NHL season will resume at high level of play, Golden Knights GM says

It might be hockey in the summer, but it will not be like summer hockey.

Vegas Golden Knights general manager Kelly McCrimmon said he believes the level of play will be high in the Stanley Cup Qualifiers and the Stanley Cup Playoffs, and the Golden Knights will be ready.

The players will be heathier and fresher than usual because the season was paused March 12 due to concerns surrounding the coronavirus, and they will jump right into a 24-team tournament for the Stanley Cup.

"I think what people are doing in a lot of respects, they feel that the hockey early in this process is going to look like the hockey in the preseason or early in the regular season," McCrimmon said Monday. "Well, the stakes are much higher.

"I think this is going to be a lot more similar to maybe what you would have seen at a World Cup [of Hockey 2016]. … The best players in the world got together and played extremely entertaining, competitive hockey. So that's more what I think people are going to see.

"I know how excited our team is. I'm sure that NHL teams that are going to be in the playoffs are going to really be anxious to play. We've waited a long time to do it, and we want to make the best of it."

McCrimmon said many players stayed in Las Vegas to self-quarantine, and when teams were allowed to start voluntary, limited small-group workouts at their facilities last week in Phase 2 of the Return to Play Plan, many showed up.

"We're excited about the turnout that there's been, and I think that it is a good sign for us," McCrimmon said.

Why wouldn't the Golden Knights be excited?

They replaced coach Gerard Gallant with Peter DeBoer on Jan. 15. Though DeBoer has had 22 games with these players, he had them on an 11-2-0 run before the pause, and now he has had time to huddle with his staff, at least virtually.

"I think in terms of Pete's ability to do things with the team, well, that's been on pause," McCrimmon said. "He has done a lot with his staff. So, they'll be a very well-prepared staff, and we'll have a very well-prepared team when we begin to play."

Forward Mark Stone, whose 63 points (21 goals, 42 assists) rank second on Vegas to forward Max Pacioretty's 66 points (32 goals, 34 assists), missed six games before the pause with a lower-body injury. But he had a chance to heal during the pause and said Thursday he is 100 percent.

Training camps will open on July 10 in Phase 3, provided medical and safety conditions allow and the NHL and the NHL Players' Association reach an agreement on resuming play.

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Play will resume in Phase 4 with the Stanley Cup Qualifiers, with dates and the locations of two hub cities -- one for the 12 Western Conference teams, one for the 12 Eastern Conference teams -- to be announced. The top four teams in each conference will play a three-game round robin for seeding, and the others will play best-of-5 series to qualify for the playoffs.

The Golden Knights (39-24-8), third in the West with a .606 points percentage, will play their round-robin against the St. Louis Blues, the Colorado Avalanche and the Dallas Stars. They will not be easing in or experimenting too much.

"I think as it rolls out, you're going to see our team play three real hard games where we're playing to win and doing the things that we would do when the playoffs begin," McCrimmon said. "Again, so much of this is based on how high the stakes are going to be and how important it is that we're playoff-ready when we get to our first round of the playoffs."

If anything, the Golden Knights were worried the stakes wouldn't be high enough at first.

"We were really pleased with the format, because it makes games meaningful," McCrimmon said. "I know that we were concerned at one point that we might face a team coming off a first-round win where we'd been on a bye, for example, and weren't at the same level not having played since early to mid-March, so this gives us real important games."

This will be a unique gauntlet, from the round-robin to the qualifiers, through the four best-of-7 rounds of playoffs.

"The three-game round-robin will be great hockey for us and a chance to finish as high in the seedings as we can when we get ready for the playoffs," McCrimmon said. "But again, I don't see an easy path of where to finish anywhere in those four spots. It's going to be a challenge every round that we play."