Marvin

If they keep the season at 82 games, then this works with level scheduling. Schedule 1: 2 conferences x 4 divisions / conference x 4 teams / division. 16 teams outside of conference x 1 game / team + 12 teams in conference outside the division x 4 games / team + 3 teams in division x 6 games / team = 16 + 48 +18 = 82. Schedule 2: 2 conferences x 2 division / conference x 2 groups / division x 4 teams / group 16 teams outside of conference x 2 games / team + 8 teams in conference outside of division x 2 games / team + 4 teams in division outside of group x 4 games / team + 3 teams in division x 6 games / team = 32 + 16 + 16 + 18 = 82

Carnac, the Magnificent!

https://theahl.com/2020-21-start-date-moved-feb-5

Just musing: I am very thankful to Josh Allen that when I think of Bills QB's wearing #17, I no longer conjure up Gary Marangi.

I've been explaining to my nieces and nephews that this is what 1988-96 felt like. You just believed they would go out there and win somehow.

Why? Given the usual tone on some topics from some posters, I can see how you interpreted the discussion here.

Oh, good. The end of my withdrawal symptoms.

I think they will want teams to socially distance. IMHO, teams should have players socially distance and wear masks on team flights and then have 1 player per room in the hotel to slow the spread of any infection. Maybe team meals should be where the air is getting pulled upward from the table. Honestly, this goes hand-in-hand with the 30 player teams with 10 Preston Ridlehubers. As for scheduling, let us work backwards. The Olympics begin on Friday 23 July 2021. So the playoffs have to end by, say, Saturday 17 July. We assume 8 weeks for a normal set of playoffs. That backs us up to 23 May. 56 games in the normal density of an 82 game season is 17-18 weeks (a shade over 3 games each week; this would include 1 "off" week.). That backs up to at most 17 January. You can have the off-week or off-half-week to be at the end of the season. I also project a lot of "double headers", where teams play 2 games in 24-48 hours each time. So you could arrange a lot of "dead spots" in each team's schedule to postpone a set of games when there needs to be. For reference, if the season were 48 games, then the season could take 14-15 weeks. This puts the start of the season at 14 February at the latest if there is no "off" week. That seems chancy.

I say this about Australian Ruled Football. Thanks for the reference. Sadly, there is a lot of truth to this. Honestly, I find traditions like this invigourating. It's like the handshake at the end of a playoff series in the NHL. Let me turn this around: how do you think other countries reacted to the early Gatorade baths? They thought it was nuts.

This is where I am. I would expect us to make the playoffs if we had the normal alignments. With the divisions as projected without non-divisional play, we have to hope that a couple of teams drop off as well as our major questions (goaltending beyond Ullmark, scoring depth, and the defencive jumble) have to be answered positively.

People are on fire in this thread. 😆

Wow. You are right -- it is really that tiresome.

Just wondering -- considering the 2 week isolation protocol, is it not unrealistic to expect trades between Canadian and American teams?

Every top school in every Power 5 conference has at least one case of academic fraud which I know of where I personally know the person who was forced to accede it. Granted my information is old and that, I imagine, many institutions probably cleaned up at least a bit after the UNC scandal, but I know that you are incontrovertibly wrong.

Trust me -- that is not a problem at UM.

This can not be understated. The boosters at Big 10 schools have way too much sway over the big sports teams and the academics. (I would bet it is just as bad in other major conferences.) Moreover,UM's pride in its football programme is as over-the-top as UNC's about its basketball programme.

3rd wave. And we are in the flu season now.

They had 16 teams with both lockouts; I can't think of a reason not to go with 16 this time. Given the travel restrictions, do we assume there will be an all-Canadian division? Many parts of the US are getting worse with COVID-19.

What were the salary cap rules for the 48 game seasons? Weren't those pro-rated by games played? Why would an abbreviated season now be any different?

Thank you very much, Dudacek.

Which Carry On: Sergeant, Nurse, Teacher, Constable, Regardless, Cruising, Cabby, Jack, Spying, Cowboy. Screaming, Don't Lose Your Head, Follow that Camel, Doctor, Up the Khyber, Camping, Again Doctor, Up the Jungle, Loving, Henry, At Your Convenience, Matron, Abroad, Girls, Dick, Behind, England, Emmanuel, or Columbus?

From the perspectives of logistics and minimising travel expenses while maximising opponents, the best idea is to rotate bubbles in the regular season. For divisions, I think there will be 3 in the US. Based on geography, they need to work from west to east and south to north. Here, the first two rounds of the playoffs are strictly divisional. But we can make other systems work. The playoffs for 4 divisions could start with 1-3 in each division with the #2 teams meeting by geography. The second round could be 1-6, 2-5, and 3-4. Another option is to have 2 divisions where the playoffs have round 1 in each division be 1-6, 2-5, and 3-4 but round 2 is the old cross-over system where the lowest remaining team in one division plays the highest in the other while the middle teams meet. Lastly, one mammoth 24 team division just takes the top 12 and does the usual divisional playoff thing for two rounds.

Hmm. I LOVE Sandanista!!. But I have quite a few other options. Prince has numerous contenders, not the least of which are 1999 and Sign o' the Times. Punk had the Violent Femmes' debut just for a start. Kraftwerk innovated with Computer World. Bob Marley and the Wailers brought us Uprising. ABBA signed off with The Visitors and their spare singles. New Wave can put forth The Cure's Disintegration for starters. Hip Hip brought us two all-time greats in NWA's Straight Outta Compton and Public Enemy's It Takes a Nation of Millions to Hold Us Back. I think Reba McEntire's Sweet Sixteen was the best Country album of the 1980's. I missed Peter Gabriel, Pet Shop Boys, Kate Bush, Whodini, etc.

What do you think of the following analysis? Most seasons begin in early October and end in early April -- 82 games in 27 weeks. They then have playoffs from early-mid April to early-mid June -- a maximum of 28 games in 9 weeks. Abbreviated seasons were 48 games to finish the playoffs by the same mid-June deadline; they started towards the end of January. The league will want full if not expanded playoffs. Based on the current trajectory, COVID-19 will not be controlled well enough in the US for it to be practical for teams teams to change countries during the season. Based on these, I feel safe making the following assumptions I assume that the NHL wants the Cup awarded before the 2020 Olympics, which are slated to start 23 July 2021. The NHL might run until, say 21 July 2021. The Canadian teams will be their own division. I expect the season and the playoffs to be compressed with less travel. Teams that missed the playoffs will only get 2 of the 4 weeks they were promised to start the season Most games will be divisional for US teams, but there will be cross-divisional games. The conclusions I get are The season will be 60 games US 3 divisions x 8 teams / division 2 games / team out of division x 16 teams out of division + 4 games / team in division x 7 other teams in division - 32 + 28 = 60 game season Canada 10 games against the 6 other teams = 60 games This probably takes 4 months (120 days), which is typical for this scenario. If there is US travel, there will probably be rotating hubs for inter-divisional games to clear out those games quickly. Divisional games will have similar hub set-ups. To simplify logistics, the inter-divisional games will be in blocks. For example, although there are better methods, you can have 8 hubs with 1 team from each division in them play all 2 x C( 3, 2 ) = 6 inter-divisional games involving the teams in one fell swoop. I personally would want 2 blocks of games for divisional games. This blends well with some of the "better methods" I just mentioned. Playoffs will be strictly divisional with no crossover Maybe they will have expanded playoffs to recover revenue from the abbreviated season. If they don't care about the Olympics, there is nothing stopping a full season and playoffs.

According to my sister (she is with a company working on treatments and recovery from COVID-19 rather than vaccines), Dry Ice prices are through the roof because Moderna's and Pfizer's vaccines need the extreme cold.