Some NHL players have expressed reservations about trying to reboot the NHL season. For instance, Montreal’s Brendan Gallagher wonders if a return would be worth it for a team such as his, unless the postseason bracket is expanded. The Canadiens would resume play 10 points out of a playoff spot with 11 games to go.

Minnesota Wild goalie Devan Dubnyk is reticent about players leaving family for that long while the shelter-in-place orders may still be in place in home cities.

Los Angeles Kings defenseman Drew Doughty is concerned about how extending the 2019-20 season so deep into the summer will impact the 2020-21 campaign.

Fair points. All of them. They make compelling arguments. So you know what I say to those guys?

Good. Stay home. Don’t play. See yinz next year n’at!

I’m not saying that to be a jerk. I’m serious.

For those three guys? They are right! What’s the point of them coming back?

Those teams either aren’t going to qualify for the playoffs. Or are unlikely to make a run even if the bracket is expanded.

So the NHL should tell them to stay home. After all, I thought the stated goal of the league was the importance of awarding the Stanley Cup.

Of course, we all know that’s not true. Not entirely anyway.

The main goal is to salvage as much money as humanly possible from this disaster of a season thanks to the covid-19 shutdown. And the owners want their teams to churn some cash from whatever TV and radio revenue they can still generate.

But I’m pretty sure 10-12 remaining games from the bottom half of the league would be just a drop in the bucket. Even if that bucket is considerably smaller than what the league was planning at the start of the year.

To the greater point, though, awarding the Cup is a major goal. Also, the quest for revenue more directly hinges on playoff TV dollars.

Therefore, why in the world would the NHL bother inviting back 10-14 rosters worth of teams that have no chance of winning?

That’s just 10-14 full rosters of unnecessary players who might get — or spread — the coronavirus. All those teams on the outside of the playoff picture looking in are nothing but additional risk at this point.

Just look at those three teams mentioned above. Montreal, Los Angeles and Minnesota are all currently out of the playoff mix. If the bracket expands to 24, the Kings would still miss out. The Wild would be 21st. The Canadiens 24th.

So every night those teams play, that’s a roster full of 20 more players, plus coaches, trainers, equipment guys and executives at the rink acting as potential contractors — or carriers — of coronavirus.

The more people needlessly at these podded arenas, the more likely the league makes itself ripe for another shutdown if positive tests spike.

Keep the bottom half of the league at home for the league’s own sake. That goes for the NBA, too, by the way.

Give these guys their wish and tell them to start planning for next year. If this league is really going to restart, dive right in with a traditional 16-team playoff format.

Or, as I’ve said before, open things up to short play-in tournaments to determine the two wild-card teams from each conference and make it 20 clubs, i.e., four teams to determine the two wild-card entries in each conference in best-of-three series.

If those teams don’t think that is worth their time, they can stay home, too.

Brian Metzer of the Penguins Radio Network gives his opinions on this topic as he joins me for this week’s Export Tire hockey podcast.

We also talk about some recent Penguins playoff anniversaries. One pleasant.

Penguins have two Game 7 overtime wins in their franchise history: Kunitz in 2017 and this one from Darius Kasparaitis in 2001 featuring one of the greatest celebrations ever. #PensQuarantineTheater pic.twitter.com/XIn25qLwKS

— Steve Mears (@MearsyNHL) April 3, 2020

One … um … not so much.

Metzer and I also dive into a pair of juicy “what if” conversations about the Penguins franchise.

1. How many more Stanley Cups would Mario Lemieux have won if he didn’t have so many health issues?

2. If the Penguins had remained in Pittsburgh, even without winning the Sidney Crosby lottery, would Evgeni Malkin have ever led them to a Stanley Cup?

Plus Brian and I mourn the passing of what would have been Sonic Temple weekend in Columbus, Ohio.

Listen: Tim Benz and Brian Metzer discuss the latest on the NHL schedule and what the Stanley Cup playoffs would look like

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