan is not a guarantee that games are coming back. The NHL and the NHL Players’ Association must still figure out health and safety protocols and solve other issues, including where to play. Government and medical authorities also have to sign off on the resumption of play.
Still, ironing out the format represents significant progress since global sports were largely shut down in March as the coronavirus outbreak turned into a pandemic. Bettman has said the goal has always been to play again and award the Stanley Cup, but details remain uncertain.
Instead of limiting the Cup chase to the usual 16 teams that qualify for the playoffs, the league and players agreed to expand the field to 24 of its 31 teams because of the unusual circumstances.
Games are expected to be played in two hub cities and Bettman said Columbus, Chicago, Dallas, Las Vegas, Pittsburgh and Minneapolis/St. Paul in the U.S. and Edmonton, Toronto and Vancouver in Canada are among the possible sites. Each conference will be assigned to play in a hub city.
The top four teams in each conference ranked by points percentage as of March 11 will play separate round-robin tournaments to determine seeding. The remaining 16 teams will be seeded by conference.
Under that format, The Blue Jackets would play the Toronto Maple Leafs in a best-of-five series.
In early June, teams will be permitted to return to their facilities for informal training and group activities with formal training camps set to open no earlier than the first half of July, Bettman said.