Teams will play one exhibition match before going into best-of-five qualifiers and top-four seeding round-robinsGETTY IMAGES
The Stanley Cup tournament’s qualifying rounds are "scheduled to begin on July 30 in hub cities that will be selected 'within the next week or so,' according to a directive sent to NHL clubs Friday" and cited by Larry Brooks of the N.Y. POST. Training camp, that had already been scheduled to commence on July 10, will "last approximately two weeks, with clubs scheduled to travel to their respective assigned location on either July 23 or 24." Teams will "play one exhibition match before going into the best-of-five qualifiers and the top-four seeding round-robins." The directive stipulates testing for the coronavirus will be done “every other day for all people entering the facility" (N.Y. POST, 6/21).
LEADING CONTENDERS: In Edmonton, Kurt Leavins reports the two "lead candidates" for Canadian cities vying to be one of the NHL's hubs for the season restart are Vancouver and Edmonton when factoring in "primary public health considerations." Sources in Vancouver over the weekend said that they "believe their city is the front runner." This "could be a little campaigning on their part," but British Columbia's "COVID situation IS the best even though Edmonton checks a lot of boxes." Meanwhile, another "critical item is quality hotel space near arenas." The fact is both Vancouver and Toronto have "more 5-star hotel space within walking distance to their main arenas than Edmonton" (EDMONTON JOURNAL, 6/22). Meanwhile, in Toronto, Kevin McGran wrote his "money is on Toronto for the East and Las Vegas for the West." The league has "offices in Toronto, Sportsnet has its headquarters here, lots of players are from here, lots of hotels, restaurants and practice arenas." The number of COVID cases also are "going down." Las Vegas "will probably get the conference finals and Stanley Cup final" (TORONTO STAR, 6/20).
LOGICAL CHOICE: In Vancouver, Ed Willes writes the city is "one of the two favourites to land a host-city gig." One of the spots is "conceded to Las Vegas," which means Vancouver is "up against Edmonton, Toronto and two unidentified American cities as the other hub." Willes: "We can likely rule out the two American cities." The number of infections in the U.S. "continues to be scary and, with so much at risk, the NHL can't gamble on the second site." Vancouver "hasn't been as enthusiastic but there's a political will behind the bid and given everything else our city offers, to say nothing of its impressive record in fighting this diabolical foe, it just seems like a logical choice." Willes: "The next question is should we be happy about this?" If Edmonton or Toronto want the games "that badly, they can have them" (Vancouver PROVINCE, 6/22).
