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NHL gives players OK to return to rinks for voluntary workouts beginning Monday

That comes on the day the league gives more details if it’s able to return with a 24-team postseason plan - and when the Penguins say one of their player tested positive for COVID-19.
 
The NHL announces Thursday, June 4, 2020, that every playoff series will be a best-of-seven following the opening qualifying round if the league is able to return later this summer.
The NHL announces Thursday, June 4, 2020, that every playoff series will be a best-of-seven following the opening qualifying round if the league is able to return later this summer. [ DAVID ZALUBOWSKI | AP ]
Published June 4, 2020|Updated June 5, 2020

The NHL cleared the way Thursday for players to return to practice rinks next week and firmed up its playoff format even as a ninth player tested positive for the coronavirus.

After unveiling the final details of its 24-team plan if the season is able to resume this summer, the league said teams could reopen facilities and players could take part in limited, voluntary workouts beginning Monday. The NHL and the players association must still iron out health and safety protocols before moving ahead with training camps and games.

Players can skate in groups of up to six at a time under Phase 2 of its season restart plan, which includes specific instructions on testing, mask-wearing and temperature checks. It’s another step closer to the ice after the league said if the games resume, every playoff series would be a best-of-seven format after the initial qualifying round and teams would be reseeded throughout.

The announcement came at nearly the same time the Penguins revealed that one of their players had tested positive for the coronavirus. The team said the unidentified player was not in Pittsburgh, was isolated after experiencing symptoms and has recovered.

Of the nine players who are known to have tested positive, five of the others are from the Senators and three from the Avalanche. The league is expected to test players daily if games resume. The NHL is still assessing health and safety protocols for what would be 24 teams playing in two hub cities.

“We still have a lot of things to figure out, namely the safety of the players,” Jets captain Blake Wheeler said this week. “We’ve got to make sure that our safety is at the top of that list. Because we’re a few months into this pandemic, we don’t know what the long-term effects are going to be. A lot of questions to be answered.”

The final details of the playoff format answered one question. Players preferred re-seeding throughout a 24-team playoff as a means of fairness, though the league likes the brackets that have been in place since 2014.

“We prefer as a general matter brackets for a whole host of reasons,” commissioner Gary Bettman said last week. “We’ve told the players who have been debating it internally if they have a preference, we’re happy to abide by it.”

If play resumes, it would start with the bottom eight teams in each conference, by points percentage, would play a qualification round to make the playoffs and the top four teams in the East and West would play separate round-robin tournaments to determine their seeding. Reseeding each round puts more value on the seeding tournaments among Boston, Tampa Bay, Washington and Philadelphia in the East and St. Louis, Colorado, Vegas and Dallas in the West.

“Those games are going to be competitive,” Capitals general manager Brian MacLellan said.

Toronto captain John Tavares, a member of the NHL/NHLPA Return to Play committee, said he preferred the traditional seven-game series once the playoffs were down to the more traditional 16 teams. A majority of players agreed.

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“Everybody is used to a best-of-seven,” Pittsburgh player representative Kris Letang said. “You know how it’s structured. You know how it feels if you lose the first two or you win the first two. You kind of know all the scenarios that can go through a best-of-seven.”

Having each series be best-of-seven would add several days to the schedule to award the Stanley Cup as late as October. But players felt it worth it to maintain the integrity of the playoffs.

“Any team that is going to win five rounds, four rounds of best-of-seven … I think it will be a very worthy Stanley Cup champion and they’ll be as worthy as any team or players that won it before them,” Tavares said.