One of the most interesting items in the 21-page Phase 2 document of the Return To Play project issued by both the NHL and NHLPA on Monday was this:
Players are being informed that they can use an NHL facility in the area where they reside even if they don’t play for that NHL team.
When it comes to Edmonton, that could be a bunch of interesting combinations of six-pack gatherings.
And if Rogers Place becomes an NHL hub, there will be no lack of them returning from training camps with their teams to set up for up to two months of playoff games here.
Consider the list.
From the area are: Jay Bouwmeester (St. Louis), Kevin Connauton (Colorado), Kirby Dach (Chicago), Deryk Engelland (Vegas), Taylor Fedun (Dallas), Nick Holden (Vegas), Tyson Jost (Colorado), Bryan Little (Winnipeg), Colton Parayko (St. Louis), Jared Spurgeon (Minnesota) and Carson Soucy (Minnesota).
And that’s just the Western Conference.
From the Eastern Conference, there would be a similarly long list.
Edmonton-and-area products include: Nicolas Aube-Kubel (Philadelphia), Johnny Boychuk (N.Y. Islanders), Jake DeBrusk (Boston), Brendan Gallagher (Montreal), Carter Hart (Philadelphia), Braden Holtby (Washington), Brett Kulak (Montreal), Riley Nash (Columbus), Mark Pysyk (Florida) and Colton Sceviour (Florida).
You could probably add a couple more pods of local players who will be brought up from the minors to be Black Aces for the 24 teams in the playoffs.
And what about the 25 guys from Saskatchewan? Their COVID-19 numbers on the flatlands are even lower than in Edmonton, where the city of 1.3 million was down to six positive tests from 5,756 tests in the last nine days with only 55 remaining active cases, five citizens remaining in hospital and one remaining in intensive care.
It might make a whole lot of sense to any of those guys who went home to Saskatchewan for the pause to stay away from some of their U.S.-based cities with their still escalating situations and abundance of COVIDiots ignoring social distancing.
And what about the 182 active Ontario-born players in the NHL, not all of whom are in the playoffs, one of whom is emergency back-up goaltender David Ayers?
If they all decided to make use of the Maple Leafs facilities, you’d have to put everybody on a round-the-clock schedule.
It’s normal for Edmonton-area players to prepare for training camps in camps arranged by Perry Pearn. But the teams may frown on it heading directly into the playoffs. Then again, it’s another case to be made for Edmonton to be made a hub city.
The NHL players from here wouldn’t even have to cross paths with an Oiler if the home team used the ice at Rogers Place, which is now being put back in with anticipation of being required soon, and the players from other teams could use the practice rink that is a built-in part of the facility.
Whatever, it’s not a problem the Golden Knights would have with all those players in the league from Nevada.
There are no lack of rules and regulations involved in Phase 2. On the ice, players will have to remain six feet apart with no physical contact and be required to shower at home.
Prohibited from entering the team facilities during Phase 2 will be media, coaches and management, agents, massage therapists, chiropractors, player-performance personnel, family members or anybody else other than the Zamboni driver.
The five or six-player pods must be maintained through the entire duration of Phase 2, complete with daily testing just to gain admission to the facility.
The document reveals that there will be a requirement for each player taking part to be tested 48 hours prior to reporting to each facility and to be tested twice a week.
One glance at the document and it’s obvious the work that has gone into it and the input from health authorities.
Before a guy can even skate, he must have a swab inserted four centimetres up his nose. And daily, at the door, will be temperature and symptom checks.
The player skating opportunity would be voluntary and the instructions for dressing room sterilization and keeping players from each pod separated is substantial.
You can imagine how many pages the document might be for training camps in Phase 3 and actual games in Phase 4.
Reports suggest Phase 2 could kick in as early as next week, but there would be no time outline past that or decisions on hub cities or interaction with player families, the extent the players would be restricted to their hotels and the answers to about a hundred questions the playoff players will need to have answered.
There are a lot of devils in the details to be dealt with before you see a puck dropped. It kind of makes you wonder if this will all be worth it.
A half dozen or so positive tests and everybody goes home.
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On Twitter: @ByTerryJones
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