KHL releases plan to award 2021-22 Championship that results in disappointment from many

In a bold move, the Kontinental Hockey League announced on Saturday that they will be cancelling the remainder of the regular season and jumping right into the Gagarin Cup playoffs on March 1st.

In a statement, KHL President Alexei Morozov said, "In order for the playoffs to take place, taking into account the current situation with the pandemic, as comfortably as possible for the participating teams and fans, the League will submit for approval by the KHL Board and Board of Directors and agreement with the FHR the decision not to play the remaining games of the regular season and approve a new procedure for determining the results of the regular championship this season.

There are several reasons for this, including the ongoing pandemic, there is a risk of infection of players in the remaining matches of the regular season, as they would have to fly to different cities. Therefore, the League decided to focus on holding the Gagarin Cup according to the optimal structure, when at each stage the matches take place every other day, and no more than four matches take place per day (two in each conference)."

Teams and players will be placed in quarantine before the start of the playoffs to limit the spread of COVID-19, which shutdown the league back on January 12th. This year's Gagarin Cup playoffs will be based on the team's point percentage.

In the Western Conference the matchups will be: SKA St. Petersburg vs Dynamo Minsk, Jokerit vs Spartak Moscow, CSKA Moscow vs Lokomotiv Yaroslavl and Dynamo Moscow vs Severstal Cherepovets.

In the Eastern Conference: Metallurg Magnitogorsk vs Barys Nur-Sultan, Traktor Chelyabinsk vs HC Neftekhimik Nizhnekamsk, Ak Bars Kazan vs Avangard Omsk and Salavat Yulaev Ufa vs HC Sibir Novosibirsk.

Not many are happy with this move.

"The cancellation of the regular season is a sad event," said Olympic gold medalist and Russian Hockey Hall-of-famer Alexander Pashkov. "For the second year in a row, the KHL has been disrupted. This will directly affect the development of Russian hockey. In most hockey countries, the championship continues, and the KHL has not been able to prepare. The crisis in the work of the league is obvious. We need to think about the further holding of the competition in order to avoid this in the future."

Several fans on Twitter have also voiced their displeasure, with some wondering why the regular season can't continue in a bubble like the NHL did in 2020-21.

Source: Sport24

Playoff matchups: Championat

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