Predictions for a pandemic playoff

Expect the expected?

We’ve had mid- and off-season pro sports stoppages before but, like everything C-19, nothing like this. Be it asterisks, distancing, bubbles… every buzz word (or ‘trending tag’ for the marketing-inclined) of the sports talk world has been explored to the nth degree. So, if we’ve already seen Dr. Strange-level 14 billion scenarios exercise, well, why not 14b +1?

A decrease in fighting

Let’s start with an easy one; after all, stats don’t lie: fighting’s on the decline and virtually disappears in the playoffs. Throw in a more subdued atmosphere sans fans and I wouldn’t be shocked to see single-digits ‘bouts throughout the entirety of these playoffs.

Upsets early…

The randomness and brevity of the opening rounds is going to exacerbate the already chaotic nature of opening round playoff hockey. While the talent disparity of the stars on better teams might allow them to steal a game or two, particularly by capitalizing on power plays, I suspect this will be outweighed by defensively-minded teams getting into a rhythm more quickly. It’s much easier for the troops to get in sync in such simpler systems, which are typically employed by the less skillful teams. Think Columbus, Carolina, the Isles, and Preds as standing to benefit.

Side bonus? We won’t have long to wait to pepper our surround systems with the many echos of bangs, pings, and whistles of errant shots, posts, and icing and offside calls.

… favourites later

Once teams get into grooves, the time off should strongly favour the rest and wisdom afforded older, battle-tested teams (and coaching staffs). Assuming survival post-opening silo launches, the Caps, B’s, Pens, Knights, and Blues are primed to collect a boatload of loyalty points from the Marriott, Sutton, and apropos-named Hotel X.

The ‘hot goalie’ wildcard is the most valuable card in the deck

As goalies have morphed into the running backs of the NHL (i.e. system-based stars with flattened talent levels), teams whose goalies get into game shape quickly stand to come out of the opening roads well-positioned. If you like how your goalie typically plays in October, you should this August.

A recipe for injury

Ingredients:

• 4 months rustiness
• 2 weeks rushed return
• 2x dosage of playoff intensity
• chaos (to taste)

Instructions:

Mix the above and freeze for 60 min for a delicious casserole of collateral damage.

Quick hits (read: non-issues)

• Tanking? Ridiculous notion: too much pride (yes, even for the Habs)
• Ice quality? No worse than any previous finals
• Mic-ed up players/coaches? Only of concern to the ‘bleep!’ police
• Betting lines? Only of concern to the bleep! foolish!

My pick?

While one Russian machine did break, their #2 is still #6, and they’ve got #8. In a match-up of our last 2 champs, I’ll take the red pill over the blue, Morpheus (i.e. Caps over Blues).