Holiday camp for the well-off?

While some ice hockey leagues in Europe are cautiously preparing for the 2020/21 season, it will soon be "play-off time" in the National Hockey League: the season, interrupted by coronavirus on 11 March, is set to resume on 1 August.

As in the NBA, the entire league is retreating into two "bubbles" (Edmonton and Toronto), where it aims to isolate itself from the outside world as effectively as possible and thus prevent further coronavirus cases. The playing format on the road to the Stanley Cup is also unusual due to the pandemic.

LAOLA1 expert Bernd Freimüller takes a look at the almost surreal rules and conditions. The top four teams in each Conference (standings based on points per game when the season was halted) are guaranteed a play-off spot. In the East, Boston, Tampa Bay, Washington and Philadelphia (Michael Raffl) will play a tournament among themselves to determine their positions for the actual final round.

The same applies to St. Louis, Colorado, Las Vegas and Dallas from the Western Conference. The remaining 16 teams will face each other in best-of-five "Qualifier Games" series – with eight teams each in the East and West.

The round of sixteen will then follow, again involving 16 teams. The match-ups will be determined within the Conferences, with the best team from the Round Robin facing the lowest-ranked Qualifier winner from its own Conference according to regular-season percentage. These series, as well as those that follow through to the final, will be played in a best-of-seven format.

If all goes well, the Stanley Cup winner should be decided by 4 October at the latest, with all games statistically counted as play-off games. In the days leading up to 1 August, each team will play a warm-up game. Also of interest: while the Maple Leafs and Oilers will play in their usual home arenas, they will not have a home advantage when it comes to dressing rooms.