'Stay Ready': Breaking Down Philadelphia Flyers' Road To Stanley Cup
PHILADELPHIA (CBS) -- The Flyers are lacing up, ready to resume their season. Following New Jersey Gov. Phil Murphy's announcement, the Flyers released a video to hype up fans. When play was suspended in March, the Flyers were in second place in the Metropolitiation Division.
On Tuesday, the NHL released its Return to Play plan for the 2019-20 season. Games will initially begin in two hub cities that have yet to be determined.
Here's how the rest of the plan looks and how it affects the Flyers.
The top 24 teams will continue with four teams in each conference entering a round-robin. That includes the Flyers, who sit fourth in the Eastern Conference. The round-robin, or one game against the other three teams, will determine their seed going into the Stanley Cup Playoffs.
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The Flyers cannot be any worse than a 4 seed, but they can move up based on the results of those three games against Boston, Tampa Bay and Washington.
"The top four teams in each conference will claim automatic berths in the first round of the playoffs. They will play intra-conference round robins, each playing the other three teams to determine their respective seeds in the first round," Commissioner Gary Bettman said. "These games will be played with regular-season overtime and shootout rules with ties in the final standings broken by regular-season points percentage."
Seeds 5 through 12 in each conference will play each other in a best-of-5 qualifying round. The Flyers will not be part of that, but it will determine who the Flyers face in Round 1.
What is not yet known is which city the Flyers will play in, at least initially. Eastern Conference hub cities reportedly being considered include Columbus, Pittsburgh and Toronto.
What we also don't know just yet is when it will happen.
As per the state of New Jersey, the Flyers have been given the all-clear to practice. When they do, all players would undergo COVID-19 testing two days before they return to the ice for small-group sessions. Players must check their temperature no more than two hours before they arrive at Flyers Skate Zone.
