SB Nation Reacts: The return of the NHL

The Arizona Coyotes have unfortunately been knocked out of the contest for the best goal celebration. But the goal song is not the only thing we have looked at recently, as our last poll was about the NHL returning.

It should come as no surprise, but most people are extremely excited about the return of the NHL. With the season being put on hold since March it has been a long time since we have had NHL hockey.

The new format is 24 teams, with most teams having to win a 5-game play-in series. While this format is far from perfect, just under 2/3rds of fans polled like the format.

While the 24-team playoff format is well-liked by fans, even more fans want to finish the playoffs. Fans overwhelming think that the NHL should have the playoffs and complete them.

When the NHL announced their multi-stage plan to return they didn’t give firm dates for most of the stages. Despite the protests taking up the majority of the news, we are currently in the middle of a pandemic and the start of the playoffs is not guaranteed.

The closest results we got this week was whether or not it is worth finishing this season if it affects the next season. A majority of fans still supported finishing this season even if it affects next season, although it is the smallest majority. With no hard dates yet it is hard to imagine next season not being affected, but it remains to be seen how much it will change.