Let’s play some damned hockey
The hockey world was not particularly stunned this week to learn that Las Vegas was suddenly out of the running to be one of two “hub cities” where 24 National Hockey League teams — 12 in each — will gather in as-yet-undefined “bubbles” to contest an improvised version of the 2020 Stanley Cup playoffs. Instead, all reports indicate Edmonton and Toronto will play host. Indeed, it took some typically inscrutable NHL logic to keep Vegas in the picture for as long as it was.
The official reason for disqualifying Sin City, and it’s a really good one, is COVID-19: In Clark County, Nev., where Las Vegas is situated, one in 140 people had tested positive as of Thursday, versus one in 204 Torontonians.
And whereas the first wave (may there never be a second) is all but over in Toronto, it is only just ramping up in Vegas. And let’s face it, that’s no surprise: Las Vegas Mayor Carolyn Goodman was a pioneer in the anti-lockdown movement, calling for a total and immediate reopening way back in April and (in a famously bizarre interview with CNN’S Anderson Cooper) offering her constituents as “a controlled group.”
But there was a much better reason not to park 12 NHL clubs, each seeking as normal and as sanitary an environment as possible in which to train, practise and play, in Las Vegas: Excluding T-mobile Arena, home of the NHL’S Golden Knights, where the playoffs would presumably have been played, there seem to be only four Nhl-sized ice surfaces in the entire city. Twelve teams, 12 morning practices a day … and four rinks? It’s doable in a pinch, but why bother? In Edmonton and Toronto, every team can have its own practice rink to use whenever and however it likes. Canadian cities also have the distinct advantage of multiple possible venues to hold the games.
Not long ago, in Toronto especially, this would have been a politically dicey proposition. With some very unfortunate exceptions, Canadians quite rightly take unkindly to special treatment for millionaire athletes and their billionaire employers. Considering the negligible benefits of being a hub city for empty-arena playoffs, the federal government’s decision to exempt NHL players from quarantine requirements upon arrival is all risk and no reward.
Furthermore, the NHL’S restart plan (like every other sport’s) relies on testing in large quantities and quickly — something Ontario in general and Toronto in particular have struggled with. Toronto is currently turning around just 17 per cent of tests within 24 hours. The goal is 60 per cent. If anything like a second wave arrives and pro athletes are seen to be jumping the queue, politicians will wind up regretting it.
All that said, by all means let’s play some damned hockey. I’m bemused by how many world-weary supposed sports fans feel compelled to declare the North American professional leagues’ attempts at completing or holding their seasons a waste of time, or unconscionably reckless, or both. These are some of the fittest young men in the world — COVID-19 mostly targets the opposite demographic — willing to essentially seal themselves off from the rest of society for months to make money and entertain us. Godspeed, I say. How anyone could be against watching something exciting on television, after nearly four months cooped up inside watching the news through our fingers, is utterly beyond me.
Europe’s soccer leagues have come back without mass COVID-19 outbreaks, and I’m not aware of anyone who wishes they hadn’t. Liverpool won their first English Premier League title in 30 years with weeks left to go in the schedule, but there are still intriguing battles for spots in European competitions, and a relegation battle involving two storied clubs in Aston Villa and West Ham. The FA Cup final on August 1 will pit either Arsenal or Manchester City against either Manchester United or Chelsea. That’s pretty much guaranteed to be a corker. In Spain, Real Madrid is a point up on defending champions Barcelona. In Italy, Lazio still has an outside chance to wipe the smirk off Cristiano Ronaldo’s face — four points back of Juventus with nine games to play. It has been a delight to watch.
As for the NHL comeback, some are talking derisively of the league awarding an “asterisk Stanley Cup.” I profess genuine bafflement at this. All the league has done, of necessity, is design a one-off qualification tournament: The top four teams in each conference get into the first round; the next eight square off in five-game series to join them. From then on in, it’s the regular format: four rounds of seven games each, 16 wins to bring home the Cup. There’s nothing foreign there. Heck, the first round proper was best-offive as recently as 1986.
Frankly, I was expecting something much stupider from the NHL, which has given us so many knee-jerk rules and gimmicks and bad calls over the years. If you’re worried about “asterisk Stanley Cups,” I’m afraid that Zamboni left the building 21 years ago when Brett Hull scored on Dominik Hasek with his skate in the crease. This is the best plan hockey fans could reasonably have hoped for. Make it so. Go Leafs.