NHL is hoping for playoffs while also maintaining 82-game schedule in 2020-21

This morning, Pierre LeBrun posted a couple of tweets to point out a couple of items from his interview with deputy commissioner Bill Daly regarding the future of the NHL as it pertains to trying to make something work for this year’s playoffs while also looking ahead at the 2020-21 season.

Over the past couple of days, both the NHL and players have offered some different ideas on what the playoffs might look like for the 2019-20 season (provided that it’s even possible), and today we heard a little bit about some of the plans for next year. In the interview with Pierre LeBrun, Bill Daly advised that the goal, regardless of what happens with the 2019-20 season, is to have an 82-game schedule for next year. How that would look, obviously, remains unclear, especially if the plan (read: hope) is to finish up this current season during the summer.

From both a league and player standpoint, some major compromises and concessions are going to have to be tabled and accepted if any plan is going to work out be it this season or beyond, and it will be interesting to see how this actually plays out in time. As someone that relies on sports for both entertainment and employment, having hockey come back as quickly (and safely) as possible would be a miracle for so many of us, but I also understand how this ranks low on the scale of overall priorities right now. If I’m being honest, despite my more sincerest hope that we will see hockey again in 2020, it’s starting to look more like that won’t be until September when the next season is supposed to kick off. I hope I’m wrong.