OffThePost.org

24-team playoff, 2 host cities. Details to come.

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watching Gary's Return to Play Plan right now

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No AI has been used in the making of this post

The timeline on this is suspect:

3-4 weeks till they pick the hubs
Training camp July

This thing likely won't start till August.

If you're thinking it's cutting close to next season, it's pretty clear they won't play a full season until they can sell tickets, which will likely be 2021.

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Listening to Burkie tonight on Tim and Sid and he seemed to indicate that they wouldn't need that long and that in fact it might be accelerated to 2 weeks instead of 6 weeks.....before play. So we'd be looking at mid-july for everything to start. I also thought that Vegas and Toronto would be the 2 hub cities and that seems to be the obvious choice.

The concern seemed to be the financial implications on Season tickets sales in the United States and perhaps maybe an after thanksgiving start to 2020-2021 season.

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As a Bruins fan I will voice my displeasure at the proposed reseeding of the top 4 in a preplay aspect. I understand the need to give the top 8 teams tuneup games and I understand the league wanting to attach importance to them. I'll take it but I still don't feel like the Bruins should have to play for the top seed after their regular season finish.

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The fucking draft phases. What the fucking fuck is that fucking shit? Holy fuck.

My understanding of it after reading it 3 times and watching it once is "wait and see if it directly impacts your team. If not, don't waste another moment on that shit."

Psyched to see some hockey, whenever it happens.

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Posting your political views on social media is like sticking your head up your ass & whispering: You're just as likely to change someone's mind, and you'll always come out looking like a shithead.

Regarding hub cities, safety should come first and they look at who has the virus most under control. In that sense Toronto and LV would be dumb choice. I'd go Vancouver/Seattle. Both are doing very well regarding the virus. 2hr train trip apart for whenever the time comes to travel to one city or the other. Give attention to the league in a new market. And the Premier and Governor genuinely like each other and would work well with one another to facilitate the leagues needs.

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Shoresy, "It's called a sweater"

This is potential really cool. I imagine that based on number of fans participating it would increase the volume. Perhaps they could even tie into the light banners and make it rapidly change based on feedback.

https://www.theguardian.com/world/2020/ ... y-stadiums

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Shoresy, "It's called a sweater"

The league wants an exemption, or at least a relaxation of quarantine protocols and also don't want to shut down with a positive test. Because of this I have my doubts that Vancouver will be a hub city. To Kyle's point, safety should be a priority for the NHL, but we all know how difficult it is to derive an ought from an is. Public safety is clearly not top of the agenda for the NHL even though they are saying all the right things.

I also heard today that the Canucks will likely carry out their training camp somewhere in the US in order to mitigate time away from their families. What a shit show.

Can we all agree that this was the happiest we've ever been to see Bettman?
Post-lockouts we've hated him, so we weren't really happy to see him. This play stoppage wasn't his fault. So we wanted to see him. Very strange feeling.

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Posting your political views on social media is like sticking your head up your ass & whispering: You're just as likely to change someone's mind, and you'll always come out looking like a shithead.

Guaranteed that someone's gonna play through symptoms, not tell the team and get other people infected.

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Thanks Chuck, E.L. and Harmy!

Anyone want to take bets on the league strong arming Canada into dropping the 2 week quarantine?

I bet you the conversation goes something like this....oh...you want to quarantine everyone for 2 weeks? How about we completely take your game away and play it in US Hub Cities?....that's what I thought.

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Naw. Fuck him. This is still the same guy who doesn't think there's any racism in hockey and concussions don't lead to long-term health issues. The one and only time I was happy to see him was when he was handing the Cup to Joe Sakic. And even then I just wanted him to finish his stupid speech and get the hell out of the way.

EDIT: Sorry...the only TWO times I was happy to see him...

From a pure business viewpoint. They should put both hubs in the states. There is risk that Canada won't open the border. And if the Republican's get their way, they are going to write law that prevents employer's from being sued by employee's for risking them with infection. That should be enough for the NHL to stay south of the border.

I'm just wondering if every player will show up? If I was a player with family I'd probably decide I was going to stay away from my family for for ever long the playoffs last. And would still do two weeks quarantine after. That's a long time apart and would take some pretty serious thought before committing.

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Shoresy, "It's called a sweater"

I'm not saying I like him or anyone else should. I think his own family should find him annoying. I just looked forward to seeing him because it meant a return to hockey. Not sending him an Edible Arrangement any time soon. Unless they come up with a certain flavor....

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Posting your political views on social media is like sticking your head up your ass & whispering: You're just as likely to change someone's mind, and you'll always come out looking like a shithead.

The fact remains the players have already been paid for the year (last pay cheque was issued end of March for player salaries). This means they would be playing for free under more dangerous conditions. And you can rest assured they will attempt to escrow any bonus money paid out for playoffs. I can't imagine that all players would report under these circumstances which could lead to a whole host of new problems.

Read that the league is allowing training facilities to open on June 8th.
And yesterday the Penguins announced that one of their players tested positive.
This will be very interesting!

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Posting your political views on social media is like sticking your head up your ass & whispering: You're just as likely to change someone's mind, and you'll always come out looking like a shithead.

This is effing nuts... A family had a gathering in Vancouver to celebrate a birthday that consisted of 30 family members. That was Friday. By Monday, 15 of them tested positive for COVID-19. This feels all kinds of too soon...

Can they honestly get through the playoffs? I know they will be testing daily, but what if one player on a team tests positive? Its very possible others on that team could get it.

Imagine they somehow make it to the finals and players all of a sudden get covid? Really don't know how this will play out.

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Could you imagine lining up across from Marchand and he licks your face?

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Posting your political views on social media is like sticking your head up your ass & whispering: You're just as likely to change someone's mind, and you'll always come out looking like a shithead.