NHL faces tough decision on whether to end season
Cancelling season might seem premature but it sends strong message about safety
A member of the Ottawa Senators has tested positive for the coronavirus.
He’s the first. But he likely won’t be the last.
And this is where we praise the NHL for being proactive.
It was last Thursday when the league announced the indefinite suspension of its season. At the time, some called it was a premature measure.
Things have obviously changed since then, but remember, a week ago there had been no cases of coronavirus. But because there was a positive case of COVID-19 in the NBA, which shares arena space with the NHL, the thinking was that it was only a matter of time before the virus worked its way throughout the league.
The league was right in being overly cautious. It could have waited a day or two. It could have decided to play games in front of empty rinks. But by shutting the doors on Thursday — rather than a day or two later — it might have prevented the virus from spreading.
Now comes an even more difficult decision: knowing what we know about the virus and the inability to stop it from spreading, should the NHL go one step further and simply cancel the season?
At this point, calling it quits might sound premature.
After all, who knows what things will be like in May, June or even July. But if the NHL wants to send a strong message, not only to its fans but the rest of the world, putting everyone’s safety ahead of the sport could influence others in taking this even more seriously.
It might not be a popular approach. But it could be a responsible approach.
TAKE IT OR LEAVE IT
NHL deputy commissioner Bill Daly told Postmedia’s Bruce Garrioch that the league hasn’t discussed a drop dead date for cancelling the season (“I’ve got questions today asking if August is a possibility,” he said), but I can’t see the league playing games past July without also disrupting the 2020-21 season … The QMJHL is planning to hold next Wednesday’s draft online. It’s still a long way from now, but I imagine the NHL will do something similar with the June draft — and perhaps more importantly — the draft combine … Speaking of the draft, not having an under-18 championship could affect how scouts view players, especially those like potential top-10 pick Lucas Raymond, who had missed six weeks earlier this season because of an illness.
“Teams were all looking forward to seeing him at the U-18,” said TSN’S chief scout Craig Button, who compared Raymond’s disjointed season to that of David Pastrnak’s draft year, when he fell to 25th overall in 2014. “You’re probably going into a draft this year with a lot of uncertainty.”
FOR WHAT IT’S WORTH
I can’t help but think of Jack Hughes when hearing about Cole Caufield’s decision to return to the University of Wisconsin for his sophomore season. Caufield, who led all Big 10 freshmen in scoring with 19 goals in 37 games, was Hughes’ linemate at the U.S. National Development Team last year and was selected 14 spots after him in the draft. He’s eventually going to become a big-time scorer in the NHL. But like the five-foot-10, 170-pound Hughes, Caufield (five-foot-seven, 162 pounds) needs to get bigger and stronger first. Spending an extra year in college will help that. In hindsight, it also could have helped Hughes, who scored seven goals and 21 points in 61 games with the Devils this year … If the season is done, I would vote Edmonton’s Leon Draisaitl to win the Hart Trophy, Winnipeg’s Connor Hellebuyck for the Vezina, Nashville’s Roman Josi for the Norris, Vancouver’s Quinn Hughes for the Calder, Boston’s Patrice Bergeron for the Selke, Toronto’s Auston Matthews for the Lady Byng, and Edmonton’s Dave Tippett for the Jack Adams.
HERE’S ONE FOR YOU
It’s not just hockey players and the related operations staff that are affected by the coronavirus. A day after the NHL announced the indefinite suspension of the regular season, The Hockey News held a conference call with its full-time staff to tell them they were being laid off.
That’s awful news. And it’s uncalled for. The magazine, which has become the Bible for hockey fans, was in the middle of preparing its playoff preview. The playoffs might not occur, but that shouldn’t have mattered.
The Hockey News has survived lockouts and strikes in the past, because readers turn to the magazine for far more than game coverage. If we’re going to put pressure on team owners for paying support staff during this hiatus, then the same should apply to The Hockey News.
Here’s hoping publisher Graham Roustan does the right thing and continues to pay his workers to keep delivering the coverage that fans need more than ever at a time like this … A week ago, the NHL announced the salary cap could jump from $81.5-million to as high as $88.2-million. Now, with no revenue being generated, it might not change. That’s not good news for pending unrestricted free agent Taylor Hall. But it’s even worse news for the Toronto Maple Leafs.
LOST GAMES MIGHT COST OVECHKIN GOAL RECORD
Auston Matthews won’t get to 50 goals. Leon Draisaitl won’t get a chance to become the first player in 25 years to try and reach
130 points. Quinn Hughes and Cale Makar won’t get a chance to rub shoulders with Nicklas Lidstrom and become only the 10th and 11th defencemen to finish their rookie seasons with 60 or more points.
But the biggest loss of what looks like a lost season is what it means for Alex Ovechkin and his pursuit of Wayne Gretzky’s alltime goals record.
Ovechkin, who will tie with Boston’s David Pastrnak for his ninth Rocket Richard Trophy with 48 goals in 68 games if the season gets cancelled, is ranked eighth on the all-time list with 706 goals — 188 goals behind Gretzky’s 894 goals.
Ovechkin has already passed Luc Robitaille, Teemu Selanne, Mario Lemieux, Steve Yzerman and Mark Messier this season. And he would have passed Mike Gartner (708) and perhaps Phil Esposito (717) if there were more games to play.
But now, he has to look toward next year. And if he ends up falling short of Gretzky’s record, he will inevitably look back at all the time he’s been forced to miss.
Thirteen lost games might not seem like much. But for Ovechkin, who has averaged .61 goals per game over his career, it equates to another eight or nine goals that never found the back of the net.
Combine that with the 34 games he missed due to the 201213 lockout (Gretzky also missed 32 games in the shortened 199495 season) and the 82 games he wasn’t able to play in 2004-05 because of another lockout, and we’re talking about 80 lost goals — perhaps more.
In other words, they add up. Every goal counts. Every game counts.
For Ovechkin, who has now lost out on perhaps two seasons’ worth of goals, it could be the difference between becoming the all-time greatest goal scorer and finishing second.
BINGE WATCH THESE HOCKEY MOVIES
With the coronavirus keeping us at home with no live hockey to watch, here are my top five hockey movies to get you through the boredom.
Miracle
I hadn’t even celebrated my first birthday when Al Michaels delivered his famous line, “Do you believe in Miracles?”
But that doesn’t matter. You don’t have to be American to appreciate what the win over Russia at the 1980 Olympics meant for the U.S. This was their ’72 Summit Series — except in this story, the underdog actually won.
From the realistic hockey scenes to Kurt Russell’s Oscar-worthy portrayal of Herb Brooks, this movie does a fantastic job of making you care.
The Mighty Ducks
The flying V is ridiculous. So is the constant quacking. And the fact that this movie spawned an NHL team is, well, not one of the league’s finer moments.
But man, it’s fun. My son prefers D2: The Mighty Ducks, mostly because of the knuckle puck. But for anyone who grew up playing with Transformers and watching Inspector Gadget, this was our Slap Shot — or our Sandlot.
We all played on teams like the Ducks. Bad teams. Teams with mismatched gear, with players who couldn’t skate and with zero chance of winning. But we also knew that we were a Triple Deke away from victory.
Slap Shot
Full disclosure: I’m the rare hockey writer who can count on one hand the times that I’ve seen Slap Shot. I like the movie and can appreciate why it’s hilarious. But don’t ask me to recite specific lines.
The Rocket
The hockey scenes look authentic, because Mike Ricci and Sean Avery are both in the film. But it’s the historical context that I enjoy.
If you want to get an idea of how the star players of yesterday were different than star players of today, then watch the scene in the Rocket where Maurice Richard has to fight Avery’s character. That’s something you don’t see anymore.
Mystery, Alaska
Mike Myers plays a Don Cherry look-alike who says things like “This is hockey, OK? It’s not rocket surgery.”
And “I don’t care how fast a skater you are, if you don’t play this game with a big heart and a bag of knuckles in front of the net, you don’t got dinky-doo.”