from Matt Larkin of The Hockey News,

It’s the third period of a one-goal game late in the 2019-20 season with a playoff spot at stake. The trailing team pulls the goalie. The coach calls a timeout. He starts drawing up a play and prepping six skaters to send over the boards. He glances down the bench to see the other team’s coach, craning his neck toward him, hanging on every word.

The arena is dead silent. It’s empty, with no fans. There’s no music playing. And, in a crucial part of this contest, the opposing team can hear every sentence uttered during this timeout.

That scenario is a stripped-down version of what the NHL’s Return to Play Committee has begun envisioning for whenever the league returns from its COVID-19 imposed shutdown, which went into effect March 12. It’s a virtual guarantee that world health officials insist the resumptions of pro sports leagues begin with empty venues, and which will create some unprecedented conditions. Hockey games, for instance, will look and feel like practices or glorified shinny. How, then, will the players competing have to tweak their strategic approaches? And how will the games be presented to fans watching the broadcasts?

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