NHL will gamble on unusual season
When the NHL charter flight back from the Edmonton bubble landed in New Jersey, Gary Bettman’s phone started ringing.
The commissioner thought he’d get a couple of weeks to exhale after awarding the Stanley Cup to the Tampa Bay Lightning. Instead, it was back to work.
Of course, planning for the 2021 season began well before late September. It took a long-term extension of the collective bargaining agreement between the league and players’ union, layers of health and safety protocols, realigned divisions and convincing multiple government agencies that it is safe to play.
The season opens Wednesday and Bettman estimates the league will lose over $1 billion even by playing. It’s a gamble everyone was willing to make to keep hockey going during the pandemic.
“It would be cheaper for us to shut the doors and not play,” Bettman said Monday. “We’re coming back to play this season because we think it’s important for the game, because our fans and our players want us to, and it may give people, particularly those who are back in isolation or where there are curfews, a sense of normalcy and something to do.”
None of the four major North American men’s professional sports leagues rely as much on attendance as the NHL: Roughly 50% of all revenue comes from ticket sales, concessions and other in-arena elements. That’s why the league and players prioritized extending the
CBA before completing last season in twin playoff bubbles; they knew no fans slashes revenue for everyone.
The agreement gave the NHL a blueprint to operate and labor peace through at least 2026.
Players are tested for COVID-19 daily. There’s no hard and fast rule on how many positive test results would endanger a game; the addition of taxi squads of four to six players mitigates the risk. Watching other leagues postpone and reschedule games has helped, as has regular communication among medical experts.
“We’ve had the opportunity to learn a lot from each other because there’s so little science behind what’s going on because it’s happened so quickly,” NHL chief medical officer Winne Meeuwisse said. “Everything from infection control to testing strategies, how we interpret test results, how we act on positives, how we manage cases are all things that that we share on an anonymous basis so that we are able to refine what we do and do the best job we can of keeping the players and everybody around the game safe.”
BOSTON HONORS WILLIE O’REE
More than 60 years after he broke the NHL’s color barrier, Willie
O’Ree will soon add another milestone to his career.
The Boston Bruins announced Tuesday that O’Ree will have his No. 22 jersey retired prior to the team’s Feb. 18 game against the New Jersey Devils. It will make O’Ree the 12th player in team history to have a sweater hung in TD Garden.
O’Ree, 85, said he was in his backyard Monday when he got the call from Bruins president Cam Neely informing him about the honor.
“I was at a loss for words there for a few seconds,” O’Ree said. “I’m overwhelmed and thrilled about having my Bruins jersey hung up in the rafters.”
He became the league’s first Black player when he suited up for Boston on Jan. 18, 1958, against the Montreal Canadiens. O’Ree, who was legally blind in one eye, played two seasons for the Bruins, retiring from professional hockey in 1979.
He also donned Nos. 18 and 25 during his time with the Bruins but wore No. 22 in the bulk of his games with the club.
ELSEWHERE
Blackhawks: Chicago
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and coach Jeremy Colliton reached terms on a two-year contract extension that runs through 2022-23, the team announced. Colliton, 36, has compiled a 62-58-17 record (.515) since being hired to replace current Panthers coach Joel Quenneville
on Nov. 6, 2018.
Wild: Minnesota
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signed forward Marcus Foligno to a three-year, $9.3 million contract extension, coming off the best season of his NHL career. The deal keeps Foligno, 29, in the fold through 2024. He had 25 points and a plus-8 rating, both career highs, in 2019-20 despite playing in only 59 games.