The St. Louis Blues are waiting to see what the league comes up with to potentially crown a champion in 2020. Nothing is off the table, but a centralized location seems to be picking up steam.
It should come as no surprise that as St. Louis Blues fans wait for word of how, when or if the 2019-20 season might finish that news pops up of two sports leagues with similar ideas. Major League Baseball and the NHL will never admit it, but there has to have been conversations had about how to proceed with sports between all parties for something so similar to pop up.
For those unaware of what is being discussed, MLB and their players union seem to be trying to figure out the details on how to start their season in May or June. The plan would be to start the season and play its foreseeable future in Arizona.
There are still tons of logistical things to iron out with a plan such as that. First and foremost, you have to convince the entire player pool to leave their families for an indeterminate amount of time.
Secondly, yyou have to find a suitable number of facilities to house players and also play in. It’s all well and good that there is a nice MLB stadium in the Phoenix area, but you can’t have 30 MLB teams tearing up one grass field day in and out. They will need to make sure they have enough fields capable and suitable to support professional baseball. One has to figure this does exist for it to be floated out as a legitimate possibility.
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Who knows who came up with the idea first, but it should be no surprise the NHL has a similar idea in its back pocket. In fact, their plan could be even simpler.
The NHL may very well crown its 2020 Stanley Cup champion in Grand Forks, North Dakota.
Of course, everything is an unknown at this point. Even if they come to a determination on where, they have to figure out the how and when.
Players have been let go to their home countries, so there would have to be an end or a relaxation to certain travel bans. Additionally, the hotel situation in Grand Forks would have to be suitable enough to house the amount of teams determined by whether the league jumps right into playoffs or finishes a regular season.
Right now, Gary Bettman does not see the regular season finishing. That could change tomorrow, the next day or two weeks from now.
Also, the league has to make sure the vast majority of players are healthy or testing would be readily available. If the MLB scenario is to be believed, by the time any games were played anywhere, there would be testing available. Even so, the NHL has positive tested players, so they would need to be healthy and cleared.
If all of that falls into line, playing these final games in North Dakota sounds incredibly weird, but actually makes sense. Outside of the potential hotel situation – admittedly, I have not been there – it might be the perfect location.
While it has been some time since they hosted a major event, hosting the 2005 World Junior Championships and 2016 U-18 World Championships, they still have experience in hosting such events where the ice must be maintained for multiple game/teams and housing must be found. Also, as Elliotte Friedman points out, North Dakota has a low popluation density. Even playing in an empty arena, you don’t want players in high density areas where transmission would be much easier, which is why the NBA’s plan of Las Vegas makes less sense.
The main determining factor, whether the location is Grand Forks or anywhere else, is the availability of ice. With all the closures, ice time would not be hard to come by, but the number of facilities would need to reach a certain number.
The main arena in Grand Forks is Ralph Engelstad Arena. It has two sheets of ice, but one is Olympic-sized. Could that be transformed or would it merely be a practice facility? How many other rinks would be needed for practice or even games (depending on the playoff format chosen)?
Regardless, what is encouraging is the fact possibilities exist. Many have given in to despair and said to simply cancel things, but why do that if not forced to?
If the NHL saw cancellation as inevitable, they would not have pushed back the draft, free agency and all offseason proceedings. The league is determined to crown a champion.
We can debate forever the fairness of not having a regular season finish or adding teams to the playoffs or altering the format. Those that simply do not want hockey to return have a screw loose though.
I would welcome the return of the league in whatever manner they see fit. It is easy to say as our team sits atop the Western Conference, but like Arizona Coyotes defenseman Oliver Ekman-Larsson, I believe restarting “would benefit all of us.” Oh, by the way, the Coyotes are out of the playoffs if they started today, so he sees the bigger picture.
Let us all cross our fingers and keep hope alive. Perhaps the unlikely town of Grand Forks will prove to be our sporting savior.