The St. Louis Blues continue to get new information regarding their fate to finish the 2020 portion of the season. Nothing is set yet, but the concrete is being poured.
The St. Louis Blues defense of their Stanley Cup championship is going to be anything but normal. However, while the plans are not set in stone, the mortar is being made and bricks laid, so to speak.
The NHL Board of Governors voted to ratify a plan regarding the 2020 NHL Playoff format. It must be noted that the entire league ownership group and the NHLPA will need to approve this plan, but there is no reason to expect that will not happen, unless something rather shocking happens.
According to a league press release, the format has been decided upon. We knew there would be play-in series and then regular playoffs following that, but we now know the set up.
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The play-in round will consist of best-of-five series. All following series will be best-of-seven, as normal.
There was a question as to whether the opening round of the “traditional” playoffs would be made best-of-five. That will not be the case.
To me, while this extends the length of the playoffs, this makes the most sense. If nothing else, it should quiet some of the crowd saying this season will have an asterisk – not all, but some.
The main difference from this playoff format and a regular one, beyond the play-in round, will be re-seeding. The highest remaining seed will play the lowest remaining seed in each round.
For example, if the Blues finish as the top seed, they would play whichever team is the lowest seed in the first round. So, if all the tops seeds won their playoff play-in series except 10th seed Minnesota beating 7th seed Vancouver, the Blues would play the Wild. Under a strict playoff bracket, the Blues (or whoever is top seed) would play the winner of Calgary and Winnipeg, possibly giving a lower seed a mismatch if there was an upset in the play-in.
Under normal circumstances, this might be odd. However, with each conference playing in one location, it probably makes the most sense. While everything will be on more of a level playing field than ever before, this gives the higher seeds about as much advantage as you can get from this scenario.
One thing that could potentially get confusing is a tie breaker scenario for the top seeds. Since there will be regular season overtime rules for the top seed round robin games, there is a potential for matching records. If that happens, regular season winning percentage will be the tie breaker.
Another interesting, but slightly useless, fact is the “home ice” format. In the play-in round and the first and second rounds of the playoffs, the “home” team will be decided by seed. The higher seed will have home ice in games 1, 2 and then the odd numbered games.
In the conference finals and Stanley Cup Final, the team with the higher regular season points percentage will have “home ice”. Interestingly, should Colorado finish as the higher seed due to the round-robin portion, they would still be the “visitor” if they played the Blues in the conference final in this scenario.
None of that really makes much distinction other than what color jersey teams will wear and what order the teams are listed on the TV screen and box score.
The NHL still needs to decide what cities will be host cities for the conference portion of the playoffs and then the final. One has to wonder if the current civil unrest is delaying this decision, but that is pure conjecture.
What we do know is how many games each series will have and how the playoff system will go. While there is no format that will make everyone happy, this one will definitely generate the most interest.
In a bracket format, you know your team will play this team or that team. With the re-seeding, if your team wins quickly, you could still have a variety of opponents depending on how the other series turn out.
The more interest the NHL can generate in their product, the better their future financial situation will be. That is good for the sport and for the Blues since they benefit if the league benefits.
Now, we just need the league to agree on a return to practice date.
Update: June 4, 2020, 7:45 p.m.
The NHL has updated plans further. Phase 2 of their reopening will begin June 8.
“Clubs will be permitted to reopen their training facilities in their home city to allow players to participate in individualized training activities (off-ice and on-ice). Players will be participating on a voluntary basis and will be scheduled to small groups (i.e., a maximum of six Players at any one time, plus a limited number of Club staff). The various measures set out in the Phase 2 Protocol are intended to provide players with a safe and controlled environment in which to resume their conditioning. Phase 2 is not a substitute for training camp.
All necessary preparations for Phase 2, including those that require Player participation (education, diagnostic testing, scheduling for medicals, etc.), can begin immediately. The NHL and the NHLPA continue to negotiate over an agreement on the resumption of play.” – NHL PR