After reaching an agreement on a 56-game season and releasing a 2021 schedule, perhaps the single most pressing, outstanding business for the NHL to resolve is where its seven Canadian teams will play.
The plan, currently, continues to be centred on an all-Canadian division that would ensure teams do not have to cross the United States-Canada border — which remains closed to all non-essential travel until at least Jan. 21 in an effort to stem the spread of COVID-19. But the logistics of such a plan are complex, requiring sign off from both provincial and city public health authorities.
In a note sent to the league Wednesday, written by Alberta Health chief medical officer Dr. Deena Hinshaw, the provinces detailed what changes were required for them to approve the NHL’s plan.
“Basically what they did is they said two things,” Elliotte Friedman said during a Thursday appearance on Sportsnet 590 THE FAN’s Lead Off show. “Number one: either you increase your testing and maybe don’t do as much travel the first month or, two, go into a bubble and we [the provinces]would like to see a move in either of those two directions.
“The bubble could happen. But the players and the league, it’s not what they want. If these are the only two options, it’s not the option the NHL and the players are going to take. The other option is increase their testing and, again, maybe less cross-province travel at the beginning.”
Right now, the NHL’s testing requirements state that everyone will be tested daily for the first 14 days and for the first month of the season. If family members of players and staff want to be tested, that can also happen upon request.
But scheduling and cross-border travel are harder adjustments to make, given that the NHL has already released its schedule.
“[The letter] is a bit of a step backwards,” Friedman added. “I think the league felt that they had Alberta and Manitoba on board, they were confident things were going to work out with Ontario and Quebec, and they always knew the strictest thing was going to be B.C., and there was the Canadian federal government lurking in the background — even though, technically, it does not have jurisdiction. But this is sort of a united front.
“Somebody had hinted to me in the last week that this could happen. That the stance, particularly the tough stance that B.C. was taking, might embolden everybody to work together. And it appears that’s happening.”
[radioclip id=5028845]If the NHL is able to make the adaptations requested by the provinces, an all-Canadian division would likely be on. Doing so, as Friedman noted, requires flexibility and adaptability on the part of the league — something they have done before during this pandemic.
Prior to the NHL’s return, Vancouver and Vegas were slated to be hub cities before a last-minute change of plans that saw Toronto and Edmonton serve as hub-city hosts.
A hypothetical possibility for how that flexibility could take shape, Friedman noted, would be delaying when Canadian teams start their seasons so as to afford more time for COVID-19 situations to stabilize — however there is no firm confirmation at this time that the league, provinces or players have seriously considered such a delay.
“One thing I kind of wonder about and I’ll ask around on this today is, is there any chance that they could start some of the U.S. games on the 13th, then they can and move Canada back a little bit,” Friedman said.
Another possibility, despite the league’s reluctance, would be to employ a bubble model once more.
If that were to be the case, Edmonton has been talked about as a location.
“It’s interesting that the provinces are presenting the united front,” Friedman said. “I think they’re all they all on a scale of one to 10. One being ‘We’re not as concerned about this’ and 10 being ‘We’re really concerned about this.’ I would have put Alberta closer to one side and B.C. closer to the other as the extremes.
“But it sounds like right now they’ve moved closer together. And maybe it’s true, maybe it’s not, maybe it’s just a negotiating position. But, you know, basically, we’ll see where this goes today because the league is supposed to respond to it today.”
