No whining allowed: Embrace the big picture of NHL’s return

Don’t criticize specific matchups. Don’t fret about the potential of re-seeding teams. Don’t go nuts about an asterisk. Stop looking at the minute details or you’re sure to miss the big picture.

The NHL on Tuesday became the first major professional sports league to specifically outline how it intends to return to competition in this time of pandemic. It officially ended a regular season that was paused on March 12 due to COVID-19, meaning the most exciting playoffs in all of sports will highlight hockey’s return if and when health and safety protocols allow for it.

That, and those T-Mobile Arena workers awaiting checks for postponed games will finally be paid. Get those folks their money.

I know it’s a bigger upset than anything Leicester City pulled off, but NHL commissioner Gary Bettman for once deserves more cheers than boos. So does the league’s owners and players. Hockey has done what the NBA and Major League Baseball haven’t so far.

Major League Soccer also hasn’t announced a return to play format, but that’s probably being held up due to its commissioner (Don Garber) acting the part of clown while threatening employees with disciplinary action — including termination and fines up to $1 million — for leaking information to the media.

Hockey is looking smarter and smarter.

Better than nothing

The NHL isn’t back. Not yet. But there is at least a determined pathway by which to crown a champion. It’s not a perfect solution because there was never going to be one in such distressing times.

No matter your opinion of a 24-team modified playoff to be held in two hub cities, isn’t it better than the alternative?

Do fans want a somewhat defective Stanley Cup tournament or none at all?

At last count, more than 40 million Americans have filed for unemployment since the vise that is the coronavirus clamped its movable jaws firmly into our lives.

Remember. Big picture.

Where the Golden Knights eventually find themselves in the Western Conference bracket and who they might play in the first round means as much as the color of your socks.

Some need reminding. Knights coach Pete DeBoer earlier stated he wasn’t sure how fair things would be if a conference’s top seeds sat on the sidelines and received byes into the main draw while others competed in a playoff setting.

That’s not an issue now. As one of four top seeds in the West, the Knights will play a round-robin against the Blues, Avalanche and Stars to help determine slots 1-4 in the main bracket.

Here’s an idea for DeBoer’s team: Attack those games with a playoff intensity. Prepare at your highest level for the real thing. And by all means, don’t complain about anything.

That also goes for how the team crowned champion is viewed now and in the future.

An asterisk in sports usually indicates a record or title is somehow tainted. The Spurs winning an NBA championship in the lockout-shortened season of 1998-99. The Astros and their World Series crown of cheating. The Patriots and, well, lots of stuff.

But this is different. Much larger in scope. Decades from now, the 2019-20 seasons of all sports will be remembered for the coronavirus. It will always be the main storyline, no matter who hoists a Stanley Cup or Larry O’Brien Trophy and so on.

In this way, any asterisk will define one of the lowest points in our nation’s history and not any single team.

Answers to come

It’s the same for the Knights winning the Pacific Division before all games were played. Do they hang a banner or not? It’s one of those insignificant details left for a much later time.

So much is still to be decided. When will Phase 2 of players returning to team facilities begin? How long after would a shortened training camp commence? Does late July seem a reasonable time to begin the playoffs?

Which two cities will be chosen as hubs, of which Las Vegas seems a favorite as one for its vast number of hotel rooms and the fact coronavirus cases are trending downward across Southern Nevada. How would the league rightly ensure Vegas isn’t afforded a competitive advantage if T-Mobile is designated as a playoff site?

Answers to all of it will come over the next several weeks. For now, there is at least a glimmer of hope that some level of normalcy might soon return to sports. Good for the NHL that it was first to provide such optimism.

So don’t criticize, don’t fret, don’t whine.

As awful as the short term has been for so many, having a bigger and brighter picture to embrace isn’t a bad thing.

Contact columnist Ed Graney at egraney@reviewjournal.com or 702-383-4618. He can be heard on “The Press Box,” ESPN Radio 100.9 FM and 1100 AM, from 7 to 10 a.m. Monday through Friday. Follow @edgraney on Twitter.