TORONTO – NHL commissioner Gary Bettman took a short break from watching the league’s final few exhibition games Thursday to ponder the significance of awarding the Stanley Cup some two months from now – if all goes as planned.
The magnitude of the task it took to simply reach the cusp of resuming play after a 4 1/2-month pause of the 2019-20 season certainly suggests this year’s celebration has the potential of being a shared experience.
“That’s a very profound question, and I think the answer is extraordinary times present extraordinary challenges. And it takes an extraordinary group of people with an extraordinary effort to get the result you want,” Bettman told The Associated Press in a phone interview.
“If you look at the NHL family as a whole, starting with our fans, our players, our people at the league office and our club, the focus, the determination, the desire and the effort – assuming we’re able to get to that goal – will have been the ultimate collaboration,” he added. “I believe whoever ultimately hoists the Stanley Cup will deserve it in ways we couldn’t have imagined, and probably still can’t.”
The first step towards closing the NHL’s most unique season begins Saturday, with the start of the expanded 24-team playoffs in two Canadian cities: Edmonton for the Western Conference and Toronto for the Eastern Conference.