PHOENIX — No sport has b✅een left unscathed by the spreading of c⛦oronavirus, and that now includes the NHL.
As first reported by The Post, the league decided to “pause” the regular season immediately on Thursday, with the optimistic hope that this is not the end of the 2019-20 season. Following a conference call with the Board of Governors,ℱ with no opposition, the league ceased all activity with less than a month to go in the regular season.
A lot of details are still to be figured out, even for this paused period, but clubs were told to work with their buildings to find dates into July. And despite the NHL not having any players or team personnel test positive for the virus just yet, it shares a lot of its buildings with the NBA, which suspended its season Wednesday night after Jazz player Rudy Gobert tested positive.
“The NHL has been attempting to follow the mandates of health experts and local authorities, while preparing for any possible developments without taking premature or unnecessary measures,” the NHL statement said. “However, following [Wednesday] nig♚ht’s news that an NBA player has tested positive for coronavirus — and given that our leagues share so many facilities and locker rooms and it now seems likely that some member of the NHL community would test positive at some point — it is no longer appropriate to try to continue to play games at this time.”
This has left teams and players in utter limbo, as the Rangers stayed in Denver after their 3-2 overtime loss to the Avalanche on Wednesday night rather than traveling to Arizona, where they were supposed to take on the Coyotes on Saturday night. The Blueshirts were at their hotel on Thursday morning waiting for word to come down be⛄fore they could leave for the airport and head back to New York.
And now what does this mean for the competition that was just starting to peak with the playoffs in direct sight? Will teams get to practice during this downtime? And if they do get a chance to resume th🐲e schedule, will they get a period similar to training camp to get ready?
“We will continue to monitor ♊all the appropriate medical advice, and we will encourage our players and other members of the NHL community to take all reasonable precautions — including by self-quarantine, where appro🃏priate,” the NHL’s statement said. “Our goal is to resume play as soon as it is appropriate and prudent, so that we will be able to complete the season and award the Stanley Cup. Until then, we thank NHL fans for your patience and hope you stay healthy.”
Obviously the league wants to keep playing, as its revenue stream is more ♔heavily tied to gate receipts than any of the other four North American pro sports. And the players want to keep playing, as their salaries (and escrow) are tied to hockey-related revenue — not to mention the setting of the ꦉsalary cap for next season.
This decision was also made in 𒊎conjunction with the NHL Players’ Association, which will probably be the group🦄 pushing to return the fastest. But it just might not be possible without putting a huge number of people at risk.
“The decision to temporarily suspend play due to the COVID-19 pandemic is an appropriate course of action at this time,” the Players’ Association wrote in a statement. “The NHLPA will continue to closely monitor this very dynamic situation and remain in daꦅily discussions with the league, our medical consultants, and our players regarding all aspects of this matter. The players are looking forward to the opportunity to resume play in front of hockey fans everywhere.”
The league took this seriously from the start, as it closed locker rooms this past weekend, bringing players out into a more sterile environment with safe distances from the media. Hockey is a hotbed for flu bugs that go around every winter, and the league has dealt with some other serious illnesses in the past, including the mumps outbreak of 2014 that blew up Sidney Crosby’s face like a balloon.
But n𝓡ever have they had to go to such extremes as stopping a season. And it’s anyone’s guess when, and if, it will start again.