Penguins play waiting game
Players at home, await next steps
When the Penguins touched down Thursday afternoon in Pittsburgh, their flight landing less than two hours after the NHL announced it had suspended its season as the COVID-19 pandemic shook America, the Penguins knew about as much as we did about what the future would hold in the coming weeks.
A day later, the Penguins still did not have many answers. The news of the NHL and other leagues shutting down, hopefully, on a temporary basis, came in waves Wednesday and Thursday, while the Penguins watched from a Columbus, Ohio, hotel.
The league, in conjunction with the NHL Players Association, still was figuring out the next steps. The Penguins remained in a holding pattern until late Friday, when the NHL issued a memo to teams and players.
Obviously, the organization Friday was mostly concerned about the health of players, coaches and other team employees. When the team plane landed Thursday, no one among the traveling party showed any symptoms of the new coronavirus. No tests were administered. Nobody needed to be quarantined. That remained the case Friday morning, according to a team source.
The league has stated that there will be no mandatory testing for all players. If one shows symptoms of COVID-19, a test will be administered as appropriate.
“We will continue to monitor all the appropriate medical advice, and we will encourage our players and other members of the NHL community to take all reasonable precautions — including by self-quarantine, where appropriate,” NHL commissioner Gary Bettman said Thursday afternoon in a statement.
The Penguins told their players upon their arrival in Pittsburgh to go home to their places of residence in the area to await word on what happens next. A little bit of clarity came with that late-day memo from the NHL.
According to TSN, the memo stressed that NHL teams and players should adhere to a “self-quarantine” period that “should allow us to be in the best position possible to assess next steps regarding the potential resumption of play.”
Following that period, which could last several days, the NHL hopes to re-open team facilities for players to work on conditioning. That would be followed by “a training camp period” where organized team practices would be held.
Teams can communicate with their players, but, for now, team facilities are unavailable to players. Players can exercise at home or outdoors “while maintaining six feet of distance from others,” the memo obtained by TSN said. Players were asked not to skate at public rinks for now.
UPMC Lemieux Sports Complex, the team’s practice facility in Cranberry, was closed to the public Thursday and will stay shuttered through Sunday. Facility staff said “in the near future” information will be provided about next week. It is unclear what the team will be permitted to do there in the coming days.
NHL deputy commissioner Bill Daly told TSN Friday morning that “the general expectation is that players will remain in their club’s home cities absent unusual circumstances.” But Daly said if a player is separated from his family because his permanent home is elsewhere, he “should be permitted” to go there.
Friday morning, the Penguins, who since the start of February have acquired four new players via trade, were trying to sort out such logistics with their players. But the belief is that many, if not all, will remain in the Pittsburgh area.
Thursday, as the Penguins waited in Columbus to see if the game against the Blue Jackets that night was still on, the NHL announced that the suspension of its season would begin immediately, with the hopes of eventually resuming it.
That news came a day after the NBA suspended its season “until further notice” after the first instance of a player testing positive for the coronavirus. In addition to the suspension of those leagues, the NCAA canceled its remaining winter and spring championships, MLB pushed back the start of the regular season and the Masters golf tournament and Boston Marathon were postponed.
The NHL has not publicly stated how long the suspension will last. But the NBA, perhaps the most progressive of North American pro sports leagues, will take a hiatus of “at least” 30 days, NBA commissioner Adam Silver said.
Just twice since 1915 has the Stanley Cup not been awarded. In 1919, the final was canceled after five games after the Spanish flu hospitalized many Montreal Canadiens players and killed one player. And the Cup was not claimed in 2005 after that season was canceled due to a labor lockout.
The Penguins have played 69 of 82 games and sit in third in the Metropolitan Division behind Washington and Philadelphia.