NHL Cancels Remainder of 2019-20 Regular Season, Return to Play Plan Announced

On Tuesday, the NHL announced multiple things in a virtual press conference with Commissioner Gary Bettman.
First, that if hockey returns this summer it will not include the remainder of regular season games that were on the slate when sports were postponed in early March. 
However, this also meant that if the NHL does resume this summer, it will immediately start with playoffs. These playoffs are a modified version of the current playoff structure that includes teams that were already projected in the 2020 Stanley Cup Playoffs as well as teams that were as many as 4 spots out of the last wild card slot. This would include the Minnesota Wild. 
Based off of the NHL's playoff picture post they made on social media yesterday, that would mean the Wild would play the Vancouver Canucks in a qualifying round matchup that would make the Wild a 10 seed and the Canucks a 7 seed.

Now how would the NHL accomplish this? The current plan, according to Bettman, is to reopen in phases. Phase One being the current phase of announcing their plans, Phase Two would be allowing small group workouts at clubs' training facilities, Phase Three would be a full scale training camp for teams involved, and finally Phase Four would be a full return to the 24-team playoff structure. 
The playoff structure would be played in two "hub" cities. One for the Western Conference, and one for the Eastern Conference. These two cities have yet to be determined, I would assume that would be decided on the condition of the sites once Phase Three is initiated. 
Here are all 10 cities (main arena in parenthesis):
Chicago, Illinois (United Center)
Columbus, Ohio (Nationwide Arena)
Dallas, Texas (American Airlines Center, Comerica Center)
Edmonton, Canada (Rogers Place)
Las Vegas, Nevada (T-Mobile Arena)
Los Angeles, California (Staples Center)
Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania (PPG Paints Arena)
St. Paul, Minnesota (Xcel Energy Center, TRIA Rink)
Toronto, Canada (Scotiabank Arena)
Vancouver, Canada (Rogers Arena)

As you can see both the Wild and Canucks respective arenas are candidates to host the playoffs. I would tend to believe that the Twin Cities are pretty high on that list given the hockey heritage in this entire state, which means attendance would be good no matter if the Wild are there or not, and there are lots of rinks around the cities and the surrounding suburbs. However just because St. Paul is a candidate doesn't mean that the Wild will play here, it could be a host to the Eastern Conference side of the playoffs. This plan is all about the safest return to play possible. 

I really hope they go through with this. I also more then believe that St. Paul is equipped to host such a tournament. This is what Minnesota lives for.

Now on to analyzing the matchup the Wild would potentially have. It would be a five game series of Minnesota vs. Vancouver. Now on paper they look very evenly matched, with the Wild winning the regular season series 2 games to 1. Both of the Wild's wins came 13 days apart back in February. The lone lose of the series was back in St. Paul on January 12th where the Canucks bested the Wild 4-1. The two Wild wins came in both St. Paul and Vancouver. The most recent was the Wild's dad's trip back in mid-February where the Wild won in a shootout 4-3. The other win was on February 6th at Xcel Energy Center where the Wild won 4-2. In my opinion, the Wild have a very fair chance to win this matchup. Two very evenly matched teams, it should be close if the Wild play this right. 

Another advantage of a summer playoff series is that all teams involved should be completely healthy, aside from major injuries. However, this series will not technically count as a playoff series so who knows how we will look at this season, as long is it happens, many years in the future.

Lots of hope floating around in the sports world right now, lets hope it all comes to fruition and the days of shutdown and cancellations are all behind us!

​Go Wild!