The NHL regular season is officially over. With the 2019-2020 season being on hiatus since COVID-19; it has now been deemed complete by the NHL Commissioner, Gary Bettman.
NHL Season and Coronavirus
Since the coronavirus first impacted the sports world; hockey fans have been waiting to see what would happen with the remaining games. To read more about this; be sure to visit our Coronavirus Sports Cancellations post.
Now, that the 2019-2020 regular season is over; the league will transition into a 24 team conference playoff.
NHL Regular Season
With the season final, the league announced its regular-season awards yesterday. So, the following players and teams won:
- First, the Boston Bruins won the President’s Trophy for the leagues best record (44 – 14 – 12 – 100 points, 714 percentage)
- Second, the leading goal scorer was shared by David Pastrnak and Alex Ovechkin who both had 48 goals and shared the Maurice “Rocket” Richard Trophy
- Also, from the Boston Bruins – Tuukka Rask and Jaroslav Halek won the William M Jennings Trophy awarded to the goaltenders of the team that allowed the fewest goals
- Edmonton Oilers forward, Leon Draisaitl won the Art Ross Trophy as the NHL’s leader in points
In addition to the above awards, the Washington Capitals, John Carlson led all defensemen with 75 points, and the Dallas Stars goaltender, Anton Khudobin posted an NHL best of .930 save percentage.
NHL Post Season Plans
So, the Post Season plans are as follows:
- First, there is no date for the return of play
- At the same time, there will be two hub cities for the games. One for the Eastern Conference and one for the Western Conference
- Due to COVID-19, teams will be limited to 50 personnel in their respective hub city. However, a small amount of staff will be allowed into a permitted area of the arena
- Moreover, a comprehensive plan will be in place on COVID-19 testing
Although there is no start date to a return to play; many expect it to be either June or July.
In summary, as soon as more details have been announced; we will be providing the schedule for the games at each conference.