NHL has to be ready to adapt and adjust as season about to begin
NHL commissioner Gary Bettman says the league has to be ready to adjust and adapt as it prepares to launch its abbreviated 56-game season during the second wave of a global pandemic.
In a conference call with reporters Monday, Bettman said the league has good health and safety protocols in place to try to limit the spread of COVID-19 among players and team staff during the upcoming season.
But he acknowledged that keeping the novel coronavirus at bay will be more of a challenge this season, with teams playing at their home arenas and travelling to other cities for away dates, than during the restart of the 2019-20 season in controlled “bubble” environments in Edmonton and Toronto.
While Bettman said it quickly became clear the hub cities would be safe for last year’s post-season, he said the idea of sending players back into a “bubble” for a sixmonth season was something he “couldn’t even ask.”
The next NHL season is set to begin Wednesday, but the league has already had to make adjustments due to the coronavirus.
The Dallas Stars have had to postpone their season opener this week because six players and two staff members tested positive, while the Columbus Blue Jackets, Pittsburgh Penguins and Vancouver Canucks have either held players out of practice or cancelled scheduled team activities due to potential exposure to the virus.
Also on Monday, the league announced it will hold two outdoor games in a unique, pictures setting: along the shores of Lake Tahoe at Edgewood Golf Course in Stateline, Nev.
Vegas will play Colorado on Feb. 20 and Boston faces Philadelphia on Feb. 21 on a temporary rink set up on the 18th hole at Edgewood, site of the annual American Century Championship celebrity golf tournament.
“We went to Tahoe, a very small group, and we were blown away by the setting, the blank canvas that it presents for us,” NHL chief content producer Steve Mayer said. “It’s hosted major events before. We felt very confident, especially in a short time frame, that we would be able to hold a world-class event and Tahoe will a great host. It was a pretty easy decision.”
The NHL has been conducting outdoor games since 2003 and the two in the NHL Outdoors at Lake Tahoe event will be the 31st and 32nd in the series.
The league had been looking for new sites to play outdoor games and decided Lake Tahoe was a perfect fit. The area will provide dramatic views, with towering snowcapped mountains rising above the massive lake on the state line between California and Nevada. The golf course offered plenty of space to set up a temporary rink and the resort at Edgewood allows the league to have a bubble-like environment.
No fans will be allowed to attend due to COVID-19 restrictions, but the visuals on TV and social media should be spectacular.
“We were looking for a picturesque, magnificent place with a lake and mountains that are snow covered,” Bettman said. “Lake Tahoe fit the bill and we’re thrilled to be going there.”