Yeah, I am rather sceptical. I agrre, This is how it should work in a normal world, but here we are speaking about a world rulled by dollars. NHL is long time now not anymore about sport but about business.
They will find a way to put Russia in Canadian group, and manage the schedule to avoid "sensible" games. Dollar will always buy anything in NHL lords eyes
no, just look at the calendar and at the official documents
it will be 3 groups of 4, the group winners and the best 2nd ranked team straight to the quarterfinals and all the others to the play-in matches (sort of a round of 16, but with less teams)