Edmonton and Toronto likely to be NHL hub cities
It was just a few short weeks ago that National Hockey League commissioner Gary Bettman announced the NHL’s plans to return to action and begin play again. The league has been suspended since mid-March due to the COVID-19 pandemic, but never gave up hope on being able to award the prestigious Stanley Cup this year. Much like the National Basketball Association and Major League Soccer, the league’s re-start plan includes playing all games in hub cities to avoid unnecessary travel and mandatory quarantine periods.
On Wednesday, the plan became a little bit clearer as TSN’s Bob McKenzie broke the news that Edmonton and Toronto had become the league’s focus in where games would be played. The league had been looking at several options, but it was believed they had narrowed down the list to Chicago, Edmonton, Las Vegas, Los Angeles and Toronto. Now, it appears the two cities have been chosen. Nothing can be made official though until the players vote on the proposal which is expected to take place later in the week.
Las Vegas was a strong candidate to host games up until last week, but a recent spike in COVID-19 cases across Nevada and the United States had the league deciding to go against playing games in the country at all. Instead, electing to go with what they believe is the safest route possible – playing out the remainder of the games North of the boarder in Canada. The NHL does not want to take any chances with safety considering several players have already expressed their scepticism about returning to play, regardless of what city the games will be held in.
The NHL had also been looking at Columbus, Dallas, Minneapolis/St. Paul, Pittsburgh and Vancouver, but it had been reported that they had all already been eliminated from contention. Along with Las Vegas, Vancouver was the favourite to host games as well according to McKenzie, but the city was not happy with the league’s protocol on testing. They opted to withdraw themselves from contention altogether.
Playing games in Edmonton and Toronto provides a hub city for both the Western Conference and Eastern Conference in a time zone that is convenient and familiar to local markets. Fans will not be allowed to attend games anyways, so there should be no real home ice advantage regardless of what cities the games are held in.
The Toronto Maple Leafs are the eight seed in the Eastern Conference and are scheduled to take on the Columbus Blue Jackets in the play-in round best-of-five series while the Edmonton Oilers are the fifth seed in the Western Conference and will take on the Chicago Blackhawks in their opening best-of-five series.
Toronto has not hoisted the Stanley Cup since 1967 – a 51 season drought that remains the longest active streak in the NHL today. Edmonton hasn’t won a Stanley Cup since Mark Messier led them to glory during the 1989-90 season – a drought of 28 seasons. The Montreal Canadians were the last Canadian team to win the NHL’s most important trophy and that was back in 1993 when they defeated Wayne Gretzky’s Los Angeles Kings in the finals.
