Gary Bettman on NHL 2020-21 season Start date TBD

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Hours beforepuck dropfor the Stanley Cup Final to cap the NHL's 2019-20 season, league commi sioner Gary Bettman held his annualpre s conference and reiterated that the 2020-21 season is still an unknown."Anything that anybody suggests or reads Ray Allen Jersey or writes or commentates about next season is nothing more than speculation," he said Saturday in a Zoom call with reporters. "Obviously we've started informally thinking about what optionality is. Dec.1 has always been a notional date. I will not be surprised if it slips into later December, it could slip into January."But there's no Spencer Hawes Jersey point right now in making any definitive comments on our plans, because there's still too much we don't know."What exactly are the unknowns? As Bettman stated, it's still not certainwhenthe Canada-U.S. border will reopen to non-e sential travel and it's not clear what the COVID-19pandemic will look like in the coming months. The latter,of course, impacts fans attending games:Will there bespectators? If they are allowed, do they have to be socially distancedor can arenas be filled like the good old days?WHEN IS: | One interesting point Bettman brought up regarding attendance: Just because the season may notstart with fans in the OJ Mayo Jersey building, that doesn't mean it'll continue that way through the full slate of games."If we're going to speculate, and this is pure speculation, I'm just throwing it out there as a random thought: It's conceivable that we start without fans, that we move to socially distant fans at some point and by some point in time, maybe, ourbuildings are open," he said. "I'm not saying that's the case, but if you're thinking through all of the conceivable po sibilities there's full, there's empty, there's a combination and again, how we start doesn't nece sarily mean that's how we have to finish."Regardle s of whether fans will be able to watch their favorite team in personor when the gameswill actually Michael Beasley Jersey start,the commi sioner did stre sonce againthat he would like the next season to be busine s as usual."I anticipate playing a full season next season 82games, fullplayoffs," Bettman said, adding that he'd prefer future seasons to not cro s the summer months. "How and when we do that is something that we don't all have enough information to make any decisions andanything would just be sheer speculation."Our goal is to get back to the greatest sense of normalcy as Matthew Dellavedova Jersey po sible under whatever circumstances are presented."