Some ramblings on the NCHC bubble:

The more I digest it, the more I like the idea. It's a great way to get a large portion of the season underway in a control environment (much like the MLS tourney). If anyone can do it college hockey, the NCHC can.

1) The goal is to reduce flights post-bubble. My guess is that teams will probably be placed into pods/divisions. They can play the other pod in the bubble and within their pod after the bubble. Creating the pods is difficult. Here are two potential options I created:

Option One:

Pod 1: UMD - UND - UNO - SCSU

Pod 2: CC - DU - MU - WMU

UND-SCSU-UMD-UNO would completely eliminate flights within the pod and MU-WMU-CC-DU would only mean 1 flight per team if they stayed the week. This shifts a lot of the travel costs to the flying pod.

Option Two:

Pod 1: CC - DU - UND - UNO

Pod 2: MU - SCSU - UMD - WMU

Just like the Pod 2 teams in Option 1, now teams would fly one time and stay the week. This would increase the total number of flights but now all teams would share the cost burden.

2) How does the NCHC create a balanced schedule post-bubble? Playing each team 4 times would mean a 28 game schedule. That leaves 18 games after the bubble. However, 18 games is 9 2-game series. That means some teams will have more road games than home games.

One potential solution is to go to 6 3-game series within the pods, which would create a balanced schedule of home/away games within each pod. That said, I couldn't figure out a schedule template that doesn't have one team playing 9 straight road games and 9 straight home games.

The NCHC is obviously smarter than I am at scheduling and I'm sure there is a solution but I couldn't figure it out.

3) Will the NCHC have all of its on-ice officials available for the bubble? Most of the officials have full-time jobs and work NCHC games at night. Although most people are working remotely now, that doesn't mean they are able to officiate games during normal working hours.

In addition, most linesman are locals. At most each school has 4 in the local area. That means that the NCHC will probably have to bring in some linesman into the bubble for part or all of it.

4) Brad's article mentioned that Omaha and UND are in the running due to the multiple sheets. I don't believe that the second sheet should be necessary for games (practice only). If I did the math right, there should be 40 games (10 games x 4 teams). That's 2 per day for 20 days.

If costs are a concern then I don't foresee the NCHC wanting to spend $ on a practice sheet to get it up to game standards (buying and installing a 2nd replay system, etc.). Honestly, to help save the main ice at Baxter, you could do warm-ups on the Holland Ice before each game.

5) Will the bubble run into the World Junior tournament? If NCHC games start on or around 11/26 then the bubble should end around 12/17. World Juniors start on 12/26. That means that part of the NCHC bubble may overlap with each nation's pre-tournament training camps.

6) There are definite pros and cons to both GF and Omaha. GF doesn't have a lot of hotel space but the Ralph was built for these types of events. While Baxter has lots of hotel/food options, it wasn't built to house 8 teams. Both will work out fine in the end.

7) I forgot to mention earlier but how does the league create a balanced schedule with 10 games and 8 teams in the bubble? If some pod-like schedule is created post-bubble that means each team will have an imbalanced schedule with the other pod (2 vs some teams and 3 with others)

8) It will interesting to see how teams set up their training schedules within the bubble. Traditionally, most teams have an off day the day after a game for rest and rehab. If teams are playing every other day, that doesn’t leave much time for practice.

9) If teams are forgoing on-ice practices for rehab, then the use of the Alerus Center would be a nice benefit if the games are played in GF. It’s attached to one of the hotels so it would be very convenient and reduce traffic at the Ralph.

10) 10 games in 3 weeks is a lot of wear and tear on the players. It will be curious to see if teams rest players by managing their ice time or sitting out games. For perspective this is like the NHL playoffs. Dallas played 10 games in 20 days.

11) Aside from not having to worry about classes, holding it during the vacation period ensures teams do not have to follow the NCAA’s daily and weekly hour limitations. I don’t think teams would go over those limits but it does eliminate the requirement for one day off each wk.