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Mark Stone knows what he’s looking forward to the most about the NHL’s postseason format.
“What’s more fun than hanging out with your buddies every day playing hockey?” the Golden Knights winger asked.
That’s basically what the Golden Knights and 23 other teams across the league are embarking on, whether it be for two weeks or two months. Teams depart to their assigned hub city today with the Golden Knights expected to arrive in Edmonton and check into the JW Marriott this afternoon.
Then they’re in the bubble. They’ll be there until they’re eliminated or win the Stanley Cup. They’ll work out, practice, then play at Rogers Place, but that can’t fill the entire time. Since they can’t leave, they’ll need to spend their days somehow.
What will life in the bubble look like? Here’s an idea.
‘Life in the secure zones’
The NHL has been using the term “secure zone” for its bubbles in Edmonton and Toronto, with the idea that everything players need will be available to them in an area that is secluded from the public. The NHL released details this week of the plans and amenities that they have for the players.
The Golden Knights — along with the Blues, Avalanche, Stars, Oilers and Predators — were assigned to the JW Marriott, a hotel connected to Rogers Place by enclosed bridge. The other six teams will stay at the Sutton Place Hotel Edmonton, just a few minutes by foot from the arena. Staff and league officials will stay at Delta Hotels nearby.
Between the hotels, the NHL has arranged for 14 restaurants to be available, including existing establishments and pop-up eateries. Practices will be held at the arena and at Terwillegar Arena, which has four sheets of ice. Among the ice facilities and fitness centers, the 12 teams will have at least 15 places to work out.
Each team will be assigned a meeting room, lounge and suite inside Rogers Place. Teams will also have eight movie theaters, eating areas and lounge spaces available to them to relax. Players will also be permitted to attend other teams’ games.
“I feel like it’s going to be kind of like a youth hockey tournament,” goalie Oscar Dansk said. “Those tournaments we just stayed at the hotel and back and forth to the rink. I love it. I think it’s going to be fun.”
Players will have a concierge service to get them anything they need, and the NHL has worked with local delivery services to ensure food is available whenever players need it.
They’re also going to take daily COVID-19 tests, with the anticipation that results will be available the next day. Since training camps began two weeks ago, the NHL has reported just two positive cases leaguewide.
It was unavoidable to have teams in close proximity to each other, even though they prefer not to inter-mingle. They are all competing for the Stanley Cup against one another, after all.
But players are expected to be mostly around their teammates, which means the Golden Knights are about to get very used to each other, perhaps even moreso than on road trips during the regular season.
“Anytime you can get together with the guys and get back out on the road and have that bonding experience, I think it’s going to be good for us,” defenseman Shea Theodore said. “We’ve spent a lot of time in isolation over the past couple months, so to be able to get back together, it’s going to be fun.”
Many Golden Knights plan on bringing their Xbox, and based on comments from players around the league, Edmonton hotels’ WiFi might need a boost to host all the gaming tournaments.
Several players have said they plan to read during their down time, with defenseman Jon Merrill bringing perhaps the most unique item to help pass the time.
“Maybe an adult coloring book or something like that,” he said. “I’ve been doing so much coloring over the break that it’s a skill of mine that I think I’m going to have to stay on top of.”
What will the games look like?
One of the NHL’s concerns was that without fans in the stands, the 18,000-seat Rogers Place would feel like a cavern. Instead, the league has made it look like a stage, at least in the rendering it provided.
Giant LED screens and banners will fill the space where the audience would be. There will be approximately 32 cameras in the arena, which would be 12 more than normal now that fans are no longer in the way.
That should provide angles not typically seen on broadcasts.
The NHL decided it wanted to make every designated home team fell like they were playing in their own arena to the best of its ability, so they compiled goal horns and songs of every team in addition to in-arena, hype-up videos.
The league also reached out to fans of every team, and plans to pump in sounds of team-specific chants. Be ready to hear, “Go Knights Go,” while watching a Golden Knights game. There will be artificial crowd noise, and the broadcast will be a on a five-second delay to avoid any profanities from players.
“Everything that’s going to be done and seen in the arena will be seen by the audience at home,” NHL chief content officer Steve Mayer said.
Ready to go
It’s been a long road to get to the hubs, and at times, it looked like it might not occur. The fact that it’s even happening is thanks in part to the slow of the coronavirus spread in Edmonton and Toronto.
At one point, Las Vegas was considered the favorite to host the postseason, but the NHL confirmed the recent spike in cases played a factor in shying away from T-Mobile Arena.
“It's not a coincidence that the hub cities are Toronto and Edmonton because of our focus on health and safety and where COVID-19 is and isn't,” commissioner Gary Bettman said.
Bettman called going to the hubs a cause for celebration, and the Golden Knights seem to feel that way too. They haven’t seemed too concerned about going on the road and spending substantial time away from home.
The conference finals and Stanley Cup Final will be hosted at Rogers Place, so if the Golden Knights go all the way, they will spend up to 71 days in Edmonton.
If everything goes right, they won’t be back in Las Vegas for a long time.
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