NHL ponders leaguewide coronavirus policy
Individual clubs already have restricted post-game media access to dressing rooms
TORONTO — It’s not business as usual.
Not any more.
The spreading coronavirus, which on the weekend caused the IIHF to cancel the upcoming women’s world championship in Halifax later this month, is also causing the NHL to re-evaluate how it goes about its business.
The rink is still open. But dressing rooms are closing one by one.
On Friday, the San Jose Sharks shut their dressing room doors to the media. A day later, the Los Angeles Kings, Dallas Stars, as well as the New York Rangers, New York Islanders and New Jersey Devils closed off access reportedly “for precautionary reasons.”
According to Los Angeles Times reporter Helene Elliott, Kings goalie Cal Petersen wore a pair of gloves while speaking to reporters in a newly designed interview area at Staples Center.
“New materials and information on best practices were distributed to the Clubs at the end of last week,” NHL deputy commissioner Bill Daly told Postmedia News in an email on Monday. “Nothing new to report at this point beyond that. The situation continues to evolve very rapidly and we continue to monitor on an hour-to-hour (or really minute to minute) basis.”
A week ago at the GM meetings in South Florida, NHL commissioner Gary Bettman had said that there was not a leaguewide policy concerning media or fan interaction. It was up to individual clubs to decide the best way to limit exposure. But days later, with more and more cases popping up and the international calendar shrinking, his opinion could be changing.
“It may be the prudent thing to do,” Bettman, speaking at last Saturday’s Florida Panthers game, said of coming up with a leaguewide policy limiting media access.
“As you all know, the locker-room is an intimate environment and players are not always fully clothed. It may be best to have media accessibility at a podium for everybody’s health and safety, not just the players’, but yours (the media).
“And it’s different than fans being in the stands, particularly because our players play in a closed environment.
“So we’re focused on the fact that with the tightness, the crowdedness and the intimacy of post-game availability may need to be adjusted while we’re focusing on the coronavirus.”
It’s too early to tell if the next step is the cancellation of games or playing hockey in front of empty seats. Last week, both Bettman and Daly said it was “premature to pick any one of those possibilities.” But they both acknowledged that this is a rapidly evolving situation. Each day brings more news and more updates from Health Canada and the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, which the NHL has no choice but to act upon.
“We’re dealing with interesting — to say the least — and challenging times from a medical standpoint and we want to make sure we’re doing the prudent things for everybody,” Bettman said last week.
“We’re aware of and focused on all possibilities. We’re aware of what’s happening in other places in the world. We understand that things may evolve or change and we also understand that we’re going to have to react to it in a professional and timely and sensible basis.”