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New players means new lines - What would you do?


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45 minutes ago, The Chicoutimi Cucumber said:

 

Boy, this raises awkward questions, such as: what is the shortest acceptable NHL season? Given how long the playoffs are, we can't possibly be looking at a very long season given those constraints. (The other option is to shorten the playoffs, either via fewer teams or shorter series, but I doubt they'll countenance that).

 

A normal regular season is six months, so roughly 13.5 games per month. The compressed playoffs this year were about seven weeks, excluding the qualifying round.

 

At the absolute latest, the regular season would need to finish at the end of May in order to leave room for the playoffs. In those five months, you could potentially run a full 82-game season if you optimized travel, but I suspect the end of May is too tight. 60-65 games, maybe even 70, should be quite possible to do, if the teams are willing to accept a heavily compressed schedule.

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56 minutes ago, The Chicoutimi Cucumber said:

 

Boy, this raises awkward questions, such as: what is the shortest acceptable NHL season? Given how long the playoffs are, we can't possibly be looking at a very long season given those constraints. (The other option is to shorten the playoffs, either via fewer teams or shorter series, but I doubt they'll countenance that).

 

55 minutes ago, alfredoh2009 said:

41

 

Based on MLB's 2020 season it would be 30 ... which is of course ridiculous (IMO)

 

I'll agree that 41 sounds right as a minimum

 

Challenge may be how they play it out ... the rumoured  "7 Team Canadian Division" is easy ... 6 games against every other team for 42 ... but getting the other 24 teams to 42 will be some messy/unbalanced scheduling

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4 minutes ago, tomh009 said:

... 60-65 games, maybe even 70, should be quite possible to do, if the teams are willing to accept a heavily compressed schedule.

 

Welcome aboard Jake Allen. 

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1 minute ago, GHT120 said:

 

 

Based on MLB's 2020 season it would be 30 ... which is of course ridiculous (IMO)

 

I'll agree that 41 sounds right as a minimum

 

Challenge may be how they play it out ... the rumoured  "7 Team Canadian Division" is easy ... 6 games against every other team for 42 ... but getting the other 24 teams to 42 will be some messy/unbalanced scheduling

 

6 games against every other team is 36.  You need 7 games... you cant play yourself.

 

The other teams will be in 3 divisions of 8 teams.  6 games against your divisional opponent does it

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1 minute ago, Commandant said:

6 games against every other team is 36.  You need 7 games... you cant play yourself.

 

The other teams will be in 3 divisions of 8 teams.  6 games against your divisional opponent does it

 

That would be a completely segregated schedule. Add in one long road trip across the border to play the other teams, followed by a 14-day quarantine after crossing into Canada?

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1 minute ago, Commandant said:

Any compressed schedule is tough cause without a bubble, there will be covid cases (see nfl and mlb and euro soccer). So contingencies need to be there to reschedule games.

 

Liiga has had a few cases already as well (Karpat and Jukurit).

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18 minutes ago, tomh009 said:

 

That would be a completely segregated schedule. Add in one long road trip across the border to play the other teams, followed by a 14-day quarantine after crossing into Canada?

 

No

 

Like baseball you only play your own division in my schedule.

 

This limits any covid exposures and cross polination if you have to shut down a team or two.

 

42 games... only in your division.  Top 4 in each division make playoffs.  No playing other divisions til final 4.

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31 minutes ago, Commandant said:

 

6 games against every other team is 36.  You need 7 games... you cant play yourself ...

 

YUP ... I can do math ... I just can't always type

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Can they really even do the Olympics?  I think the Olympics is a non-issue because they estimate that over 11 thousand athletes will compete so that would be almost impossible to have a bubble and prevent the spread of Covid. 

 

1 minute ago, The Chicoutimi Cucumber said:

The idea of an all-Canadian division is pretty frigging fabulous, though!

 

Honestly, I have always been highly against the idea of an all Canadian division.  I believe that Bettman has wanted that for a long time but was unable to do it.  An all Canadian division would increase profits for US teams because it would greatly reduce the chance of numerous Canadian teams going deep into the playoffs.  In that scenario, there couldn't be 2 or more Canadian teams in the 3rd round, plus it guarantees that an all Canadian Cup final would be impossible.  I'm definitely against that, plus, I'm concerned if if they do that once, they'll likely try to make it permanent. 

 

 

 

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11 minutes ago, Commandant said:

No

Like baseball you only play your own division in my schedule.

This limits any covid exposures and cross polination if you have to shut down a team or two.

42 games... only in your division.  Top 4 in each division make playoffs.  No playing other divisions til final 4.

 

If you mean "regular" NHL divisions, the border would seem to be an issue ... but  if they re-jig divisions geographically (Canada and three US), I do think measures such as you propose would be necessary ... of course much will depend on whether there can be fans in the stands

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2 minutes ago, Sir_Boagalott said:

Can they really even do the Olympics?  I think the Olympics is a non-issue because they estimate that over 11 thousand athletes will compete so that would be almost impossible to have a bubble and prevent the spread of Covid. 

 

Honestly, I have always been highly against the idea of an all Canadian division.  I believe that Bettman has wanted that for a long time but was unable to do it.  An all Canadian division would increase profits for US teams because it would greatly reduce the chance of numerous Canadian teams going deep into the playoffs.  In that scenario, there couldn't be 2 or more Canadian teams in the 3rd round, plus it guarantees that an all Canadian Cup final would be impossible.  I'm definitely against that, plus, I'm concerned if if they do that once, they'll likely try to make it permanent. 

 

Still too many variables to assess the viability of the Olympics (IMO) ... but I would guess decisions have to be made by end of February

 

A Canadian Division also guarantees three teams in the playoffs every season, maybe four or five ... 

 

 

 

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1 hour ago, GHT120 said:

I'll agree that 41 sounds right as a minimum

 

Challenge may be how they play it out ... the rumoured  "7 Team Canadian Division" is easy ... 6 games against every other team for 42 ... but getting the other 24 teams to 42 will be some messy/unbalanced scheduling

 

It would certainly make it easier for the Habs to get into the playoffs. Four of seven teams would make it in, and the past season the Canadian teams were ranked 12, 13, 17, 19, 20, 24 (us) and 30 overall. Edmonton, in 12th, scored only 12 more points than the Habs.

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15 minutes ago, GHT120 said:

 

Still too many variables to assess the viability of the Olympics (IMO) ... but I would guess decisions have to be made by end of February

 

A Canadian Division also guarantees three teams in the playoffs every season, maybe four or five ... 

 

 

True, but 3 Cdn teams in the playoffs pretty much happens every year without an all Canadian division.  An all Canadian div also guarantees that only 2 Cdn teams make the 2nd round.  Bettman hates when 2 Cdn teams play each other in 2nd rnd because the NHL loses money because US fans dont care to watch 2 Cdn teams play so he'd much prefer a way to make it so that would be impossible and and all Cdn div would prevent that scenario from ever happening.   

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1 hour ago, Sir_Boagalott said:

Can they really even do the Olympics?  I think the Olympics is a non-issue because they estimate that over 11 thousand athletes will compete so that would be almost impossible to have a bubble and prevent the spread of Covid. 

 

 

Honestly, I have always been highly against the idea of an all Canadian division.  I believe that Bettman has wanted that for a long time but was unable to do it.  An all Canadian division would increase profits for US teams because it would greatly reduce the chance of numerous Canadian teams going deep into the playoffs.  In that scenario, there couldn't be 2 or more Canadian teams in the 3rd round, plus it guarantees that an all Canadian Cup final would be impossible.  I'm definitely against that, plus, I'm concerned if if they do that once, they'll likely try to make it permanent. 

 

 

 

 

There is no way they can make an all canadian division permanent.  The travel is a huge problem. 

Its fine for one season due to Covid, but this will never work permanently.  Nor would power brokers like the Bruins, want the Leafs and Habs outside of their division long term. 

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2 hours ago, tomh009 said:

 

That would be a completely segregated schedule. Add in one long road trip across the border to play the other teams, followed by a 14-day quarantine after crossing into Canada?

Compressed schedule would not have any border crossings.  One I read was 60 game season, for Canadian teams would be 10 against each team.  2 games back to back in one location to keep travel costs down.  I think you can get 60 game under those conditions. Other questions are how many of those are without fans? When do you allow fans - under what conditions!  If you allow fans, how many fans do you allow?

Another challenge is going to be salary.  Players have understanding they are being paid for full season, based on the return to play agreement. Some owners want pro-rated.  

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2 hours ago, Sir_Boagalott said:

Can they really even do the Olympics?  I think the Olympics is a non-issue because they estimate that over 11 thousand athletes will compete so that would be almost impossible to have a bubble and prevent the spread of Covid. 

 

 

Honestly, I have always been highly against the idea of an all Canadian division.  I believe that Bettman has wanted that for a long time but was unable to do it.  An all Canadian division would increase profits for US teams because it would greatly reduce the chance of numerous Canadian teams going deep into the playoffs.  In that scenario, there couldn't be 2 or more Canadian teams in the 3rd round, plus it guarantees that an all Canadian Cup final would be impossible.  I'm definitely against that, plus, I'm concerned if if they do that once, they'll likely try to make it permanent. 

 

 

 

I don’t see Olympics, unless they have a vaccine.  Heard some guy trump say there will be one ready by December 🙄

 

I don’t want a Canadian division because if frigggin hockey night in Canada.  It would probably mean even more wall to wall laughs coverage.

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1 hour ago, hab29RETIRED said:

I don’t see Olympics, unless they have a vaccine.  Heard some guy trump say there will be one ready by December 🙄

 

I don’t want a Canadian division because if frigggin hockey night in Canada.  It would probably mean even more wall to wall laughs coverage.

 

They will  most likely have to cancel the Olympics and host it in 2 years and push back the Winter Olympics by 2 as well so that they both dont happen in the same year. 

 

Thats another good argument.  If there is an all Canadian div the east teams would be on a west road trip at same time so it wouldnt be possible to watch numerous Cdn tams play because the games would played simultaneously. 

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1 hour ago, hab29RETIRED said:

Another challenge is going to be salary.  Players have understanding they are being paid for full season, based on the return to play agreement. Some owners want pro-rated.  

 

It's pro-rated automatically because salaries (and caps) are based on hockey revenues. If there are far less revenues, the escrow will bite the players in a big way.

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18 minutes ago, tomh009 said:

 

It's pro-rated automatically because salaries (and caps) are based on hockey revenues. If there are far less revenues, the escrow will bite the players in a big way.

 

I think the new CBA has a cap on escrow, so pro-rating salaries will be an issue. 

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1 hour ago, Commandant said:

 

I think the new CBA has a cap on escrow, so pro-rating salaries will be an issue. 

 

Yeah, that's right, it's 20% max for the 2021 season. Reducing games by 40% (from 82 to ~50) would probably be somewhere around 20% revenue hit based on the experience of the lockout season. The bigger potential hit, though, will come if the teams have to play in front of empty stands or reduced fan capacity.

 

No one really knows at the moment, the numbers are not dropping and the US is in the 60-70K range of new cases per day again. Hopefully mandatory masks will allow games to proceed, at least in Canada.

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1 hour ago, Commandant said:

 

I think the new CBA has a cap on escrow, so pro-rating salaries will be an issue. 

It will be a matter for the NHL and NHLPA to negotiate ... as will all related scheduling and player safety/health issues.

 

When Donald Fehr took over the NHLPA some feared it would be a problem, given his involvement (in one for form or another) with the 80, 81, 85, 90 and 94/95 MLB labour issues ... but it seems the two sides have worked together very well ... think Fehr is a professional and knows he isn't negotiating against a money machine like the NFL or even MLB or the NBA 

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  • 1 month later...
On 10/13/2020 at 9:24 AM, alfredoh2009 said:

I like certain duos and I will be looking for some stability at the start of the season.

Also, I still need to see the kids win more ice time ( “1st” line getting more minutes than “3rd” line):

 

Tatar-Danault-Gallagher

Drouin-Suzuki-Toffoli

Byron-Kotkaniemi-Anderson

Lehkonen-Evans-Armia

 

Chiarot-Weber

Kulak-Petry

Romanov-Edmundson

(Mete-Juulsen)

 

after reading the "2020 Montreal Canadiens Top 25 Under 25" series of articles from Habs Eye On The Prize , I like the line up I proposed a bit more because I think now that Anderson may help KK improve his physical game. Like when Eric Cole played with Patches.

 

 

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