It was a rude awakening for the NHL yesterday. With Phase 2 voluntary workouts underway and excitement finally starting to build toward resuming the 2019-20 season later this summer, it seemed like everything might come to a screeching halt following yesterday’s revelation that 11 players had tested positive for Coronavirus, including Toronto Maple Leafs star Auston Matthews, since workouts began on June 8. Additionally, the Tampa Bay Lightning had to shut down their arena and stop all workouts with three players and two staff members among the many new COVID cases in the state of Florida. The NHL shut down in the first place in part to avoid the spread of the virus among its players and staff, but the early signs show that re-starting the league this soon might not be possible if this remains a key objective.
Not so fast though, says the league. Michael Russo and James Mirtle of The Athletic released an in-depth piece earlier today that details the many concerns that player and other stakeholders have with the NHL’s plans to resume play, especially following the positive test confirmed yesterday. Yet, the most important piece of the article is this: the NHL is not considering delaying the start of Phase 3 at this time. The next stage in the league’s plan to return to play is to open training camps on July 10, just under three weeks from now. This would set up the start of the expanded postseason for early August, a timeline that the league hopes would allow them to complete the season, take time off for the off-season, and begin the 2020-21 campaign before the start of the new year. As of right now, 11 positive COVID tests are not enough for the NHL to slow their plan of attack.
Of course, the one caveat to all of these plans is that the players have not yet agreed to the terms of the return to play plan. While the NHL and NHLPA have worked together to approve a potential format that the majority of teams and players felt was fair, there still needs to be a formal vote in which the players agree to return from the league’s pause. With positive cases on the rise, concerns over the conditions related to returning to play, and some players still struggling with simply returning to their teams, all well detailed by Russo and Mirtle, a “yes” vote may not be as easy as it once seemed.
I said it before, I’ll say it again…
This year’s Stanley Cup Final could be between the Dallas Stars and the Providence Bruins.
We could see entire teams taken off the ice and put into quarantine in the middle of the playoffs.
who cares. seeing any games this year will be a treat at this point. beggars cant be chosers.
I was warning, not complaining.
I’d watch a women’s roller hockey league.
no need to specify womens tbh
If you want to pretend that women’s hockey is the same caliber as NHL hockey, so be it, but…tbh, if we are being honest that’s not true.
But, I’d still watch it over TTO, I mean MLB.
If a couple of players get sick and need to be hospitalized (God forbid), maybe the rest of the rank & file will wise up and tell the league “NO way!.” I hope it doesn’t take something of that magnitude to wake the rest of the players up. J.D. (John Davidson) was on HC yesterday and said he knew four people that passed away from COVID-19, so it’s real and here to stay, for the time being at least. At the rate things are going the second spike will simply run into the fall/winter second wave, with no separation. It seems that the testing is nowhere near as accurate as it needs to be, as you see constant reports of “false positives” everywhere. My sister had a health episode where she works (unrelated to COVID), and she tested positive. Then, the do-over came back negative. This doesn’t instill trust in the process. I’m as hungry for real, live action, as almost everybody else is, but now the league is letting the $$$ blind them to the safety & well-being of the players and their families.
@forwhomjoshbelltolls – we may have to downgrade to “Miscellaneous KHL All-Stars vs Miscellaneous Other European Tour All-Stars” at this rate.
Mac, if you have access to SiriusXM (they actually have a free trial offer at the moment), it would be well worth your while to listen to todays hot stove league talk and a few of the other programs that were on today.
The whole point of phase two is to deal with positive test results now and allow those players to go into quarentine and build up antibodies so once we get to phase four the league will be ready to resume play.
These players could just as well test positive during training camp for next season if we cancel the current one, so we’d be right back to square one with nothing gained in the process. These are healthy atheletes, most will not even show any symptoms if they do test positive, so they’re not being put in a perilous situation.
How many players from the big 4 sports have been seriously ill from it? Hardly anyone if any…protest all over the country and you don’t see cops dropping dead and they were not wearing a mask. Just like the flu players will get it, recover and play again.
@mrmet6141 – Except that this is more akin to SARS, not the flu, making it more dicey. A couple of broadcasters got it, recovered, but didn’t describe it as a “walk in the park.” Georges Laraque got it and because of an underlying health condition, didn’t describe it as “smooth sailing, no worries.” It’s that pneumonia thing that complicates it.
@Gbear – I don’t have Sirius, but if that is a podcast on TuneIn, PlayerFM or Podbay, I could maybe dig it up. Any names I could search on?
@mac – Dave Pagnotta, Dennis Bernstein and Ryan Peyton do the Hot Stove league show. There were interviews with Craig Button and Brian Burke that were informative as well.
Some good points were made at how the league is using the different phases of this process to get back to playing the games. More of a thought out process than I had given them credit for
@Gbear – I ran across those names in searches, but the initial hits were pretty old. Then, I looked on Podbay & BINGO! They’re bookmarked now – Many Thanks! (It’s also on TuneIn, but you have to search for “The Fourth Period”, instead of “The Hot Stove”)
No need to alter the date yet. The key is the next round of testing. In other sports that have started around the world, there was a lot of positive test during the first round of tests after the players returned from wherever they were quarantining. The number of positive cases dropped in the second round of testing and things progressed from there. If the number of positive test go down in the second round of testing, the NHL can move forward. If the number doesn’t go down, then you alter the date.
Good. COVID-19 is b’s, top to bottom. 0.0003%.
Heeeeeee shoots and scores , beat him like a rented mule, can’t wait to hear the great announcers in Hockey to broadcast games on radio and tv. I use to enjoy watching roller derby many blue moons ago those girls could kick ass , Hello Mac , hope all is well and safe.