Good news, everybody! As the National Hockey League inches along towards the return of actual honest-to-goodness sporting contests, we have definitive progress in town and the next benchmark officially set by the NHL and NHLPA.
Phase 2 is players skating in small groups – six players or fewer – with specific controls designed to limit exposure and potential viral spread of COVID-19. The Flames had been working on the logistics over the past few days and apparently have everything ironed out.
Meanwhile, the start date for training camps is July 10 – provided everything in the NHL markets is sufficiently recovered at that point. It’s worth noting two things:
- The current border closure doesn’t impact people traveling for work, so NHL players will be able to enter Canada or the United States.
- That said, the current 14 day quarantine in Canada remains in effect and clarity on what the NHL can do to facilitate camps in Canadian cities needs to come over the next month.
The NHL needs to hammer out hub city locales next and get clarity from the Canadian government on the quarantine regulations. The Flames, among other Canadian clubs, have kicked tires on holding back in the U.S. rather than Canada due to this uncertainty.
Presuming a three week training camp, we’re looking at early August for Phase 4 (actual hockey) in the hub cities. Presuming the playoffs take two months, that places the Stanley Cup Final in early-to-mid October.
The Flames will play the Winnipeg Jets in the best-of-five qualifying round, with the winner advancing to the 2020 Stanley Cup playoffs.
