It’s likely time for NHL to end season officially

I’m missing hockey. I’m missing family and friends. I’m missing the freedom to choose where and when I go places outside.

It’s depressing, not being able to go through the routines we used to take for granted. It’s heartbreaking watching more people lose their jobs every day. It’s painful seeing parks locked up to kids.

For all that, I recognize the need to trust the medical minds who have the necessary background to explain the long-term — and most likely longer-term — significance of self-isolation. We’ve all heard about the implications of returning to normalcy too soon. Prime Minister Justin Trudeau is telling us that every day.

At what point here does the NHL (and the CFL, NBA, MLB, the PGA Tour and every other major sports organization) take a deep step back and simply pull the plug on everything for the next three months? If that means we don’t crown a Stanley Cup champion, well, are we more comfortable with the alternative option of putting 15,000 or 20,000 in close quarters at any point in the foreseeable future?

Wednesday’s news that four more members of the Senators’ organization have tested positive for the novel coronavirus should hit home. We may never know exactly how the team contracted the virus, but it’s a lesson in what can happen to a group that spends so much time together. A total of five unnamed players, one additional staff member and colour analyst Gord Wilson, who all flew to and from California together on the final road trip before the shutdown, have tested positive. Fortunately, all appear to be on the way to full recovery.

That trip began in San Jose, where public health officials had signalled an alarm against mass gatherings before the Senators played the Sharks on March 7. Sharks officials dismissed the warnings and went ahead with the game against the Senators, along with a contest versus the Minnesota Wild on March 5 and the Colorado Avalanche on March 8.

The trip continued to Anaheim’s Honda Centre and the Staples Center in Los Angeles. At least six other pro athletes, including four members of the Brooklyn Nets and two players from the Los Angeles Lakers, also tested positive after playing at the Staples Center.

Back in Ontario, Toronto Mayor John Tory made it clear that all city-led public gatherings will be banned until at least Canada Day.

The City of Toronto made it clear that the ban doesn’t apply to professional sports teams, but doesn’t that put the Maple Leafs, Raptors, Argos and Toronto FC in effectively the same place that the San Jose Sharks were in with government officials a month ago?

Given the tragedy in the New York area, where more than 1,900 have already died from COVID-19 — roughly one-quarter of all virus-related deaths in the U.S. — it’s hard to believe any sense of normalcy could return within the next two months.

At this point in Ottawa, we might be best served to listen to the advice of Bluesfest organizers, who are crossing their fingers that the festival, scheduled for July 9 to 19, will not be cancelled.

“Right now, you are the best chance we have at making this summer festival happen,” Bluesfest officials told the public in a statement.

Yes, I’m missing live music, too. kwarren@postmedia.com Twitter.com/Citizenkwarren