Washington Capitals: Breaking down the latest of proposed 24-team postseason

The playoffs are coming Washington Capitals fans.

Here is the latest news in regards to the return to play with the 24-team Stanley Cup playoffs and how it’ll affect the Washington Capitals. With less than a week until training camp, we are inching closer to the return of hockey.

Per a press release from the NHL, On Monday the NHL and the NHL Players Association (NHLPA) reached a tentative agreement on a Return to Play Plan and Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) that adds an additional four years to the term of the current Collective Bargaining Agreement which includes transition rules and a new critical dates calendar.

As part of the tentative agreement, the following dates have been established: July 13 is the start of training camps, on July 26th clubs will travel to hub cities, the Caps will head to Toronto. On August 1, the Qualifying Round will begin.

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This tentative agreement is now subject to approval by the NHL’s Board of Governors as well as members of the NHLPA. This review and approval process will take place over the next few days and there won’t be further comment until those processes are completed.

The Caps will go up against the Boston Bruins, Tampa Bay Lightning and Philadelphia Flyers in the Round Robin. Over on the Western Conference, the top four teams are the St. Louis Blues, Colorado Avalanche, Vegas Golden Knights and the Dallas Stars.

The Qualifying Round matchups in the East are as follows: #5 Pittsburgh Penguins vs. #12 Montreal Canadiens, #6 Carolina Hurricanes vs. #11 New York Rangers, #7 New York Islanders vs. #10 Florida Panthers, and #8 Toronto Maple Leafs vs. #9 Columbus Blue Jackets. Those series will be a best of five.

Over on the Western Conference, the Qualifying Rounds will feature the #5 Edmonton Oilers vs. #12 Chicago Blackhawks, #6 Nashville Predators vs. #11 Arizona Coyotes, #7 Vancouver Canucks vs. #10 Minnesota Wild, and #8 Calgary Flames vs. #9 Winnipeg Jets. The Western Conference hub city will be in Edmonton.

Dates and times for the games will be announced at a later date. In the meantime many Caps players have already shown up at MedStar Capitals Iceplex for some informal workouts to gear up for training camp. John Carlson, Brenden Dillon, Braden Holtby, Tom Wilson, Evgeny Kuznetsov, Dmitry Orlov, Garnet Hathaway, and Alex Ovechkin have all skated at MCI along with a few others.

It’s going to be exciting to have hockey back. And now we are one step closer. Keep washing those hands.