NHL Hockey

Bettman raises chance of NHL not completing regular season

(AP Photo/Stephen B. Morton, File)


AP Hockey Writers





"The best thing and the easiest thing would be if at some point we could complete the regular season and then go into the playoffs as we normally do," he said. "We understand that may not be possible. And that's why we're considering every conceivable alternative to deal with whatever the eventuality is."


The 16-team playoffs were scheduled to open Wednesday, though they likely won't begin until late June - at the earliest - and could stretch into August and potentially September.



The NHL has not placed a firm deadline on the latest when the playoffs could start. Deputy Commissioner Bill Daly, however, acknowledged in an email to The Associated Press the league will eventually have to establish "some last possible day" so not to cut into the start of the following season.

"It's nothing that we are even close to setting at this point in time," he wrote.


"There's a lot of games (left) and we're right in the mix, and we have the opportunity to be in there," Bobrovsky said. "The season is 82 games and then the playoffs. So you can't just cut of where we are and jump right into the playoffs."

The possibility of playing at neutral sites is being considered because the pandemic is affecting regions at different times. North Dakota, among a handful of states without stay-at-home orders, was mentioned as a potential site because the state isn't densely populated and the University of North Dakota features an NHL-caliber facility.



"Look, we all want to get back to playing," Krug said.

"If we do have the opportunity to get back to playing, let's be safe about it and be smart," he added. "No one wants to jump back into a situation where we put a bunch of people in one area, and all of a sudden this thing takes off again."

Bettman sees the potential of games being played into the summer and doesn't expect the ability to maintain NHL-caliber ice sheets to be an issue because of the league's modern and air-conditioned facilities.



Updated April 7, 2020

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