We’re ready for the puck drop. DiManno,
For the love of God and hockey, drop the damn puck. Opening faceoff: TBA. With Toronto — centre of the universe, just ask us — as hub host. Likely. Maybe definitely. You could just about take it to the bank, even. Like a CERB deposit.
But — disclaimer on deadline — itty-bitty possibly not.
In eerily empty arenas, of course. No fans present, way physically if not emotionally distanced. Only a TV-eye view permitted. And it will be freakin’ strange, with the prospect of the Stanley Cup being raised in early October, or about the time the 2020-21 season would have launched in normal times. Helter-skelter in the summer swelter.
But these are as far from normal times as anyone could have imagined when the National Hockey League pressed pause on March 12. All sports went away and the world was suddenly a much grimmer place.
Absence of sports — hockey, basketball, baseball, tennis, golf, soccer, the Olympics — has hardly been the most devastating consequence of a global pandemic that, as of Wednesday, had claimed nearly 518,000 lives around the planet. But we’ve missed them dearly.
Now Toronto might enjoy hockey coming out the yinyang.
After furious rumour-zinging over the previous 24 hours, a Twitter frenzy triggered by TSN’s scoop-a-doop Bob McKenzie, hockey is really, really, really — except, uh, not definitively — resuming inside the bubble of two conference loci, Toronto and Edmonton purportedly winning the spin of the wheel.
Although just a week ago, Vegas and Vancouver were front-runners, until a COVID-19 surge caught up with Nevada and B.C.’s chief medical health officer yanked the reins, with the province and the NHL unable to agree on contingency plans should a player test positive. “Under no circumstances was I going to compromise in any way the health of people here in British Columbia,” said Dr. Bonnie Henry. “And we made that very clear.”
Appropriately, all hockey will unfold north of the 49th parallel, should the expected come to pass. Where no final has been played since 2011 (Vancouver lost to Boston) and no Cup has been won by a Canadian team since 1993 (Montreal beat Los Angeles, but it should have been Habs vs. Leafs.)
If nothing else, this is a potential financial windfall for this beleaguered metropolis, which is looking at a projected $1.5billion loss in revenue and increased costs, assuming a six-month recovery period coming out of lockdown.
Mayor John Tory could only say he had “fingers crossed.” Toronto associated medical office of health, Dr. Vinita Dubey, put out this statement: “As of July 1, 2020, Toronto Public Health has not been notified that Toronto has been designated as a hub city for the NHL.” The province chief medical officer, Dr. David Williams, expressed his support, provided proper health procedures and protocols are in place.
See? Clear as mud. Viscous mud.
No clarity yet either, within the official muddle, on which of the two cities would be Ice Zero for the Cup final if … you know. Just imagine, though, the Maple Leafs relegated to the sidelines as spectators in the final leg of the post-season marathon, right in their home barn. Has Toronto not suffered enough?
Although, seriously, it might as well be unfolding in Timbuktu, as far as public engagement is concerned. We’ll take it. While the Raptors have already assembled in Naples, Fla., having team barbecues and playing ping-pong whilst the team prepares for tipoff at the NBA’s Disney bubble in Orlando, and the Blue Jays are in a holding pattern, not yet cleared for spring training 2.0 at the Rogers Centre, desperately seeking an alternative to coronavirus-ravaged Tampa, the NHL, on Wednesday evening, was this close to resolving return-to-play issues between the league and the players’ association, pivoting on an extension of the collective bargaining agreement.
No deal is done, obviously, until all Ts are crossed and Is dotted. But certainly the short and curlies appeared headed toward a comb-over as the clock ticked down.
One might well ask, what’s the rush? And should Toronto put itself square in the crosshairs of a come-by-chance COVID-19 storm with the city still in Phase 2 of its un-shackling? Health and safety is Job One, of course. But what’s a reasonable risk, when players who don’t want to take it can opt out without penalty? As of Monday, 26 players — including Leafs stud Auston Matthews — had tested positive since return-to-play protocols were initiated in early June, most of them participating in small voluntary skating groups across the continent. According to the NHL, more than 1,450 tests had been conducted on some 240 players. The NHL, more than any other league, depends on gate revenues. At best, the NHL was already looking at a mighty fiscal whack, even with players deferring 10 per cent of their salaries for next season so the league can start to get its economic legs back. (Players were expected to receive their signing bonuses on July 1, a $300-million expenditure, according to ESPN.) And in return — this is huge — the NHL would get off its bossy butt and allow players to return to Olympic hockey at the 2022 Games.
What Toronto can offer to promote all these buoyant plans is a quasi-bubble for players, coaches and team staff — 40 acres under the COVIDdeflective zone grafted onto the Exhibition Place grounds, a swath that includes Coca-Cola Coliseum, BMO Field, the OVO Athletic Centre and the 404-room Hotel X. (Edmonton counters with a similar gozone arranged around Rogers Place.) Toronto, besides nearby Scotiabank Arena, the crux of play, also has a dozen or so rinks locally to accommodate the ice crunch, including the Leafs’ practice facility in Etobicoke.
As the Athletic’s Michael Russo reported Wednesday, the league would try to create a safe, self-contained district on the Exhibition footprint with restaurants, food trucks, fitness clubs, even movie theatres, so that players don’t go stir-crazy restricted to their hotel rooms.
The federal government would have to — as already indicated — agree to modifying self-quarantine rules for players crossing the border.
What was already known, as per the NHL’s provisional planning, is that the postseason would encompass 24 teams split between the EastWest Conference hubs, their place determined by points percentage as they stood on March 11. The top four teams in each conference, regardless of division, to play in a seeding tournament, with the next eight on each side taking part in best-of-five play-in series.
Nowhere near as huh? as the hold ’em draft lottery.
Cut to the chase: The Leafs would play the Columbus Blue Jackets in the play-in round. They’ve never gone mano a mano in the playoffs before and had split their season games with a win apiece — in each other’s arena.
So, where were we exactly 114 days ago?
The Leafs, fresh off a 2-1 decision over Tampa Bay — Matthews scored the winner, Freddie Andersen nailed his 29th win — were third in the Atlantic Division behind Boston and Tampa Bay, eighth in the conference, even with Columbus on percentage but with three more wins over 70 games. No point dreaming on what might have been, but Matthews was bidding for the Rocket Richard Trophy at 47 goals, one tick behind Boston’s David Pastrnak and Washington’s Alex Ovechkin.
It had been a struggle for the Leafs, frankly, and wildly disappointing after all the advance hoopla, costing Mike Babcock his job.
Mike Who?