The only certainty about the NHL's return remains uncertainty.
The league appears to be making progress in its plan to restart the 2019-20 season, which was halted on March 12 because of the COVID-19 pandemic, but nothing is finalized.
Ideas are being kicked around, hypotheticals have leaked for public consumption and there is even an official "Return to Play" committee that includes the league's brass and representatives of the player's association.
Definitive solutions, however, are absent.
"We're just gathering information just like everybody right now," Blue Jackets general manager Jarmo Kekalainen said on April 20. "The safety of the people comes first, and once it's safe and there's a protocol in place and we can come back safely, we're going to do that."
Not much has changed in the 20 days since Kekalainen said those words, but information has come out in drips and drabs. It's clear the NHL wants to finish the season without canceling it, but there are no certainties about how to clear the obvious hurdles ahead:
