Get ready for a feast of Vegas Golden Knights hockey.
We will finally get to see a Stanley Cup Champion crowned in 2019-20 after the NHL and NHLPA gave the green light to the Return To Play Plan on Friday, meaning the Vegas Golden Knights can finish what they started this year.
And we are in for a treat.
After the Return To Play Plan was confirmed, along with a new four-year CBA, the full schedule for the postseason was revealed on Friday.
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Training Camps will open on July 13 with each team allowed a maximum of 31 players, broken down as 28 skaters and three goalies.
Eastern Conference teams will be based in Toronto while the Golden Knights and the Western Conference will be housed in Edmonton in secure bubbles.
Teams will head out to their respective Hub Cities on July 26, before each team plays one exhibition game in order to shake off any rust.
Then the real action will begin.
Starting on Aug. 1, with a mouthwatering five-game slate, the best-of-five Play-In Series will begin with the winners advancing through to the Stanley Cup Playoffs, while the losers will enter Phase 2 of the 2020 NHL Draft Lottery.
For the Golden Knights, they will get down to business on Aug. 2, against the Dallas Stars in the first of a three-game, round-robin tournament to dictate seeding for the Stanley Cup Playoffs.
Vegas will then take on the defending champions the St. Louis Blues on Aug. 6, before concluding the round-robin tournament on Aug. 8, against the Colorado Avalanche.
Round 1 of the Stanley Cup Playoffs will commence on Aug. 11, the Second Round will begin on Aug. 25, and the Conference Finals and Stanley Cup Final, which will both be held in Edmonton, will open on Sept. 8. and Sept. 22, respectively.
What’s most exciting about the Return To Play Plan is the format in which games will be played, with the NHL striving to make up for lost time and satisfy those hockey cravings.
Per Chris Johnston of SportsNet, here’s how a typical schedule of games will look with all times ET:
- 12 p.m.
- 2 p.m.
- 4 p.m.
- 6:30 p.m.
- 8 p.m.
- 10:30 p.m.
That is a hell of a lot of hockey to consume every day and, after a 143 day hiatus without the best sport in the world, I can’t wait to sit on the couch and consume Playoff hockey all day long.
It all begins Aug. 1, with the start of the Play-In Rounds, and we’ll then be able to look forward to the return of Golden Knights hockey starting from Aug. 2.
Hockey is now back in business and the games will come thick and fast, giving us a mouthwatering feast of postseason action every single day.
And, for Vegas Golden Knights fans and NHL fans in general, it can’t start soon enough.
Bring it on!