Following the Example of the Windies and Cricket, the NHL Returns to Canada

As had been hoped by Canadians and hockey fans around the world, the NHL Stanley Cup will be competed for this year. Hockey is back, and it’s clear that the return of other major sports, namely first-class international cricket, has inspired the NHL’s new format.

The NHL offers a similar degree of international competition as a single test match, with the potential of a Canadian team facing one from the United States. So, it perhaps isn’t surprising that the NHL has planned its big comeback along similar lines to the return of first-class test cricket.

Windies headline cricket’s return

Cricket returned in a big way, with the Windies headlining the sport alongside England to contend for the Wisden Trophy in Southampton and Manchester.

The successful three-match, 15-day series ended up marking the last time that the two teams would battle for the Wisden, with it being renamed the Richards-Botham Trophy, per the BBC, for the next time the two meet in test cricket.

As was to be expected during the British summer, some bad weather had its say during the shortened test series, but it still managed to provide top-class cricket to the fans, got the star players back out on the field, and, most importantly, the precautions proved sufficient.

England and the Windies have laid the template for other sports to follow, with the NHL looking to do so in two Canadian stadiums.

NHL action returns to Canada

The only place that the NHL could return is Canada, with the hockey-loving cities of Toronto and Edmonton selected as the only two host cities for the NHL postseason. The playoffs will take a whole new form, with 24 teams competing and a round-robin and qualifying phase taking place before regular seven-game series.

The top four teams from each conference are guaranteed to feature in the first round (after the round-robin/qualifying stage), as they’ll be playing for seeding. The next eight teams in each conference will face off against their fellow conference clubs in best-of-five series to determine which four teams from each conference will play in the first round.

With so many unknowns going into the restart, ranging from player readiness to potential losses in form, the experts simply don’t know how to call it other than based on specific teams automatically getting to the first round. As shown in the NHL odds, the Boston Bruins are the favorites to win the Stanley Cup at long odds of +550, with the least-favored automatic qualifier, the Dallas Stars, out at +1500 but still eighth overall.

Something unexpected always occurs in the Stanley Cup Playoffs, regardless of which teams had looked the most dominant during the regular season. So, plenty of hockey fans will be looking at talented clubs who fell back a bit in the regular season, like the Florida Panthers at +6000, the Toronto Maple Leafs and Edmonton Oilers at +2500, and the Winnipeg Jets at +5000 to cause an upset.

The fact that the NHL will be staging its playoffs is exciting enough for sports fans, but what makes it even more enticing is that so many teams have a shot at sneaking in and upsetting the perceived favorites.