After much anticipation, some false starts, and a fair amount of hand-wringing, it appears all systems are go for the NHL to return to play the rest of the 2019-20 season:
Hearing both NHL and NHLPA have voted to accept CBA/Return to Play protocols.
— Elliotte Friedman (@FriedgeHNIC) July 10, 2020
That means that 24 teams, not including your Ottawa Senators, will be participating in the chase for the Stanley Cup. That the Sens didn’t qualify for this year’s post-season tournament should come as no surprise to anyone that’s been paying attention: this team was not going to be good, and if they wanted to be good in the future they were better served by, in fact, being bad this season.