I haven’t written a word about the NHL since the season was stopped in march for COVID-19 because it was impossible to say anything concrete about what was going to happen with the conclusion of the 2019-2020 season. There’s been a lot of behind the scenes action in the last two weeks or so that’s become official. The run for the Stanley Cup is scheduled to start on August 1st. That’s only 2 weeks away.

The pandemic has borked every sport on Earth. Everyone is trying to get the ball running and the NHL is on the cusp of starting play. Training Camps opened on Monday. As for the Rangers, the entire team has been coming back to New York over the last two weeks or so. Because of their standings at the cutoff, they have enough points to enter the Cup Qualifiers with the other 5 bubble teams. August 1st will be the pop off date for the best of 5 series against Carolina. The non-bubble teams that had enough points to make it into the playoffs at the halt of the regular season will play a few round-robin games to establish seeding.

The two hub cities for all games are up North in Toronto and Edmonton. One for the East and West conferences. The Cup Finals will be played in Edmonton.

So now the goal is to keep everyone healthy into the travel date to the Hub City for everyone. Once there, the bubble is made. Players and staff won’t be able to go out much besides the rink and hotel. Family won’t be allowed in until well into the playoffs to keep outside contact to a minimum.

This also means the pressure is on. No one has played a hockey game in more than 4 months. In two months, it’s hit the ice hard or GTFO. This is for the Cup! The teams that can come together the fastest will have a huge advantage. With a best of 5 series to start, the bubble teams have no room for error. Lundqvist has to hit his apex in camp to earn his spot to play over Georgiev (Shesterkin is a shoo-in (skate-in?) to be back up goalie at the very least). The Rangers beat Carolina every game this season but with that momentum gone, it’s anyone’s game. Take a team for granted and you’re going to get beat.

This whole ordeal has spun the finances of the NHL into a black hole. A ton of money has been lost and that makes the payroll cap for every team a huge question mark for the next few years. Right now, the 2020-2021 season is scheduled to start in December. That’s if everything goes well. The NHL is going to be reorganizing things for the next few years so any kind of “normal season” is way down the line. The foreseeable future is going to be an effort in keeping the lights on (many teams make very little profit or operate in the red). Right now we can only hold tight and see what happens. I am so excited for hockey to come back.