The commissioners of the five professional sports leagues operating in Canada have banded together to impel the federal government to allow single-game sports betting in the country, according to the Windsor Star's Dave Waddell.
On June 8, the NHL's Gary Bettman, NBA's Adam Silver, MLB's Rob Manfred, CFL's Randy Ambrose, and MLS's Don Garber signed and sent a joint statement to several key members of government.
"The National Basketball Association, the National Hockey League, Major League Baseball, Major League Soccer, and the Canadian Football League support an amendment to Canada’s federal laws that would authorize provinces to offer betting on single sporting events," the statement said.
"Sports betting gives fans another exciting way to engage with the sports they love. Because a legal and regulated sports betting market in Canada would be beneficial to sports and their fans, we urge prompt action to make this a reality."
Prime Minister Justin Trudeau, Finance Minister Bill Morneau, and Attorney General of Canada Dave Lametti each received a copy of the statement. Other prominent members of government, including Ontario premier Doug Ford, were also sent a copy.
"Sports betting already happens illegally in Canada; creating a legal framework would shift consumers from illicit, unregulated markets to a legal and safe marketplace," the statement continued. "Regulating single-game betting would allow for strong consumer protections as well as safeguards to further protect the integrity of sports."
Professional sports leagues have taken a financial hit amid the coronavirus pandemic after all five operating in Canada were forced to halt play. The leagues have lost large sums on ticket sales from canceled games, and it's unclear how long it will be until spectators are permitted to once again attend venues.
MP Kevin Waugh (Saskatoon-Grasswood), alongside Windsor West NDP MP Brian Masse, reintroduced a bill after Masse's private bill died at the cabinet level last year.
"The government can do this with an order of council like they did with the new gun control laws a month ago," Waugh said. "We'll be putting pressure on the government to get this done before Parliament finishes June 17."
In late May, the NHL unveiled a four-phase return-to-play plan with the hope of resuming and completing the 2019-20 season, which has been paused for three months because of COVID-19. This week, teams opened facilities across North America as the league officially moved into Phase 2, which is centered around on-ice workouts for groups of six players or less. Full-team training camps are set to open July 10, though dates for the start of games have yet to be determined.
There's been significant progress, but there are plenty of milestones to reach. We don't know which two of the 10 potential hub cities vying for hosting privileges will be chosen. We don't know what kinds of health and safety measures will be enforced by the NHL in Phases 3 and 4. We don't know how the coronavirus will continue to affect North America over the coming weeks, and how those trends might affect the NHL's plans. And so on.
To explore these issues and more, theScore solicited the perspectives of five experts from the fields of epidemiology, infectious disease, and virology:
Zachary Binney, epidemiologist and assistant professor at Oxford College of Emory University
Earl Brown, professor emeritus of virology at the University of Ottawa
Jill Weatherhead, assistant professor in infectious disease at Baylor College of Medicine
Michael N. Teng, associate professor in the department of internal medicine at the University of South Florida
Their thoughts, which they shared in separate conversations over the past week, have been condensed and edited for clarity.
Steve Russell / Getty Images
theScore: How would you go about choosing a hub city if you were the NHL? What kinds of factors and variables would you prioritize?
Binney: From a health perspective and a COVID-19 perspective, it's a really difficult choice because I think you have two forces that are almost exactly opposed. One is a city that's going to let you actually pull this off - bring 12 teams to their city and play professional sports games - and then you also want an area that is going to keep the virus relatively contained and not let an outbreak get to the explosive point where, for example, their healthcare centers are being overwhelmed and they would have to shut a whole lot of things down, including the NHL. Those two forces are at odds, I think, particularly in the U.S., where the response to COVID-19 has unfortunately taken on a strong political element - the places most likely to say, "Yeah, sure! Come on down!" are also the places likely to have the loosest regulations.
Snoeyenbos Newman: There's three domains against which you want the city to be ready. The first: You want to pick a city that has low prevalence and that has been low prevalence for a while. (The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention) has guidance about that. It's less than 10 infections per 100,000 people. You want that to be a stable number (for at least two-to-three weeks). The second thing is testing capacity. You need a city that has a lot of excess capacity because the NHL plan involves a lot of testing, which I think is appropriate. The third thing is hospital capacity. That is important for the (chosen city), not just because you want it for your players and (staff) but also you don't want any - hopefully small - outbreaks within the NHL to really pull capacity away from what's needed.
Brown: I think you run into the problem where the cities with the greatest facilities and support are often hubs that bring in a lot of people. So that becomes a wild card. Las Vegas? Everybody goes to Las Vegas. I'm just not sure that's the way you want to think, even though it's got all the amenities and can handle people. So you run into this conflict where the best people-handling places are often the highest-risk places because this is an infectious disease and the question is, who's got it, and who brings it in? And then it spreads. Everybody's trying to get a grip on it, but that's your conflict, I think. Ideally, you'd like to have a place in the desert or the Arctic where nobody goes to so you can show up (alone). But then there's no amenities, right?
Xinhua News Agency / Getty Images
theScore: Are the NHL's health guidelines - namely what we read in the the extensive Phase 2 protocol memo - rigorous enough to keep players and staff safe?
Snoeyenbos Newman: I was impressed by the Phase 2 plan. They have both the specificity - in terms of what they're asking for, with testing and quarantining - as well as a very detailed plan, that is sport-specific, (that lays out) how they're going to do voluntary training. I think that the thing I really appreciate about it is not only the specificity and the fact that they've really thought through what it will look like, but also the language they've included about flexibility.
The most important thing that we can say about the coronavirus is that we have to be able and willing to rapidly respond to changing epidemiology in the location where you are. I think planning is great, I think moving forward is great, as long as it's appropriate in the very local public health context that you're in. The most important thing any organization can do, and what I think is inherent in this NHL plan, is being really ready to respond to change. Because this is a virus that can move very, very quickly, and so things can look very different a week after today.
Brown: I was impressed that they said every team has to have a liaison person who is in charge of their biosafety or public health protocol. They're going to have someone who's responsible for every team, so every team has to sign off all the time, saying, "Yeah, we're doing it right. We're not getting problems, we are actually distancing, and not having contact outside. Everybody has stable temperatures and no symptoms."
Weatherhead: The NHL proposal for Phase 2 opening is comprehensive and addresses issues related to social distancing in a sport that requires significant contact, cleaning and disinfecting within shared spacing, and testing strategies. However, as outlined in the proposal, access to testing may be limited and risk factors for players may be impacted by local transmission dynamics. It will be critical to have active surveillance programs, increased access to testing without impacting local supply, rapid contact tracing, and medical care without impacting local resources and strict adherence to the proposal across all locations.
Derek Leung / Getty Images
theScore: What types of red flags in Phases 2 and 3 of the NHL's return-to-play plan would have to arise for you to be concerned about the viability of holding a 24-team tournament?
Binney: You're going to have to watch out for two things. One is clusters of cases on the same team. If you start seeing three or four guys who are sick at the same time, even with daily testing, that would really worry me. You would probably want to shut that team down for two weeks. What does that do in terms of their practice schedule and their ability to get started again and stay on schedule with the rest of the NHL teams? I don't know. But that's something I'd be worried about.
Another thing I'll be on the lookout for is any explosive outbreak or signs of overwhelming a healthcare system in the hub cities that are chosen. That would obviously disrupt everything massively. Unless you have a backup hub, I'm not sure how the NHL would be able to recover from that. I would also be worried about an explosive outbreak within any team and any city having training camp. That could be shut down - and even if it isn't shut down, you could argue that they really should be keeping players and staff at home as much as possible, both to contribute to public health and to reduce the chance that they get sick if you have a lot of cases floating around. That's going to have to be a decision that each team makes and is prepared for.
Brown: You want to start clean and stay clean of the virus. You want to know that nobody is coming in (from outside the team bubble). If you've got cases during training camps, you would be very concerned. That would be cause for pause.
Weatherhead: Once they get to that Phase 3 stage, where there's a lot more contact between individuals - both physical contact and the sheer number of people who are coming together - (the whole return-to-play plan will be challenged). We know the more people in a closed, contained setting, the higher the likelihood of transmission of this infection because it's a respiratory disease transmitted through respiratory droplets. You have to be in close contact with another person in order to get this infection, so the more you're spread out during this Phase 2, with fewer people, it's less likely there is going to be transmission. If you're seeing that transmission and you're seeing players pop up positive, that's got to be a red flag. Once you introduce more players coming from multiple different areas, that could be very dangerous in terms of facilitating the spread of the infection.
Jared Silber / Getty Images
theScore: What additional precautions can be taken by NHL players and staff who have underlying health issues? For example, Max Domi and Kaapo Kakko both have diabetes.
Weatherhead: This is the exact problem, because we know that most (NHL-related) individuals are not going to have a major problem with this infection. Most young adults will have mild to moderate symptoms from the coronavirus. It's the other people who have underlying conditions that are going to be at risk. It's not that they're more likely to get the infection, but they're more likely to have more severe outcomes because of the infection.
It's really the responsibility of everybody involved, not just those individuals with underlying health issues, (to care). That means everybody's wearing a mask, that means everybody's following the cleaning and disinfecting rules, that you're staying apart as much as you can, and if you're sick, that you're staying home and reporting your symptoms.
Teng: The major way people are getting infected is through droplet transmission when people are talking or singing or shouting at each other. So what you really need to do is get these small particle masks - these N95s - and some sort of protection for your face. Not necessarily a face shield, but at least some sort of eye protection like goggles or glasses or something like that, to stop droplets from getting into your eyes. Touching surfaces, you have to wear gloves as well.
Binney: Beyond daily testing and the steps that everybody should be taking - like wearing masks when you're not on the ice and washing your hands and not gathering in locker rooms or showers or anything like that - I don't know if there's a lot of extra steps that I would recommend if you're really worried about getting sick other than staying home.
If you're not comfortable with the steps that everybody else is taking, then there's not a whole lot that you can do to protect yourself. I think that clubs need to continue to pay anybody with a good fear and a good reason why they are at a higher risk of a bad outcome if they get COVID. I think that those people need to make individual risk decisions, and I don't think it should have financial consequences for them.
Boston Globe / Getty Images
theScore: Given the current state of the coronavirus and the availability of testing, and future projections for both, are you optimistic the NHL can bring back games in an ethical fashion this fall?
Snoeyenbos Newman: I don't know. Part of the real challenge in answering that is that you're asking me to answer a national and - when we include Canada - international question about a process that's being managed at a local level. I think we're really asking: Can every single city and training site before the hubs do that ethically? And then at the hubs: How have they been chosen? Do they have the capacity? Are they able to do the things that are necessary? Those are very - unfortunately, I think - hyper-local, hyper-specific questions.
And we also don't know what will happen with reopening. I think that, so far, fingers crossed, in many places that are in Phase 1 (of community reopening) or modified Phase 1 and trending towards Phase 2 reopening, we have not seen large spikes. But that doesn't mean it's not going to happen. I would say I am very cautiously optimistic about where we'll be by the end of the summer, but if you told me we had another huge resurgence, I wouldn't be surprised.
Teng: On some level, you can wait until we're immune and not play hockey for five years, or however long it's going to take. Or you can try to do it carefully and see if it works. The other thing you have to be unafraid of saying is, "This is not working and we have to stop." That, I think, is going to be the bigger problem for our favorite commissioner because there's going to be significant pressure once you start to finish. You have to be able to say, "Look, we have two teams now that have significant infections, we have to stop this playoff thing, or modify it so we can eliminate a lot of the contact."
Brown: Public sentiment won't be against it as long as s--- doesn't hit the fan, as long as it doesn't go south. Because then there will be lots of people afterwards saying, "Oh, I told you shouldn't have done that." You want to make sure you're not in that situation.
Mike Stobe / Getty Images
theScore: Lastly, would it be wise for the NHL - or any other sports league, for that matter - to welcome fans back into arenas before a vaccine is readily available?
Teng: As a sports fan myself, I'd love to go back to watching live-action games instead of reruns of the 2015 Stanley Cup Playoffs, but as a public health person, you just can't. There's no way to socially distance in an arena. If you have to go to the bathroom, you can't stand 6 feet away from the guy in front of you. It just doesn't happen that way. It's going to be a big problem.
Until we get a vaccine, until people start getting vaccinated and we get a certain amount of herd immunity, I think it's going to be a problem. These are the places it's going to spread. We have all of these protests right now in all of our major cities in the United States. These have got to be spreading the coronavirus. Some people are wearing masks, some people are not. You're standing there and you're shouting and you're yelling and you're talking to people. I think we're going to see a spike in coronavirus cases after this is over.
Snoeyenbos Newman: It's entirely possible that the vaccine development will take 10 years. We don't know how long it will take for this vaccine to develop. We really don't. I think that we have ambitious goals for it, but it could take years. If we're talking about years, we're looking at a different way of analyzing and evaluating and responding to risk. So that's something where we're just going to have to see how it goes and see how it looks. There is some promising early vaccine data, but it's very early data.
Our risk tolerance for vaccines - because vaccines are something we give to healthy people - is appropriately incredibly low. … (Vaccines) take a long time to develop because they take a long time to test. We would hate to give out a vaccine that didn't do what we expected it to do. There are few examples of vaccine development that have caused harm, but it's not zero. So we want to be incredibly cautious.
Binney: Absolutely not. No, no, no, no, no. I can't say no enough times. Every decision we make about going out and doing things comes with a risk and a benefit. So when I go to the grocery store, I am taking on a risk. But the benefit of that is substantial. I get to pick up food. There, the benefit outweighs the risk, which is why we never shut down grocery stores at all.
When you talk about bringing professional sports back, I tend to be of the mind that there is a real social and psychological benefit to getting sports back on TV. It helps people see the light at the end of the tunnel. It can help some people with mental health and help them feel psychologically better. There are some modest economic benefits as well. If you do it with some combination of centralization and daily testing, I think it can be done without posing a large risk to public health. At least that's my hope.
So the benefits are there, and the risks are acceptable, so that's something with the right plan that we can talk about. When you add fans to the equation, you lose me because the only benefit is financial for teams and leagues. The risk is enormous in getting thousands of people together, especially indoors for hockey and basketball. That is insanity. The risk-benefit analysis is completely out of whack.
Boston Bruins forward David Pastrnak took home the Golden Hockey Stick as the Czech Player of the Year for the fourth straight season, the league announced Thursday.
The honor ties Pastrnak with former NHL star Jaromir Jagr for the most consecutive victories.
Pastrnak earned 51 of 52 first-place votes from Czech hockey journalists and coaches, with Chicago Blackhawks rookie Dominik Kubalik coming in second and Philadelphia Flyers forward Jakub Voracek finishing third.
"I want to hold a cup for the world champions and a Stanley Cup above my head," Pastrnak said. "This is a pure individual trophy. I am very honored to have it, it is an inspiration for me. But I don't play golf or tennis, so I won't favor myself before my team."
Jagr, who took home the honor a record 12 times, won four straight from 2005 to 2008. Pastrnak's four wins are tied for third with Vladimir Martinec, and now he trails just Dominik Hasek - who won it five times - and Jagr.
Pastrnak had the best statistical season of his career despite it being cut short due to the COVID-19 pandemic. He recorded a career-high 48 goals and 95 points and won the Maurice Rocket Richard Trophy for the first time.
Kim Pegula will remain president of the Buffalo Sabres with a continued focus on making the small-market franchise economically sustainable, despite facing criticism that the team has been mismanaged under her direction, according to The Associated Press.
Pegula acknowledges the process of building a competitive club is taking longer than expected.
"Sometimes I kick myself in, saying, 'How come I didn't see this sooner?' That's on me," Pegula said regarding the franchise's restructuring that began last year.
"But that's what I'm trying to do now, trying to really remold and reshape the organization into what Terry (Pegula) and I envision," she said. "One thing I've been preaching is sustainability, about how to ensure that we are here in this Buffalo area for a long time."
The Sabres, who were forced to place a cap on season-ticket sales the year the Pegulas purchased the team, have recently struggled to sell out games. With $1.9 million in operating revenue in 2018-19, Buffalo ranked 24th among NHL teams, according to Forbes.
Poor economic conditions due to the coronavirus pandemic, paired with the organization's NHL-worst nine-year playoff drought, has led to uncertainty about the team's ability to draw fans next season.
"There's tough decisions that are going to have to be made, but anyone at the top has to make them," she said. "I think we're in a better place, just not done yet."
Since the Pegulas purchased the team in 2011, the Sabres are on their sixth coach and third general manager. The club has finished sixth or lower in the Atlantic Division in seven straight seasons.
The Pegulas were most recently criticized for laying off 21 employees while looking to cut costs. Several high-profile executives were among the cuts, including longtime ticket sales vice president John Sinclair.
Toronto Maple Leafs defenseman Morgan Rielly says his club is hungry to silence the critics with the league inching closer to a return.
"We're very motivated, we have a goal in mind," Rielly said following the NHL's announcement Thursday that permitted teams to begin training camp July 10, according to TSN's Kristen Shilton.
"We have an opportunity here in the next month and after training camp gets going. We want to be as prepared as possible because there's a chance to come back and prove people wrong."
The Leafs entered the 2019-20 campaign with Stanley Cup aspirations, but a 9-10-4 start to the season resulted in the firing of head coach Mike Babcock in November and put the club's status as a title contender in question.
Toronto replaced him with rookie bench boss Sheldon Keefe, who coached the team to a 25-15-5 record. Despite the overall improvement, the Leafs still struggled to find consistency.
League play was suspended March 12, and Rielly called the hiatus a chance for the team to "take a look in the mirror."
"Going into this break, we didn't feel all that good about where we were at and I think we've all had some time to think about that and we have a chance to change the narrative a little bit and we have to take that opportunity," he said, per Shilton.
The Leafs are slated to play the Columbus Blue Jackets in a best-of-five qualifying series as part of the league's 24-team playoff format. With clubs working hard to prepare for a return, Rielly understands the tall task at hand.
"They're a good team, they play hard, have their certain style and they're well-coached," he said. "That play-in round will be extremely competitive, with a lot of teams that understand what's at stake and don't want to be gone after a couple of games."
Toronto will likely welcome forward Ilya Mikheyev - who's been out with a wrist injury since December - back into the lineup, along with defenseman Jake Muzzin.
Several Leafs players, including captain John Tavares, Mikehyev, and Muzzin returned to the ice this week as part of Phase 2 of the NHL's return plan.
The job for which Phil Pritchard is admired and widely known - shepherding the Stanley Cup to events, parties, and championship parades across the hockey-playing world - overshadows his official role at the Hockey Hall of Fame: vice president and curator of the resource center. Behind the scenes in Toronto, he tends to the Hall's vast material archives, which include 4,000 sticks taken from various eras and milestone games. He planned to sort and catalog some of them one still afternoon earlier this week.
"You caught me in the office," Pritchard said by phone Tuesday. "It's quiet. Nobody's here."
So went a workday in Pritchard's life absent the NHL, with no flight to catch or Stanley Cup Playoffs to follow - and with the trophy itself securely encased at the Hall, waiting just the same. Decades into his term as the Cup's most recognizable keeper, Pritchard, 58, is accustomed to being in public and in motion. Now he mostly sits in his backyard in nearby Burlington, Ontario, marking the passage of time via his choice of attire: a tuque in March, right after the season paused due to COVID-19; a T-shirt and shorts as summer beckons.
Phil Pritchard (right) and Hockey Hall of Fame colleague Craig Campbell. Bruce Bennett / Getty Images
Even as the NHL trends toward a comeback, it isn't yet known when the league's 24-team playoffs will begin, or if Pritchard will feature in the familiar tableau that heralds the end of every season. As Gary Bettman speaks into a microphone and is booed after the final game, Pritchard and his Hall colleague Craig Campbell carry the Cup to the ice so that it can be handed to the jubilant victorious captain. The St. Louis Blues were crowned champions June 12, 2019 - a year ago Friday, and an anniversary that this year's Stanley Cup Final, if it can be held, will necessarily miss by several months.
"For me, it's the best part of the season. There's a new chapter in the life of the Stanley Cup," Pritchard said. The difference in 2020: "All those emotions that were building up as we headed into March have been put on hold."
Though he's endured full and partial NHL lockouts before, the ongoing hiatus represents new territory for the 32-year Hall employee. During Pritchard's first week on the job, he volunteered to accompany the Cup to a suburban minor-hockey function that Friday night. The duty stuck, and these days, the NHL's typical postseason schedule calls for him to travel with the trophy throughout April, May, and June as they stop in a succession of participating cities.
Pritchard is on the road about 180 days per year, maintaining an expansive itinerary even before the playoffs and the revelrous global tour that the winning team gets to organize and enjoy. This February alone, Pritchard and his silver charge spent five days in the Northwest Territories ahead of Hockey Day in Canada festivities in Yellowknife; touched down in Colorado for an Avalanche-Kings outdoor game; and visited St. Louis native and ardent Blues fan Jenna Fischer - Pam on "The Office" - at her California home.
Pritchard, in 2017, with Hall of Famers Frank Mahovlich (Leafs jersey) and Bernie Parent (Flyers). Andrea Cardin / NHL / Getty Images
Early in March, Pritchard took his most recent trip with the Cup to Northern British Columbia for a charity event with Broad Street Bullies-era Flyers defenseman Joe Watson. He was supposed to pop into the Vancouver area the weekend of March 13-15, only for the season to be suspended a day earlier.
The Cup has been locked in the closed Hall building ever since, and Pritchard has logged plenty of time at home, where he lives with his wife Diane and their three children, plus his son's girlfriend and their daughter. Everyone is healthy, and it's been wonderful, for once, to eat three meals a day together, Pritchard said: "Hopefully my kids feel the same." Save for the occasional office visit, he mans his computer and phone at the backyard gazebo, where the family dog, Zoe, has been at his side for every Zoom meeting and conference call.
Those calls include weekly check-ins with the NHL to discuss return-to-play considerations and what-ifs. Players returned to the ice in small groups this week for voluntary training sessions, but timing and locations still have to be confirmed for the league's agreed-upon playoff format. Pritchard, meanwhile, is awaiting word on the role he might play at the conclusion of a hub-city final. Whether he'll be present to deliver the Cup as usual is one of many open questions.
"Like everyone else, I'm ready whenever," Pritchard said. "The Cup is here. It's clean, ready to go. It's preserved. It's secure. There's no worries about that. Like it's done for the last 127 years, it's hoping it's going to have a winner."
Only twice in that span has the trophy gone unawarded: in 1919, when the final was cut short because of influenza days before Hall of Fame defenseman Joe Hall died, and in 2005, thanks to the season-long lockout. More commonly, Pritchard devotes his summer to facilitating the championship club's customary day-with-the-Cup tour. Last year, the Blues brought it to 36 cities in the United States, Canada, Sweden, Finland, and Russia, and were said to have caused the first traffic jam in the history of 85-person Calahoo, Alberta, the hometown of head coach Craig Berube, when 3,000 people turned up to celebrate.
Blues defenseman Carl Gunnarsson kisses the Stanley Cup last June. Dave Sandford / NHL / Getty Images
Could a title tour of any size plausibly be staged this year?That's to be determined, Pritchard said, since it will depend on what the world looks like when the postseason ends. Another development to watch: whether the coronavirus pandemic dissuades players, now and in the future, from repeating certain traditional, intimate expressions of joy, such as kissing the Cup or drinking from its bowl.
"We'll wait to see what the new normal is," Pritchard said. "Obviously, sanitization and following health codes are really important. It'll be no different with the Stanley Cup or coming through the Hockey Hall of Fame or going to a movie. We'll be following (the) guidelines. I know the players and their families will, as well. What that will be yet, nobody knows."
Pritchard is far firmer on this matter: If the playoffs proceed as planned, the eventual winners' achievement shouldn't be saddled with an asterisk, real or metaphorical. With the caveat that he's conspicuously biased, Pritchard said he thinks the Cup is the best trophy in sports in part because its championship engravings recount every season's conclusive storyline: "SERIES NOT COMPLETED," in the case of 1919, or the names of the Blues a century later.
For the past while, Pritchard has stayed in weekly touch with Campbell, Mike Bolt, and Howie Borrow, fellow regular handlers of the Cup. Hockey's shutdown has given him occasion to reminisce about the dance that he and Campbell are used to performing annually toward the end of the final. Once a team reaches three wins in the best-of-seven, the Cup is whisked out of sight, and as potential deciding games unfold, they wait in the wings to see if the series is settled or extended a couple more nights.
The exercise has afforded him the gift of patience even as excitement peaks. Knowing what's at stake in the next months, he can be patient now, too.
"If we have a Stanley Cup champion, that is great," Pritchard said. "As long as we're all healthy, that's even better."
The NHL and NHLPA have agreed to begin Phase 3 of the return-to-play plan, and teams will report for training camps on July 10, the league announced Thursday.
If medical and safety conditions permit a start, and if the parties have reached an overall agreement on resuming, camps for all 24 returning teams will begin. The length of training camp and the start date for a formal resumption of play (Phase 4) haven't been determined.
The two hub cities that will serve as hosts for the playoffs also remain undecided.
Some Canadian teams, including the Calgary Flames, have explored holding training camp in the United States to avoid Canada's 14-day quarantine rule for anyone entering the country.
Many teams had players return to club facilities in small groups this week for both on- and off-ice training as part of Phase 2.
The Habs' home and away outfits are classics that should never be touched, but the team's rarely worn a third sweater. Though there's no timeline for when an alternate uniform might be unveiled, we're taking a look at three options the team should consider, and you can vote below on which one you think the club should go with.
1. Winter Classic whites
Dave Sandford / National Hockey League / Getty
The Canadiens wore these beauties during the 2016 Winter Classic in a 5-1 win over the Boston Bruins. These sweaters are similar to the 1944-47 replicas the team wore as alternates in 2006-07, but with a few minor changes. Most notably, the shade of blue is much lighter, while the base of the central logo is white instead of red and has no outline. They could do without the world champions logo on the sleeves, but they're otherwise flawless.
Teams don't typically wear white uniforms at home, so white alternates are rare. The Buffalo Sabres wore white alternates at home this season, though, so the league has clearly shown it's willing to be flexible.
This style is identical to that of the Habs' regular home sweaters - except the blue and red are inverted. The pants remain blue, though, and for good reason. With red pants, this uniform would too closely resemble those of the New York Rangers and Columbus Blue Jackets. It's certainly weird to see the Habs in all blue, but it's a sharp look. After all, it's OK for third uniforms to be fun and different.
There are two notable issues with this get-up. A primary crest featuring a blue maple leaf probably wouldn't fly with Montreal fans considering the Canadiens' fierce rivalry with the Toronto Maple Leafs. Additionally, this uniform incorporates far too many logos; either the traditional logo on the shoulder patch should be abandoned or the white leaf on the sleeve needs to go.
Otherwise, this scheme does a good job embracing the team's history, yet it's still sleek and modern enough to serve as a third uniform.
