League ready to adjust and adapt, Bettman says

Travel for road games means greater risk for virus exposure this year

Gary Bettman was hoping to put his feet up, if only for a day or two.

After handing out the Stanley Cup inside the Edmonton bubble to the Tampa Bay Lightning to conclude the pandemic- delayed 2019- 20 campaign back in September, the NHL commissioner expected a bit of down time before considering the league’s next steps.

He couldn’t have been more wrong.

“I laboured under the delusion that … we’d be able to take a breath,” Bettman said on a video conference call with reporters Monday. “When my plane landed back in the New York area the next day after the Stanley Cup was presented, the phone started ringing and we were back at it again.” Roughly 31⁄ months later, after

2 negotiations with the NHL Players’ Association, governments and various other stakeholders, hockey is set to start a shortened 56- game season Wednesday as COVID- 19’ s second wave continues to wash over large swaths of North America.

Bettman made it clear the NHL will have to be ready to adjust and adapt to whatever obstacles arise. “We understand that there is an element of risk, that COVID- 19 may impact one or more games. We also understand, as we have throughout, that in order to accomplish our goal we’re going to need to be flexible and agile in how we deal with whatever we’re confronted with.”

Unlike the summer, the NHL’s 31 teams will be travelling for road games instead of playing inside the bubbles the league erected in Toronto and Edmonton. There are 213 pages of protocols for players and clubs to follow, but there’s a much greater risk of exposure this time around.

“The protocols are not a suggestion or a recommendation,” Bettman said. “They will need to be done in order for us to address and get through the pandemic, and we will vigorously enforce them.

“We will be guided by the medical experts.”

The league has already had to make adjustments due to the coronavirus. The Dallas Stars have had to postpone at least two games after six players and two staff tested positive, while the Columbus Blue Jackets, Pittsburgh Penguins and Vancouver Canucks have either held team members out of practice or cancelled scheduled activities due to potential virus exposure.

Bettman said the league is going to play because it’s important for the game, because fans and players want it to happen, and because games could provide a small sense of normalcy for people.

“It would be cheaper for us to shut the doors and not play,” Bettman said. “We’re going to lose more money at the club level and at the league level by playing than by not playing.”

So how much are they talking in terms of the financial hit to a billion- dollar business that relies on fans attending games for roughly 50 per cent of its revenue?

“The magnitude of the loss when you add it all up starts with a ‘ B,’ ” Bettman said. “We’re out of the ‘ M’ range and into the ‘ B’ range.

“That’s just what we have to deal with and that’s what the clubs have decided they’re prepared to do.”

The league continues to investigate what led to the COVID19 outbreak in Dallas, but it seems to be coming to an end.

Deputy commissioner Bull Daly said that, although the league has robust measures in place, they’re changing as new information becomes available.

“We learn things every day with respect to the protocols — where they work well, where they can be improved,” Daly said. “We’re making daily modifications.”

Bettman said he NHL has included sponsors on helmets this season as a form of “revenue retention” to placate corporate partners because of the lack of fans in arenas and the abbreviated schedule.

But he stressed decals on helmets doesn’t mean corporate logos on jersey are next. “I don’t think anybody should jump to conclusions that because we’ve done this we’re now down a path to do a whole bunch of other things. The jury is still out on jersey signage.”