NHL Completes Season In Bubble; Tampa Bay Lightning Win Stanley Cup

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The Tampa Bay Lightning celebrate winning the Stanley Cup on Monday in Edmonton, Canada.

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Zach Bogosian of the Tampa Bay Lightning skates with the Stanley Cup following the series-winning victory over the Dallas Stars in Game Six of the 2020 NHL Stanley Cup Final at Rogers Place on Monday in Edmonton, Canada.

Bruce Bennett/Getty Images

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Zach Bogosian of the Tampa Bay Lightning skates with the Stanley Cup following the series-winning victory over the Dallas Stars in Game Six of the 2020 NHL Stanley Cup Final at Rogers Place on Monday in Edmonton, Canada.

Bruce Bennett/Getty Images

The Lightning won four of the six games in the Stanley Cup Final against the Stars. Lightning defenseman Victor Hedman was crowned the 2020 Stanley Cup playoffs MVP.

The post-season saw 24 teams in two hub cities, Toronto and Edmonton. Each team could only have a 52-member traveling party in the bubbles, with daily testing for each person.

Looking ahead to next year, the league appears unlikely to repeat the same bubble environment long term.

«Certainly not for a season,» Don Fehr, NHL Players Association executive director, told The Associated Press on Sunday. «Nobody is going to do that for four months or six months or something like that.»

He outlined one potential alternative: a protected environment where players could cycle in and out for a «substantially shorter period of time.» Think of it as a short-term bubble.

The NHL had its eyes on a tentative Dec. 1 start date for next season, but already acknowledged a later December or January start is possible.

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• Bubble