‘Zero percent chance’ season can be saved, says Lehner

Who feels more optimistic?

HockeyFeed
HockeyFeed
Published 4 years ago
‘Zero percent chance’ season can be saved, says Lehner
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Over the past two weeks we, as hockey fans, have heard a lot of crazy proposals to save the 2019-20 NHL season. Cancel the regular season and start the Stanley Cup playoffs as soon as possible, have a 31 team playoff format, resume play in June and play right up until September training camp. These are just a few examples, but some wonder if we should just throw in the towel and focus on next season without crowning anyone champion this time around.

That’s what Vegas Golden Knights goalie Robin Lehner believes will happen. The netminder is pessimistic about the NHL’s chances of resuming play this season and explained his reasoning to Swedish outlet Expressen on Thursday, as translated by The Athletic’s Jesse Granger. 

“No, I don’t think it is possible to shut down and then run again when you have 100,000 cases of the coronavirus. Safety goes first,” Lehner  said. 

“You can’t turn 180 degrees and start playing again,” he continued. “I see a zero percent chance that you can save this season. Now I hope that next season can start as usual in October.”


We still don’t know what the league will decide to do, however, if they decided to head into the playoffs when play resumes, Lehner will have a chance to stand between the pipes again in 2019-20. Vegas sat first in the Pacific Division when the NHL suspended its season on March 12.

It has been reported that the league has asked teams about arena availabilities in August. However, the NHL doesn’t want a late resumption to interfere with the 2020-21 campaign.

Who is as pessimistic as Lehner is?