From the Dept. of "Is The Qualification Round a Playoff Round?": The NHL tells ESPN that stats from the play-in and round-robin games ARE PLAYOFF STATS, and will be tabulated as such. This comes after the league officially named stats-based regular-season award winners today: David Pastrnak and Alex Ovechkin shared the Rocket Richard (goals); Tuukka Rask and Jaroslav Halak won the Jennings Trophy (goals against); and Leon Draisaitl won his first career Art Ross Trophy (points).
Don’t give Alex Ovechkin and David Pastrnak that Rocket Richard Trophy yet. NHLPA executive director Don Fehr tells ESPN that there’s been no collectively bargained decision on where statistics from the “qualification round” are going to be counted. NHL commissioner Gary Bettman said that “for the purposes of nomenclature, record keeping and NHL Awards for the 2019-20 regular season has been deemed to be completed.” But could the players' chase for 50 goals continue?
What if the NHL has a positive COVID-19 test during its season restart? Said deputy commissioner Bill Daly: “Our medical advisors [believe] that a single positive test, depending on the circumstance, should not necessarily shut the whole operation down. Obviously we can’t be in a situation where we have an outbreak that will affect our ability to play. But a single positive test, throughout a two-month tournament, should not necessarily mean an end for the tournament.”