The concept of "can't" hasn't really applied to the NHL during the COVID-19 pandemic. When faced with adversity, it has shown undeniable and admirable ingenuity.
This is a league that halted its 2019-20 season, restarted it in two Canadian "bubble" cities and rewrote its postseason rules to allow 24 teams to participate while temporarily adding an entirely new round to the Stanley Cup Playoffs.
This is a league that, as an encore, realigned its 31 teams into four new divisions while scrapping conference play in 2020-21. It reduced its regular season to 56 games, changed its schedule to intradivisional play and once again rewrote the rules for its postseason format on a temporary basis.