The Blackhawks will face the Edmonton Oilers in a best-of-five play-in series.
In a televised special on Tuesday afternoon, NHL commissioner Gary Bettman announced that the return-to-play plan and 2019-20 regular season are both officially complete. Bettman also stated that the 24-team playoff format is now official, which means the Chicago Blackhawks’ three-year postseason drought is now over. The 12-seeded Hawks will take on the No. 5 Oilers in a best-of-five play-in series in a to-be-announced hub city. Even with everything approved though, Bettman made it clear that the decision does not mean games are guaranteed to come back.
The top four teams in each conference will play a round-robin style tournament to determine their seeds for the remainder of the postseason. The bottom-eight teams in each conference (No. 5 vs. No. 12, No. 6 vs. No. 11, No. 7 vs. No. 10, No. 8 vs. No. 9) will play best-of-five play-in series. Bettman also confirmed that the Return to Play Committee is still debating whether to use bracketing or re-seeding for the 16-team playoff after the play-in rounds.
It is also worth noting that Chicago was listed as one of the 10 possible hub cities for the NHL to resume play in. The other cities listed were Columbus, Dallas, Edmonton, Las Vegas, Minneapolis-St. Paul, Pittsburgh, and Toronto. Bettman said that the NHL needs to decide on its two hub cities within the next three or four weeks.
Bettman concluded the televised special by stating that NHL training camps will resume “no earlier than July 1”, which would suggest that the 24-team postseason would start in late July or early August. There may be a huge asterisk next to their name, but the Chicago Blackhawks are back in the NHL playoffs!
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