Caps fans on Good Friday morning, I hope you all had a spooky Halloween and are prepared for a great weekend (with less scares).

The MLS playoffs continue apace, with the Caps returning home to face LAFC in the second game of their playoff series. They will need a win to keep their season alive and force a decisive third game. After a decent performance in the first game, they will look to seize the initiative and avoid another disappointing first round exit.

But for the first time in a long time, we don't have any midweek action to catch up on, so I'm going back to a piece of news that first broke earlier this month. According to the Athletic's Paul Tenorio, MLS is considering what many fans have long been calling for: a switch to a fall-spring calendar.

The move would bring MLS in line with many (but not all) major leagues around the world and, perhaps more importantly, as the league continues to grow, it would also align their transfer windows.

The idea would be to make the move at or around the 2026 World Cup, something that would (hopefully?) come with a number of other moves designed to help continue to grow the league after its biggest moment yet in North America.

You've probably read about it, but if not, there would be a five-week winter break, a nod to the large parts of North America where football isn't particularly fun to play in December, January and February.

And therein lies the most obvious flaw in this plan. Unless you trust global warming to make Montreal, Minneapolis, Boston and a half-dozen other cities pleasant in the winter months (which we can't rule out in a few decades), that would lead to fan interest in the In most cases these markets decline.

While Vancouver currently has a domed stadium, this may not be the case forever. And while Vancouver is certainly not Montreal, I would imagine the February games really won't be fun for fans (especially competing with the Canucks, assuming they ever become competitive). The Canadian Championship could also fall into chaos if the Canadian Premier League doesn't change its schedule (and why would it?).

I don't blame MLS for trying to make this move, which would be a big step from a transfer perspective (we saw the inconvenience that the embarrassment of the transfer window brought last year). And I could see an argument that moving the regular season start and playoffs from a football-dominated time to a fairly quiet time (before the NBA and NHL postseasons) would increase fan interest.

But I just can't imagine a solution to the weather problem, especially considering how important game day revenue and interest is to the league. Maybe you could extend the winter break by playing the Leagues Cup in the southern US. Or perhaps a Clausura/Apertura-like format would combine the best of both worlds.

But anyone who watched the national teams' games in Edmonton and Minneapolis during the last World Cup qualifying round can tell you that the quality and safety of the games will suffer under this proposal, with no clear financial benefit. I certainly see an argument for making the work of CSOs easier. And this might help address my longstanding discontent with MLS playing during international breaks. But these do not outweigh the larger problem here.

It will be interesting to see how MLS handles this in the future. From Paul's reports, this is far from a done deal, but the league is taking it seriously. The devil is always in the details, but at the moment I'm skeptical that this could ever be a viable move.

The best of the rest

A look ahead to the crucial playoff second leg on Sunday evening.

A look at how Montreal's Caden Clark revived his career and became one of MLS' breakout stars.

The shocking result of the playoffs so far was that defending champions Columbus Crew were defeated at home by the New York Red Bulls.

Take a look at the finalists for Canadian Premier League Player of the Year.

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