NHL officials still have not abandoned their plan to start the 2020-21 season on Jan. 1, and to get in a standard-issue 82-game regular season.
Not publicly, anyway.
But assuming they also remain intent on having the 2021-22 season begin in early October, as was the norm in the pre-pandemic world, those league executives are ignoring either reality or the calendar.
Or both.
There's little, if any, evidence at this point to suggest that a significant number of fans would be allowed to attend games in most, if not all, league cities at the first of the year, and that's critical in a league that relies heavily on gate revenues.
And even if, say, Santa Claus delivered a miracle cure for the coronavirus on Dec. 25 -- that seems about as likely as any other upbeat scenario at this point -- the league would be trying to shoehorn a schedule that generally spans about 6 1/2 months into a considerably shorter period.
That is why, as Vegas owner Bill Foley said recently, a schedule consisting of something in the neighborhood of 48 to 56 games is much more likely.
And that's with the usual built-in breaks in the schedule, such as "bye weeks" and the all-star break, removed.
While the regular season would stretch past its usual end date in early to mid-April, Foley said the Stanley Cup playoffs would be concluded before the summer Olympics begin July 23, which is little more than a month after they generally end.
While the league, which earned widespread praise for the postseason tournament it staged in Toronto and Edmonton, presumably is preparing for a variety of possible starting dates and season lengths, it seems inevitable that the schedule will be more condensed than usual, that games on consecutive nights and three-games-in-four-days stretches will be more the rule than the exception.
How all of that would affect the Penguins, who have several core players -- Sidney Crosby, Evgeni Malkin and Kris Letang -- moving into their mid-30s, is impossible to predict with any certainty since the situation is unprecedented.
Might they benefit from a shorter regular season with fewer games, making 2020-21 more of a sprint than the marathon of a typical season?
Or would it hurt that fatigue could become more of a factor than usual, that older players will have less time to rest between games and to recover from normal bumps and bruises, let alone significant injuries?
Jim Rutherford acknowledged that there's no way of knowing how teams would deal with a condensed schedule, but was adamant that it would not cause problems for the likes of Crosby, Letang and Malkin.
"Our core guys can play under any circumstances," he said. "I don't have any concerns about them. Their ability allows them to adjust. ... I don't think it's about age. I think it's about how each individual prepares, and how they prepare for whatever situation is in front of them.
"I know the guys who have been here longer, they know how to prepare. They knew how to prepare to win Cups. They know how to prepare, and the new guys will have to fall in line."
He noted that the Penguins "moved out a couple of older guys" since the end of the season, an apparent reference to to Patrick Marleau and Patric Hornqvist, and said he feels that some offseason roster changes should help the Penguins deal with any increased attrition a condensed schedule might cause.
"It's always important to have depth, and especially now," Rutherford said. "And I believe, based on what we did, we have pretty good depth."
And while conceding that there's no way of knowing how a particular club would cope with an unconventional schedule, Rutherford acknowledged that whatever challenges his team faces will be similar to those the other 30 clubs will have to confront.
"Anything that anybody does is going to be the same for every team," he said. "And it's going to be an unknown."