Rumor: NHL owners and players fighting over a key detail in 24 team playoff format.

The National Hockey League and the National Hockey League Players Association reportedly made significant progress over the weekend thanks to their Return to Play Committee and the ongoing negotiations that are that committee's purpose. It sounds like we will be getting a 24 team playoff format which means that there will be 24 teams getting in and 7 teams excluded, but there are still some key details to work out and it sounds like the players and owners are not seeing eye to eye on this one. 

A recent report from Andy Strickland of Fox Sports it sounds like the dispute comes over how many "pods" (the name given to the host cities by Capitals owner Ted Leonsis) the NHL will have for when it resumes play with the owners seemingly preferring a more centralized plan while the players on the other hand are looking to be more spread out. Before I get into why this might be here is what Strickland had to report on the matter:

From what it sounds like, the owners would prefer two conferences of 12 teams each, players prefer 4 divisions of 6 teams each with the top 24 teams getting in. This is what I'm being told, I don't need the twitter police coming at me. Take a deep breath before tweeting at me.

So why might there be a dispute? Well first of all I must admit that all of this will be speculation on my part but from the outside looking in the motivations seem fairly obvious to me. A fewer number of "pods" would likely mean lower costs for the NHL ownership group. No doubt this is going to be an extremely expensive endeavor and having to set up the necessary safeguards in 4 cities would almost certainly cost more than merely doing it for 2 cities. On the other side of the argument however the players are likely thinking that they would want as few people around them, in one centralized area, as possible. If one player were to get sick you would risk the potential infection of 12 teams worth of players instead of just 6, and I suspect that this is the driving force behind the players desires. 

Although the players have been relatively quiet on this matter some like Toronto Maple Leafs forward Mitch Marner, who expressed concerns during a recent livestream, and Washington Capitals defenseman Radko Gudas, who made comments during a recent Czech interview, have expressed concerns about safety.