PATIENCE IS KEY FOR NHL REGARDING REST OF SEASON
The NHL shouldn’t rush to judgment on the rest of its regular season.
Instead, the best bet for commissioner Gary Bettman, deputy commissioner Bill Daly and the league’s 31 owners is to play the waiting game before deciding what the next step will be with the league on pause, along with the rest of the major sports because of the spread of the novel coronavirus.
If all had gone has planned, the league would have been heading into the final week of its season with all seven Canadian teams in action on Hockey Night in Canada on the final Saturday night of the season.
It would have included rivalry matchups with the Montreal Canadiens closing out against the Toronto Maple Leafs, while the Edmonton Oilers were scheduled to face the Calgary Flames in the Battle of Alberta.
The Winnipeg Jets were on the road against the Arizona Coyotes, Sidney Crosby and the Pittsburgh Penguins were going to finish the season versus the Ottawa Senators at the Canadian Tire Centre and the Vancouver Canucks were hosting the Vegas Golden Knights in what could have been a pivotal game in the playoff picture in the Western Conference.
But the reality is the league has time before making a decision on what the next step is when — and this is a big IF — the NHL does decide to resume this season. Bettman and Daly will take their directives from the American Centers for Disease Control and Health Canada before a determination is made on when players will be allowed to return to rinks for what would be a short camp before resuming action on the ice.
Blues vice-president and general manager Doug Armstrong told ESPN 101.7 in St. Louis on Tuesday that teams received a memo from the league that players won’t be returning to the rinks before April 15. That’s no surprise, but the NHL is hopeful there will be a point where players will be allowed to work out together and skate in small groups.
“Those are just timelines.
They go a week or two at a time and they don’t want to get too far ahead,” Armstrong said. “We don’t think we’re going to go from shelter-in-place (training) to having large groups around, but we’d love to get the guys still in town back training in groups of five or six or seven at our practice facility.
“We’re still April 15 away from that, and probably a little bit longer if you watch the government news. They shut everything down until April 30. We don’t want to be penny-wise and pound-foolish. Sport is such a small part of what’s happening with society. We want to make sure we’re good citizens, and we’re as sports leaders carrying the torch for every one on how to respond and how to react in this crazy time.”
Ideally, the Blues would like the opportunity to defend their Stanley Cup championship and, if at all possible, the NHL would like St. Louis to get that chance with a full 82-game schedule under its belt. If the league makes the decision to cancel the rest of the regular season too hastily, then it can’t turn back on that move, so they have to be careful because nobody is sure where this will go.
There’s still a lot left to be decided in both conferences as far as the final wild-card spots go and that’s why the league would like to get all 82 games completed.
“They haven’t given us any date. They probably have a date in mind and I don’t blame them for not sharing it because they probably hope we can get back earlier,” Armstrong told the station. “They have been consistent that they want to have an 82-game schedule next year, so you have to work back from when that can start to when it can finish.
“I don’t think they want to go in July next summer based on what I’ve been hearing. We want to have a normal playoff and regular season next year. You can condense that regular season (without) an all-star game and maybe not that seven-day break. I’m a little bit nervous about that because you want to make sure the players are healthy, and I don’t think it’s great. You want to be careful not to play 82 games in 164 days.
“The wear and tear on the body, we have to be smart about this. I know Mr. Bettman and the union representatives understand that, also. I think there’s a date they have in mind that they’re not sharing with us and I think that’s the best way to go — not sharing it and hoping this gets behind us sooner rather than later.”
Ideally, the league would like to finish the season and the best plan may be to wait until the end of April to see where this situation is at before deciding on the next step.