Money matters
Postponements for good of game in third COVID-affected season
THE SITUATIONS are not entirely analogous, please believe me that I understand that, but when pro sports went on during World War II, I doubt that folks complained every day about patchwork rosters being inequitable.
That is the attitude we need to adopt as the NHL, as well as the NBA and NFL, try to power through a third consecutive pandemic-infected season.
It is not going to be fair. Some of it is going to be ugly. Postponements and rescheduling are not going to be fair to everyone. Some teams are going to be hit harder than others. Some teams have been hit harder than others. The Islanders, for instance, seem to be trapped in an unending ghoulish amusement park ride that has gone horribly out of control and will never end.
But that is the reality of what 2021-22 has become as the third straight season with a virtual asterisk attached to it. Here is the crux of the matter: The imperfect NHL and imperfect NHLPA are doing the best they can in an environment in which the landscape and rules change almost every day.
It strikes me as hilarious that so many of the fans who habitually support ownership in labor disputes are now reacting with outrage to announced postponements, specifically to the ones because of attendance restrictions in Canada.
“They’re doing it for the money!”
It took this long for people to notice?
But the “money” translates to hockey related revenue, which translates to the cap, which because of this newest wave of the virus, may not increase more than $1 million a year through at least 2024-25, which means that your favorite team may not be able to keep some of its best players, so you are darn right they are doing it for the “money.”
If COVID-related restrictions are in place to protect players’ health and safety, then both the NHL and NHLPA must ensure that teams are not rescheduled into scenarios in which they are playing six games in eight nights or eight games in 12 days. Health and safety must be foremost there, too. ➤ Brad Marchand, the poster boy for self-interest, thinks that NHL players who want to go to the Olympics should be permitted to do just that while the league plays on through the Beijing Games and teams dip into their taxi squads to replace the athletes who have opted to go to China.
In other words, he is suggesting that the Bruins should just play without their best four players — presuming that Marchand, Patrice Bergeron, Charlie McAvoy and David Pastrnak all would have chosen to go — while fans pony up full price to watch a hybrid NHL-AHL roster.
Playoff spot in jeopardy? Pshaw. Marchand wants a medal.
Yes, they do something similar in soccer. You know what else they do in soccer? Relegation.
Introducing your AHL Canadiens.
What should happen, and should have happened well before now, is that the NHL and NHLPA use whatever leverage they have to push the IIHF into demanding that the IOC move the hockey tournament to the Summer Olympics.
That is the answer.
The 2021 Goal Scorer of the Year is Alex Ovechkin, yesterday, today and maybe forever, the 2021 Goal of the Year was Connor McDavid’s one-onfour dash through the Rangers in Edmonton on Nov. 5 and the 2021 Offensive Play of the Year was Trevor Zegras’ alley-oop that was converted by Sonny Milano on Dec. 7 in Buffalo, quack quack.
But, lest we forget, the Play of the Year was Ryan Pulock’s glove save with an empty net behind him on Ryan McDonagh’s spina-rama with 1.9 seconds remaining to close out the 3-2 Game 4 of the Stanley Cup semis for the Islanders at the Coliseum.
McDavid and Zegras may be artistes, but no Cup playoff game in history has ever ended the way that one did. ➤ Flipped on Buffalo-Islanders on Thursday with the Sabres in their throwback classic uniforms and my eyes must have deceived me, for there I saw No. 89, Alexander Mogilny, lining up for a draw, until I was yanked into the present and recognized no, that was Alex Tuch at the circle.
There is no real telling about number retirements, but it was at least for the moment startling that the Sabres haven’t honored Mogilny by raising No. 89 to the postAud rafters, where it would hang beside his partner Pat LaFontaine’s No. 16.
And it was yet another reminder of the ongoing snub of Mogilny by the Hockey Hall of Fame selection committee, which has crossed the border into the territory of the outrageous.
Now that I think of it, I’d also have thought that the Sabres would have honored Jim Schoenfeld
by now by retiring the No. 6 he wore so well, but again my mistake, there must be no room at the top of the building that’s cluttered by all those Stanley Cup banners. ➤ Ross Colton, selected 118th overall by the Lightning in 2016, 13 slots after the Devils chose Evan Cormier and 20 slots after the Rangers chose Tarmo Reunanen, is going to turn out to be another of those Tampa Bay picks, isn’t he?
By the way, what in the world is the point of this rule about teams not being permitted to make emergency recalls of players making at least $1 million in the AHL? You know how many players that affects? Per the good folks at CapFriendly, it’s a sum of 16 players. ➤ New Year’s Snapshot. Elite Eight. In other words: the revenge of ye old Southeast Division: 1. Puddy Tats; 2. Candy Canes; 3. Caps; 4. Lightning; 5. Golden Knights; 6. Maple Leafs; 7. Avalanche; 8. Rangers.
Most Pleasant Surprises: 1. Rangers; 2. Red Wings; 3. Ducks; 4. Blue Jackets.
Biggest Disappointments: 1. Islanders; 2. Senators; 3. Canadiens; 4. Jets. ➤ Finally, that Brian Elliott — he’s the best playmaker the Rangers have had since The Great Gretzky, no?