SENATORS, NHL HEAD INTO HOCKEY LIMBO
Shutdown leaves teams wondering what comes next, and when play will resume
The only game the Ottawa Senators will play for the time being is the waiting game.
The Senators and the NHL season have been put on hold amid worldwide concerns about the spread of the novel coronavirus, and it is quite possible that the season may be over with a cloud of uncertainty hanging over all 31 NHL teams.
Coming off a 3-2 loss to the
Los Angeles Kings on Wednesday night, the Senators headed home instead of carrying on to Chicago, where they were scheduled to face the Blackhawks on Friday night. That change in plans came in the wake of a decision by the league’s board of governors Thursday afternoon to suspend play. The Senators were scheduled to fly to Chicago on Thursday morning, but pushed that flight back a couple of hours to wait for a decision from the league. They headed from Los Angeles to Ottawa and arrived Thursday evening on their Air Canada Jetz charter.
League governors, including Senators owner Eugene Melnyk, took part in a 1 p.m. conference call with NHL commissioner Gary Bettman, deputy commissioner Bill Daly and the rest of the league officials. Bettman tabled the pause to the season during the call.
With the league announcing it will put its schedule on hold, the Senators aren’t sure what will happen with the final 11 games of the season and there’s a chance they may be scrubbed completely. They were supposed to close out a five-game road trip Sunday against the St. Louis Blues.
The league stated it intends to finish the regular season and hold playoffs.
“Our goal is to resume play as soon as it is appropriate and prudent so that we will be able to complete the season and award the Stanley Cup,” the league said in its statement.
The Senators played Saturday night in San Jose, where health officials had already warned the Sharks that they shouldn’t be playing in front of big crowds. If the schedule had continued, the Sharks were being told by the Santa Clara authority that they would have to play three home games this month in empty rinks. The league felt, in the end, it couldn’t afford to put the players and staff at risk.
Naturally, the decision to postpone the season will be a huge hit to the bottom line, but the league wasn’t left with a lot of choice in this matter. The NHL Players’ Association was also consulted and the league followed the lead of the NBA, which postponed its season Wednesday night. Major League Baseball also shut down its spring training and delayed the start of its season.
Many believe this is the right thing to do and that continuing to play would be irresponsible.
While the Senators are not going to make the playoffs, the remaining games on the schedule would be important to them in terms of deciding draft-lottery positioning. Currently holding San Jose’s No. 1 pick (11.5 per cent) and their own (13.5 per cent), the Senators would have a 25 per cent chance of winning the No. 1 overall pick in the annual crapshoot, which is tentatively scheduled to take place April 9 at 8 p.m. at the NHL Network studios in Secaucus, N.J.
The Detroit Red Wings are ranked No. 31 and have an 18.5 per cent chance of winning the lottery, while the Senators are sitting at No. 30 and the Sharks are No. 29.
The league may go straight to the playoffs when play does resume, and it’s anybody’s guess what might happen in that case. At this point, there will be no practices taking place during the shutdown.
Playoff revenue plays a huge role for teams in the bottom line because its shared among all 31 teams when hockey-related revenue is added up at the end of the season.
The Senators have a 25-34-12 record with 62 points through 71 games. They issued a statement Thursday expressing agreement with the decision by the league to pause the campaign.
“We are fully supportive of the measures taken by the NHL to suspend operations during the outbreak of the coronavirus,” the team said. “The health and safety of our community, fans, players and staff remain our top priority as this situation continues to develop. We are in touch with our event partners and taking the advice of public health authorities in regards to our other areas of operations with the highest priority on keeping our community safe. As more information becomes available, we will continue to communicate with the public about our operations and how the evolving situation may impact you.”
Not long after the NHL made its decision, the AHL’s board of governors held a conference call and elected to put its season on hold. The Belleville Senators were scheduled to leave Thursday to start a two-game road trip, with stops in Utica on Friday and Syracuse on Saturday. bgarrioch@postmedia.com
Twitter: @sungarrioch