The National Hockey League is working hard at getting a scenario in place in order to restart the season and get games going in safe location to finish the 2019-20 campaign and crown a Stanley Cup winner.
However, the main issue remains safety and picking the right location to make it happen. NHL commissioner Gary Bettman said there is the possibility of multiple games being played per day in two or “as many as four” NHL cities, and talks are getting louder on some preferred locations for action to resume.
The Arizona Coyotes and the Minnesota Wild are believed to be in touch with the league to host games. It has also been revealed that only two Canadian cities are in the mix to be host in the event of a centralized restart.
On Thursday night on TSN’s Insider Trading, Pierre LeBrun went on to explain which cities are in the mix, based on some clever reporting by colleague Frank Seravalli.
“So what I was told today further to Frank’s excellent reporting, is that the NHL is in the process of vetting 12 NHL cities right now. And they’re not going to zero down to four really until the last moment. And the
reason for that is obvious. They don’t know right now where the hotspots are going to be in terms of where this pandemic heads a couple of months from now when they hope to return to the ice. So they’re going to look at
all of these cities. Get them all ready to go. And then at some point cut that list down. But because of that, guys, you’re going to hear a lot of different cities thrown out there as being part of this group. And they are, but it doesn’t mean they’ll make the cut at the end of the day. Yes, Toronto and Edmonton, as Frank mentioned, Dallas, Pittsburgh, Minnesota and Columbus [are] all part of that list of 12, I’m told. And when you get to the
playoffs, it might be four in the opening round, down to two in the second round and down to one perhaps for the final rounds. All ideas that can change, but that’s the plan at this point.”
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