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NHL Announces Return To Play Plan - wgbh.org

It was just a year ago that the Boston Bruins were gearing up for the Stanley Cup Final.

A lot has changed in that time. For over two months, hockey has been sidelined as the NHL and other leagues have been paused by the coronavirus pandemic.

But on Tuesday, NHL commissioner Gary Bettman announced return to play plans for the league, giving at least a spark of hope to fans. The plan has been approved by the NHL's Board of Governors and the National Hockey League Players' Association.

Here's the breakdown: The NHL will take the top 12 teams from each conference based on points percentage and include them in a 24-team playoff. (The Bruins, who were at the top of the Eastern Conference when play officially paused on March 12, will be included.) The regular season has been declared concluded.

Each conference will get a "hub city" with hotels, arenas, practicie facilities and transportation where teams will compete.

There is a list of ten sites that the league will choose from for the hub cities, but Boston is not among those being considered. As of right now, the NHL has not announced which will be selected.

"Things are evolving rapidly and when we decide on locations, we want it to be on the best availabe information at the time that we need to make that determination," Bettman said.

Bettman said the final determination will depend on COVID-19 conditions, testing availibility and government regulations. Each team will be limited to 50 personnel in the hub cities and there will be comprehensive testing in each city.

The format for the games will include a Round Robin among the top four teams of each conference to determine first-round seeding. For the Bruins, that would mean facing off against the Tampa Bay Lightning, Washington Capitals and Philadelphia Flyers.

The remaining eight teams in each conference will play a qualifying round of best-of-five series to determine who gets to go on to the first-round. Think of it like a play in.

The first and second round of the Stanley Cup Playoffs, with formats and series length that have yet to be decided, will then be followed by the conference finals and Stanley Cup Final. The sites for the conference finals and Stanley Cup Final haven't been determined, but Bettman said that based on what the league knows right now they expect those series to be played in one of the two hub cities.

Bettman said the NHL believes the qualifying and first two-round of the playoffs can be completed in little over a month.

Typically the NHL postseason only includes 16 teams. Bettman said the league has constructed a plan that included all teams that might have had a chance of qualifying for the playoffs when the season was paused.

"And this plan will produce a worthy Stanley Cup champion who will have run a postseason gauntlet that is unique to the NHL," he said.

Right now, the NHL is still in its first phase of return-to-play: teams self-isolating as much as possible.

In early June, the plan is for Phase Two to start and teams are expected to be permitted to return to their facilities for voluntary, small group training.

Next comes Phase Three, which won't happen earlier than the first half of July, when formal training camps will begin following guidance from medical and civil authorities.

Then comes Phase Four, return to play, which has yet to receive a date.

It's an ambitious plan and one that is yet to be set in stone. Bettman said the league won't set dates, choose sites or begin to play until it is appropriate, prudent and approved to do so.

But the announcement gives some light at the end of a long hockey tunnel, if it can be carried out.

"I know I join sports fans everywhere when we say we cannot wait for our players to hit the ice again," he said. "And I look forward to the greatest privilege of all: presenting the most storied and coveted trophy in all of sports to the captain of the 2019-20 Stanely Cup champions."

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