Montreal Canadiens: NHL Need To Give All Teams a Chance at 2020 Stanley Cup

The Montreal Canadiens were not going to make the 2020 postseason. If the NHL returns to action this season, they need to give all 31 teams a chance at the 2020 Stanley Cup.

The Montreal Canadiens were the definition of mediocrity in the 2019-20 NHL season. They had some stretched of great play, and some lengthy stretches of abysmal performance, but mostly just hung around the middle of the pack in the standings.

After playing 71 games this season, they had a record of 31-31-9 which gave them 71 points in the standings. In the 31 team league, the Canadiens record placed them 24th when the NHL hit the pause button in March. Had the season been able to continue like usual, the Habs season would have finished in early April and the second round of the playoffs would be underway right now.

However, we all know we are living in uncertain times at the moment, and the NHL is trying to figure out not only how to close out the season and run a postseason, but if it is even possible to do so safely.

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Ensuring safety is obviously the number one priority, but it will make a return to action a longer process. Players will have to return to their club cities from all over the world and will then need to be quarantined for at least two weeks. Then they would need to go through some sort of a training camp and exhibition games before playing any games that matter.

A couple of Montreal Canadiens players have weighed in on going through that process lately, and it doesn’t make a lot of sense. At least not for teams that are going to miss the playoffs anyway.

Imagine Habs players leaving their family behind when they are still on lockdown, going through a two week quarantine period in Montreal, a three week training camp, and then three more weeks of regular season games to close out their regular season schedule, knowing the whole time they have zero chance of making the playoffs.

Why would a player even want to do that? The pay? They only have one payday left that is up in the air at this point. Would Carey Price really go through about two months away from his young family to collect his final pay?

I don’t know. I can’t speak for individual players, but I wouldn’t be surprised if many of them, especially those who are among the highest paid players in the league, told the team to keep the money so they could stay home. Why not? Would it really be worth eight weeks of their life to get all geared up like they are preparing for a new season, while knowing they have 11 meaningless games to suit up for?

No. It doesn’t make sense. So what is the league going to do if half the Canadiens players, as well as the other teams far from the postseason, decide not to come back for the final handful of games? Do you think Jimmy Howard wants to continue his season with his current record of 2-23-2 with the Detroit Red Wings who were pretty much eliminated from the playoffs in November?

The league has stated several times they still want to finish the regular season. But they are going to need to give even the worst teams, like the Red Wings, something to play for. There is no incentive for Red Wings players to spend weeks of quarantine and training camp just to finish off one of the worst seasons we have seen in decades.

So, what can the league do to ensure every team has a reason to go through a May training camp to gear up for the rest of the 2019-20 season? They have to extend the playoffs. Not just to include more teams, or most teams, but they need to extend the postseason to include every single team. Otherwise, teams that know they have nothing to play for may not play at all.

What does a playoff look like that includes every single team in the league? Well, there are 31 teams in the NHL. If there were 32, it would be perfect as you could just do five rounds of series instead of four. So, with 31 teams, you would have to give one team a bye through to the second round.

The team that deserves the bye the most is the Boston Bruins since they are leading the NHL with 100 points right now. However, there are eight teams in each division, except for the Central Division. Things would work easier if the top team in the Central was given a direct path to the second round. That team just so happens to be the defending Stanley Cup champion St. Louis Blues, so it is kind of fitting that the defending champs would get the extra time off.

To save time, the league could tear up the schedule with the remaining regular season games and jump straight to the first round of the playoffs that would include 30 teams. They could also toss out the idea of wildcard berths and just have teams stay inside their own division.

Yes, it would be goofy that the Detroit Red Wings would make the playoffs with their 17-49-5 record, but they would face the Bruins in the first round, who are 61 points ahead of them in the standings. However, it would give those Red Wings players a reason to go through the lengthy process to get back to action.

More importantly, it would give all 31 fan bases in the league something to look forward to and cheer for during these uncertain times. Surely, fans of the Red Wings, and even Canadiens, had accepted the reality that there wouldn’t be playoff hockey this year before the league went on hiatus.

However, if the league were to come back and go straight to a postseason with 16 teams, it wouldn’t be fair to the 17th team who had a very realistic chance of qualifying had the regular season finished. Expanding to 24 teams would be great as it includes more teams, but it isn’t really fair to allow the 24th team a chance at the playoffs and not the 25th.

The only way to make every fan happy is to include all 31 teams in the first ever postseason that has five rounds of series. Even the lowliest of teams would have some hope. And wouldn’t that be terrific after at least two months of uncertainty?

The NHL has a chance to put a smile on every hockey fan in the world’s face. They need to strongly consider a 31 team postseason to crown a 2020 Stanley Cup champion.