Risk-reward for the NHL not worth it
VANCOUVER — If you thought the prospect of getting a haircut is exciting, this will blow your mind: the Monday morning musings and meditations on the world of sports.
• South Korea, which is held up as a model in the fight against COVID-19, had to shut down bars and clubs again last week because one man has been responsible for 40-and-counting new cases.
The closure is considered indefinite.
The NHL, however, still believes it can salvage its season. By now, you’re aware of the plan — the latest iteration is the league will jump right into a 24-team Stanley Cup tournament — but with so much uncertainty, with so much about the virus, which is unknown, how can they even consider a restart?
If we’ve come to know anything about this pandemic, it’s how unpredictable the virus is and how one misstep can set this whole process back months.
In Seoul, it just took one man visiting three bars on one night to shut down the city. Yes, there are differences with the NHL’s plan but they’re still proposing upwards of 130 players congregate in one area to play a contact sport with coaches, training staff, medical people and a full television crew in attendance.
Sorry I want to see hockey as badly as anyone but not like this, not with so much at stake. Stay the course. The risk-reward here is not worth it.
• Patrick Johnston first reported in these pages there was trouble between Vancouver Canucks amateur scouting director Judd Brackett and the organization at the end of January. He’s reported it multiple times since.
Six weeks ago, I reported the relationship between Brackett and GM Jim Benning was strained over the autonomy of the scouting department.
But a “hockey insider,” reported it last week and suddenly it’s a big story. Sorry, one day I’ll understand how things work in the new media.
• Gratifying to see the response to TSN’s replay of the 1987 Canada Cup series. As someone who wrote the book on the subject, literally, here are some thoughts about Game 2, which aired Saturday.
This is the greatest hockey game ever played and I’m not sure if second place is that close.
It was an elimination game in a best-on-best tournament which featured 12 future Hall of Famers on Team Canada against Viktor Tikhonov’s best-ever team. The stars were all at the peak of their powers with the exception of Mario Lemieux, who was in the process of announcing himself to the hockey world.
Wayne Gretzky finished the game with five assists, including Lemieux’s game-winner in overtime. Lemieux scored three goals. Valeri Kamensky scored the game-tying goal with just over a minute left in regulation when he went oneon-four against the Canadian defence and scored on Grant Fuhr as he was being pulled down.
Find a better game. I’m waiting.
Gretzky calls it the single greatest game he ever played and 33 years later, his performance remains aweinspiring.