Mark Madden: Talent, playoff experience will benefit Penguins in unique postseason

The NHL’s proposed 24-team playoff reportedly has the Penguins playing Montreal in a best-of-five preliminary-round series. Montreal features goaltender Carey Price, not quite in his prime but widely regarded as one of hockey’s best.

A best-of-five vs. Price is no easy task, even with Montreal 15 points back of the Penguins. The Canadiens were 10 points out of a wild-card spot when the season paused.

But that’s really the only gripe the Penguins have with the suggested format. In fact, the season stopping might perversely benefit them.

The Penguins had lost eight of 11 when covid-19 hit and looked just as bad as that record suggests.

True, they had 13 games left to straighten out. But, when play resumes, no team will have momentum in either direction. The situation will be unique. But talent and playoff experience will be two of the biggest factors. The Penguins have both.

The Penguins also figure to have Jake Guentzel, out since Dec. 30 after shoulder surgery. Sidney Crosby, Evgeni Malkin and Kris Letang will be well-rested. With these playoffs starting cold, star power figures to mean even more than usual.

But Letang seems a question mark to return. He suffered a stroke in 2014 and has had a small hole in the wall of his heart since birth. Anyone with pre-existing medical conditions is more vulnerable to covid-19. Letang qualifies.

But if Letang plays, the circumstances benefit the Penguins.

They don’t help Tristan Jarry, who had played well enough to challenge Matt Murray for the No. 1 goalie job. But coach Mike Sullivan seemed to be leaning toward Murray when play ceased, and will certainly go with Murray now. It would be a huge risk to make Jarry’s first game in months his first playoff start. Murray is safer.

The NHL’s plan still needs to be finalized. It appears only two hub cities will be used initially. One rumor has games in Columbus and Edmonton. The conference finals and Stanley Cup Final would get played in Las Vegas, which won’t quite be Las Vegas yet.

Hub cities will need good ice, and lots of it. Not too many NHL rinks have good ice in June, never mind July and August. Can any surface handle three to four games in a day? Columbus has a practice rink attached to Nationwide Arena, and plenty of hotels nearby. Pittsburgh has been mooted. UPMC Lemieux Sports Complex in Cranberry could host games.

One stupid idea connected to the plan has the top four seeds in each conference playing a round-robin while the other eight teams play their best-of-five.

If those round-robin games are exhibitions, that’s dumb. If they determine seeding, that’s dumber. The higher seeds wouldn’t benefit by waiting for the best-of-five to wrap, but would practice more and wouldn’t be hurt egregiously.

Best-of-three would be better for the prelim round. Best-of-five plus a round-robin for the higher seeds is too complicated.

But it’s reported the NHL players argued against best-of-three specifically because a short-series matchup with Price would be unfair to Pittsburgh. The same applied to Edmonton’s matchup with Chicago because of the explosiveness of Blackhawks forward Patrick Kane. Both those series pit a 5 seed vs. a 12 seed.

Seven teams miss the playoffs. The NHL considered completing some semblance of a regular season. But it’s best to utilize the smallest window possible. The first series is best-of-five, but after that it’s the usual best-of-seven. Anyway, it would have been very difficult to get the NHL’s worst teams to return and play meaningless games.

They should. It’s their jobs. But the plan being pursued is easiest. No team left out of the playoffs has a complaint. They were all adrift by some distance. (So was Montreal.)

NHL players don’t get paid during the playoffs. But money generated by the playoffs counts toward the league’s overall revenue, which came up over $1 billion short during the regular season because of the stoppage. Playoff revenue could be as high as $450 million through TV and sponsorship.

That helps the players, who are still owed their final paychecks and escrow payment. But they will likely get neither by way of making their payout more in line with the salary cap. Their 50% of revenue is a much smaller figure now. Maybe something could be bargained with an eye toward a new CBA. The current CBA expires in 2022.

In a capped league, the salaries are only as guaranteed as the league’s estimated revenue. This year, that guarantee proved bad.

But let’s drop the puck and iron that out as we go.