There are more questions than answers for the NHL right now

Conor Sheary really didn’t know what to say.

To be clear, the reporters on the other side of the rope weren’t quite sure what to ask.

On Tuesday, before their most recent and possibly final — for a while at least — game in Newark, N.J., the Pittsburgh Penguins’ forward was asked a clumsy question: What did he make of hockey and sports overall being impacted by coronavirus?

“It’s a little scary to think that it seems like it’s inching a little closer to affecting more people around here,” Sheary said. “But I think people are taking the right steps, and you’re getting the right information from the right people. If everyone uses that to their advantage, I think we’ll be all right.”

If changes were happening by inches Tuesday, they occurred by parsecs Thursday when the NHL suspended play indefinitely.

The league was careful with the vocabulary it used when a statement from commissioner Gary Bettman was issued after the decision.

Bettman said the “National Hockey League will pause the 2019-20 season.”

If and when that pause is lifted, there are plenty of questions of how the NHL will resume. And there are likely not many answers at this point.

Here are a few of most common or pressing:

The schedule

Given the compacted nature of the NHL’s schedule, especially in March and April, delaying or rescheduling even one game is a considerable challenge. Doing so for days, weeks or months is all that more daunting.

Add in the fact 11 NHL teams share arenas with NBA teams — who also are pausing play — and finding open dates to squeeze in all those games is a headache-inducing task.

If there’s a “convenient” time to have a pandemic during the NHL’s season, it’s now because there are very few nonconference games remaining on the schedule, and traveling across the continent is less of a factor.

In the event things are “paused” into the summer, is there a date of no return? The NHL Draft is scheduled for June 26-27. And pending free agents’ contracts expire July 1.

The NHL can pause things for only so long before they have to be outright canceled.

The salary cap

Perhaps the most complicated question is how it relates to the NHL’s finances, specifically with the salary cap.

Each NHL players’ contract is divided over the number days in the NHL’s regular-season calendar, provided they are on the NHL roster.

How does a pause of one day or 30 days or beyond impact that? No one seems to know, and it appears the NHL and NHL Players Association still are working that out.

A delay in this season has ramifications on next season with regards to the cap, as well. The league’s cap is directly tied to league revenues from the prior season.

So if the league cancels games or even plays without fans in attendance, that could lower the cap for the 2020-21 season. The NHL relies on ticket revenue far more than the NBA, MLB or the NFL.

Training

What are the players allowed to do during this pause? Not much, at least in groups.

The NHL has recommended against informal skates such as those players conduct in the days leading to training camp or even traveling independently during this time.

Even a few days off of skates can have an adverse impact on a player’s conditioning. In the event of a delay lasting weeks or months, one would imagine a “mini-training camp” for a few days would be in order before resuming play.

This is an unprecedented situation for the entire NHL as well as sports in general.

Answers to these questions and many others could come by the hour, but the questions might change just as quickly.