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In an NHL video conference call Monday, Ottawa Senators forward Brady Tkachuk revealed that his teammates who were diagnosed with COVID-19 are "doing well."

"We're a tight group, so we're always in contact with one another," Tkachuk said, according to The Canadian Press.

Two unnamed Senators players were separately diagnosed with the coronavirus in the days after the NHL shut down operations March 12 amid the worldwide pandemic. Gord Wilson, a member of the club's radio broadcast crew, also tested positive.

"All of us are concerned about (the Ottawa players) and everybody impacted by it," Tkachuk said.

Two players on the Colorado Avalanche have tested positive for COVID-19, the only other known cases to date among NHL players.

Before the NHL's pause, the Senators held a 25-34-12 record, with Tkachuk chipping in 21 goals and 23 assists across 71 games in his sophomore season.

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With no live sports to tune into these days, the best us fans can do is rewatch old classics.

Monday night gave us the perfect opportunity to do so, as the NHL livestreamed Game 1 of the 1983 Western Conference Final, when Wayne Gretzky and the Edmonton Oilers trounced the Chicago Blackhawks 8-4 to set the tone for a commanding series sweep. The Great One notched one goal and four assists, while fellow future Hall of Famers Jari Kurri and Mark Messier had four and three points themselves, respectively.

Watch the full replay of the stream below:

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Members of the NHL community are showing their appreciation for medical professionals battling the coronavirus pandemic on National Doctors' Day in the United States.

Toronto Maple Leafs captain John Tavares expressed concern over the situations in both his current and former NHL homes while acknowledging those who are most at risk.

Nashville Predators forward Nick Bonino gave thanks to numerous types of healthcare workers, including doctors, nurses, and therapists.

Boston Bruins general manager Don Sweeney thanked healthcare professionals who are battling the crisis in his team's city and around the world.

"It's about people who are on the front lines of this in the hospitals, the nurses, doctors, (and) emergency responders," Detroit Red Wings forward Dylan Larkin said, according to the team. "They're the real heroes in this, so I appreciate everything they're doing for us right now."

The U.S. first observed Doctors' Day in 1933. It was declared a national holiday in 1990.

In Canada, it's held on May 1.

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The Calgary Flames and Edmonton Oilers are letting go of a significant number of employees in the wake of the coronavirus pandemic.

Calgary Sports and Entertainment Corporation is laying off approximately half of its full-time workforce - or about 150 people - for 60 days beginning April 13, the Flames announced Monday. The affected employees were given two weeks' notice.

The team is also implementing salary reductions of 10% to 25% for the remaining staff, with the rate of the respective reductions increasing with salary levels, meaning executive management will take the highest percentage cuts.

Calgary will initiate an unemployment benefit plan for the laid-off employees, which will provide an Employment Insurance top-up payment to those affected.

Meanwhile, Oilers Entertainment Group is temporarily reducing its staff by 139 employees and trimming compensation for those still working from home, the club announced Monday.

OEG will ensure that all non-executive employees - whether they've been laid off or are still working from home - will continue to receive 75% to 90% of their respective salaries. That mirrors the Flames' salary reductions, but Edmonton's move applies to all staff rather than just those who remain.

The Flames reportedly informed hourly workers earlier this month that they wouldn't be compensated for lost shifts during the shutdown, though the club reversed course and implemented a compensation program for part-timers.

On March 24, the Oilers' senior hockey and business executives decided to temporarily forgo half to all of their respective salaries to help the organization financially.

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Los Angeles Kings head coach Todd McLellan took an unsurprising stance when asked about a reportedly proposed draft lottery tournament if the 2019-20 season is officially canceled.

"I'm not a fan of it. Not one bit," McLellan said Monday, according to The Athletic's Lisa Dillman.

Last week, one team executive suggested the league could hold a tournament in which lottery teams would compete for the top selection if the season is lost, according to The Athletic's Craig Custance.

But McLellan's Kings are near the bottom of the standings (28th), so it's easy to see why the bench boss has an issue with the idea.

"For me, it's a little counterintuitive to do it that way," McLellan said, according to the Los Angeles Times' Jack Harris.

With the season currently on pause, the Kings would hold 9.5% odds to land the No. 1 selection under the traditional lottery format.

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The Edmonton Oilers have told defenseman Philip Broberg they want him to stay in Sweden next season rather than make the leap to North America, according to The Edmonton Sun's Jim Matheson.

The Oilers selected Broberg with the eighth overall pick in the 2019 draft. He played this season with Skelleftea AIK in the Swedish Hockey League.

"Obviously when you take a player eighth in the draft and he’s a defenseman you want some offense, but Philip was an 18-year-old playing in a men’s league this season,” Oilers general manager Ken Holland said. "We feel he’s in a good place at Skelleftea, Philip was happy this year and we’d like to see him on more specialty teams next season."

Broberg recorded just one goal and seven assists in 45 contests while averaging approximately 14 minutes of ice time per game in his first season with the Swedish club.

Holland believes Broberg's lack of production so far has been due to his role. Turning 19 in June, Broberg mainly served as one of his team's bottom-pairing defensemen. Holland also pointed to a similar situation at the world junior championship but is hoping to see more from him at next year's tournament that will take place in Alberta.

Oilers defenseman Oscar Klefbom took a similar path after being drafted 19th overall in 2011. Klefbom spent two seasons in the same Swedish league before coming over to join the Oilers' organization as a 20-year-old.

Holland added he's not in a huge rush to get Broberg into his team's lineup, and is willing to wait for him to develop adequately.

"We’re hoping Broberg can be a (NHL) player at 22 years of age. We hope he’s an impact player," Holland said. "To me that means top-four defenseman, No. 1 goalie, or one of the top seven or eight forwards. That’s what impact means to me."

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While major professional sports are on hiatus, theScore's writers are exploring what they'd do if this pause allowed for changes to the rules and structures of various leagues. After tackling Major League Baseball in Part 1, the National Hockey League is up next.

Reimagine the draft

The current draft lottery system is flawed. Since lottery odds are determined by inverse order of regular-season standings, teams eliminated from playoff contention early (Detroit this year and Ottawa last year) have no incentive to win games down the stretch. This produces an influx of AHL and junior call-ups, too much crease time for backup goalies, and other measures designed to curtail on-ice success. Realistically, can you blame these clubs? Finishing dead last in the NHL gives a team an 18.5% chance of obtaining the first overall pick. Finishing 25th earns a 6.5% chance. The wrong crowd is being rewarded.

But what if the draft order was determined by points collected after elimination from playoff contention, as it would be under the so-called "Gold Plan" first introduced in 2012 at the Sloan Analytics Conference? Teams would have to keep trying to win after being eliminated from the playoff race in order to claim the No. 1 pick. Under those terms, all 82 games for all 31 teams matter. Now, a potential obstacle for this proposal is education. The lottery is already a convoluted exercise, an event that can be hard for casual fans to wrap their heads around. Effective communication would be paramount here.

As for the draft itself, I have a solution to the periodic debate around first-year eligibility rules. What if the NHL introduced a hybrid draft, in which the opening five rounds are reserved for 18-year-old players and the final two rounds are reserved for players aged 19 or 20? The current rules - players must be 18 years old by Sept. 15 of the draft year and under 20 years old by Dec. 31 in order to be eligible - seem perfectly fine, but over the years, many within the hockey world, including NHL general managers, have suggested that raising the entry age to 19 would be better for the sport.

Advocates of the higher draft age argue most players could use more time for mental, physical, and emotional development, while teams could benefit from an extra season of evaluation. In this hybrid iteration, early and late bloomers get their respective dues and, over time, scouts would probably strike out less frequently at the draft table.

Clean up officiating

The NHL routinely touts its referees and linesmen as the best in the world. I'm not here to make a case against that claim; officials' jobs are incredibly difficult and, on aggregate, I believe they get far more calls correct than incorrect. But one area in which the league could improve is transparency. Aside from occasional reports about certain officials losing out on playoff assignments because of poor performance, there's no external accountability for refs and linesmen. Mistakes are made, fans and media go nuts, and there are no explanations or repercussions.

Why can't a member of the crew speak to a pool reporter postgame to provide the officials' side of the story? Maybe fans would learn something new about the rulebook, or about how hard it is for a human being to be mistake-free on the job. Maybe we'd start accepting the fact that officials are people too, and collectively give them a break every once in a while. The current protocol - virtually no transparency for missed or blown calls except after extreme circumstances in the postseason - creates a barrier between officials and many of the game's other stakeholders, most notably fans.

While we're on the topic of officials, why is it that only members of the Professional Hockey Writers Association vote on the recipient of the Lady Byng Trophy? Don't those at ice level, such as refs and linesmen, have infinitely better intel on players' gentlemanly conduct? Including them in the voting block for that award would also help bridge the gap between officials and fans. Just a thought from a PHWA member.

Another officiating issue can be traced to the rafters of every NHL arena. It's been proven time and again that off-ice record-keepers - part-time officials who track shots, faceoffs, takeaways, giveaways, hits, etc. from the press box - don't log game events in a uniform manner. On the surface, this may seem an inconsequential issue, but standings points, award cases, and career legacies are all ultimately determined by these results.

Consider the Vezina Trophy. How much of that award's narrative revolves around a statistic like save percentage? If an off-ice worker in one particular arena is a generous shot-counter, the resident team's goalies will have save percentages that look much better than they should over the course of a full season. It's possible the long-awaited arrival of player and puck tracking will solve this recording glitch. That would be fantastic. Accurate stats are important. Until then, though, these snafus should be addressed in some way. Maybe the NHL could hire a team of auditors to fact-check and correct inconsistencies?

Widen the ice surface

Admittedly, this proposal is both unoriginal (see: Mark Messier's plea way back in 1987) and a hard sell - hence its position further down this list of ideas. It's true that players are bigger, faster, and stronger than when the game was first conceived. Advances in equipment have helped raise the speed of play to a previously unimaginable caliber, while the introduction of the four-official system in the late 1990s added an extra body to an already-crowded playing surface. Yet the NHL's ice surfaces have remained roughly 200 feet long and 85 feet wide.

I truly believe widening the rink by 10 feet would decrease the number of unintended collisions - which would hopefully limit concussions - and increase the level of creativity - which would hopefully promote scoring. You might say, "Well, scoring is already up and the game is in great shape, thank you very much. Leave it be." To that, I'd say, "You're totally right, but short-term pain could make the game even better in the long run." It's time to modernize ice surfaces around the league.

Of course, one gigantic obstacle for this proposal is money. The cost of such rink renovations would be tough to swallow, while the revenue lost in removing a row or two of premium seating makes for a difficult pitch to owners.

Low-hanging fruit

Now for some quick hits:

• Switch to a 3-2-1 point system, wherein a regulation win is worth three points, an overtime/shootout win is worth two, and an OT/shootout loss is worth one. As any hockey fan knows, the current point-allocation system creates false parity within the standings.

• Extend 3-on-3 overtime beyond five minutes. Whether a seven-minute extra session or a 10-minute one, a move to minimize the number of shootouts per season would be better for everyone. The NHL hit a home run with the 3-on-3 format in 2015. Five years later, it simply needs a minor tweak.

• Shorthanded teams shouldn't be allowed to ice the puck without consequence. It's never made much sense that a team killing a penalty - i.e. a team in the wrong - should get a free pass on icings. To keep the game moving at a reasonable pace, a shorthanded team should be assessed a minor penalty if it ices the puck three times during a single penalty kill.

• Give us more injury information, please. With fantasy leagues and betting taking on larger roles in society and sports, eliminating the "upper-body" and "lower-body" classifications could help better engage both casual and hardcore fans.

John Matisz is theScore's national hockey writer.

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