24 Teams Could Be The New Playoff Standard

We are going to presume that the people who desecrated the Mario Lemieux statue in Pittsburgh on Saturday were not doing so because they hate the NHL’s new postseason system.

But the idea of using “Gary Bettman” and “innovator” in the same sentence has left a number of hockey people protesting the playoff concept. When the commissioner announced that the NHL— the wee, timid mousey of professional sports leagues— would be the first to re-open after the Covid-19 lockdowns there were some who imagined we’d entered a new reality. 

Before the NBA? Before MLB? Before NCAA football? Let’s pinch ourselves.

When, in his almost 30 years as the face of the league, has Bettman ever proposed taking a risk before the other leagues had a chance to test-drive it first? (Okay, Winter Classics, maybe.) He was so slavish in his devotion to the other league’s salary caps that he cancelled an entire season to imitate them.

But here was Bettman last week saying the NHL would show the world how it works when you come off a quarantine. Above the ambient noise of doorbells and his grandson in the next room, a housebound Bettman declared the 2019-2020 season kaput after about 85 percent of the games having been played. Seven teams were going to the EI office, will not pass Go and will not collect $200— until next season. 

The remaining 24 clubs would participate in a gauntlet that leads to the Stanley Cup. None of which will happen before mid-July. And might last till after Canadian Thanksgiving (pushing the next season till maybe the Christmas break.) 

We at IDLM will presume you’ve seen the plans for summer hockey, so we’ll spare you the machinations of play-ins and play-outs. (To say nothing of the NHL’s Rubik Cube draft process.) Suffice to say that some teams will get a bye, others will go bye-bye and the Commish will get his chance to be booed handing out the Cup.

In his grab-bag off announcements Bettman was unable to tell us which two cities will be the “pod cities” for hosting this tournament. Three Canadian cities are on his wish list to accommodate the hundreds of players, staff, referees and the hangers-on. But before anyone gets excited about Vancouver, Edmonton or Toronto hosting these fan-free games, remember that B.C. and Ontario are almost certain to require incoming players to do a 14-day quarantine before they can play.

If you think they might bend a knee to Bettman just re-visit the notorious Trinity-Bellwoods Park incident in Toronto May 23. The sight of under-40s sitting peacefully in the park on a sunny Saturday drove the mayor and his Karen chorus daffy with rage. The sunbathers were stone-cold Grandma and Grandpa killers! Now imagine how sweaty hockey players in August will be received. 

Alberta’s indicating it might be more friendly. But right now the odds are good that this event will probably be in U.S. cities that take a slightly less stringent approach to quarantining. 

The most interesting experiment will be whether a 24-team playoffs (without pod cities) is a viable concept. Many in the NHL have been trying to find a way to expand the most lucrative part of the season (when player contracts don’t apply) for a while now. They see the marketing opportunities for NCAA March Madness or the NFL postseason and say, “Why not us?”

Should all these new five-game play-in series not descend into farce there’s a good chance the league could make some or all of this a permanent postseason format. Why? Ka-ching. 

There are those who will say that eliminating just seven teams makes the regular season a farce. Many of these same people still extoll those lazy-hazy-crazy 21-team days when just five teams were eliminated in the post-WHA period.  Or recall the 1982 playoffs when the L.A. Kings upset Edmonton, a team they finished 48 points behind in the regular season. 

Also of note, Bettman has said  the NHL will play a full schedule in 2020-21, begging the question how he can squeeze the same 82 games into a space that suits a 60-game schedule. The answer might soon be that, with a new playoff series delivering more revenue, the NHL could pare back its regular season to, say, 70 games— a concept discussed in Cap In Hand — while still paying the players the same salaries they see under an 82-game sked.

But that all hinges on how Festival Bettman works out this summer before acres of empty pews. And if 2020 has taught us anything so far it’s that assumptions are for suckers.

Bruce Dowbiggin @dowbboy is the editor of Not The Public Broadcaster (http://www.notthepublicbroadcaster.com). The best-selling author of Cap In Hand is also a regular contributor to Sirius XM Canada Talks Ch. 167. A two-time winner of the Gemini Award as Canada's top television sports broadcaster, his next book Personal Account with Tony Comper will be available on BruceDowbigginBooks.ca this fall.