Crosby, Ovechkin want playoffs to start immediately if season resumes

We’re all waiting for hockey to come back and for life to go back to normal but in the interim, some of the NHL’s biggest stars outlined their vision of the future on Thursday.

Sidney Crosby, Claude Giroux, Jordan Staal and Marc Staal got together on a conference call Thursday to discuss how they’ve spent their time with the season paused due to the COVID-19 pandemic. Alexander Ovechkin would join P.K. Subban, Anders Lee and Nick Foligno on a different call later in the afternoon.

Thursday marked the first day where players from every team will be made available by the league for a daily conference call.

"You try to get in as many games as you can. I wouldn't mind starting right at the playoffs. But there are a lot of guys in different situations. The more games you can play the better integrity of it. Get as many games as you can,” Crosby said.

Ovechkin did not agree with the notion of playing more games, but echoed Crosby’s desire to resume the campaign by going to the postseason immediately.

"For us, it's better if playoffs starts right now. We don't want to play extra games,” Ovechkin said, via Stephen Whyno of The Associated Press.

It should be noted that Ovechkin’s Capitals are in first place in the Metropolitan Division, while Crosby’s Penguins trail the Philadelphia Flyers, while sitting in the third spot.

When asked about potentially catching Wayne Gretzky for the all-time goal scoring record, Ovechkin dismissed the question and shook off the idea of reaching the 50-goal mark in 2019-20 as an important distinction, repeating that his main concern is everyone taking care of themselves during such an uncertain time.

“The most important thing is to take care of yourself, take care of your family, friends. Help each other. Just be safe. Right now it is a hard time. We all miss you ... right now we are together and we have to fight through it together,” Ovechkin said via Samantha Pell of The Washington Post.

For now, we’ll have to continue living in a world without hockey, but what fun it would be if we immediately went to the playoffs. Due apologies if your favourite team is still in the mix of a contested playoff race, of course.

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