FRIDAY,MARCH27,2020| THEGLOBEANDMAILO B15
A
few nights ago, Jordan and
Marc Staal played virtual
darts.
“It’s a weird situation for every-
one right now,” Marc, a defence-
man with the New York Rangers,
said during a teleconference call
arranged by the NHL. It was one
of two held on Thursday, and the
first since the league went silent
on March 12 to help prevent the
spread of the novel coronavirus.
“It surprised me how quickly it
occurred,” Philadelphia Flyers
captain Claude Giroux told re-
porters who submitted questions
to players online. “It got me a lit-
tle nervous, and made me want
to get back to my family.
“It’s a pretty crazy time.”
It is only two weeks since the
decision was made to suspend
play, but seems so much longer.
Most of us are keeping distance
from others to avoid getting CO-
VID-19.
Many are in isolation, fearful of
the illness that shares symptoms
with the flu but is far more dan-
gerous.
Lives are being lost. Nothing is
normal.
“Mentally, it is hard not know-
ing if and when we are going to
come back,” Giroux said. He was
on a video call with the two Staal
brothers – Jordan plays for the
Carolina Hurricanes – and Pitts-
burgh Penguins captain Sidney
Crosby.
A second was held later with
Washington’s Alexander Ovech-
kin, Nick Foligno of Columbus,
the Islanders’ Anders Lee and P.K.
Subban of New Jersey.
“It is getting to a point now
where you feel that things just
aren’t right,” said Foligno, the
Blue Jackets’ captain.
NHL teams were down to
about their last dozen regular-
season games. Playoff positions
were on the line. And then every-
thing stopped.
Crosby is at home in Pitts-
burgh, trying his best to stay fit in
isolation. Like most players, he
usually relies on his team’s train-
ing facilities, so he doesn’t have
much equipment at home. He
rides an exercise bike every day,
and does push-ups.
“Things are kind of old-
school,” the Pittsburgh superstar
said.
“You just try to make the best
of what you’ve got.”
Said Foligno, “We are kind of
going back to the Rocky days
where you are punching a cow.”
Ovechkin is more fortunate.
He has a small gym at home in
Washington and has still been
able to work out with his person-
al trainer directing him from a
safe distance. Ovechkin also runs,
plays a bit of soccer and rides a
bike.
“There are times when I don’t
feel like it, but he makes me,”
Ovechkin said.
He was two goals shy of scoring
50 or more in a ninth successive
season when games were stop-
ped.
“Of course, I would like to
score 50, but that is not the most
important thing right now,”
Ovechkin said. “You have to think
about people, your family and
the fans. It’s a scary situation. Thefirst thing on my mind is being
safe.”
Players have been talking to
one another in group chats and
by text.Some of the Flyers tried to used
Facebook Live this week, but it
turned into a disaster.
“It didn’t go very well,” Giroux
said. “Everyone started scream-
ing and nobody could hear one
another.”
Opinions on what should be
done if the season is resumedvary largely depending on where
one’s team sits in the standings.
“Probably you try to get in as
many games as you can, but I
wouldn’t mind starting with the
playoffs,” said Crosby, whose Pen-
guins are third in the Metropoli-
tan Division behind the Capitals
and Flyers.
The Rangers are two points out
of a wild-card position in the East-
ern Conference.
“We want to keep the integrity
of what we are doing intact,” Marc
Staal responded. “We definitely
should not do what Sidney said.”
His brother, whose team
would get one of the wild-card
berths as it stands, jumped in.
“Screw the Rangers,” Jordan
said, taking a good-natured swipe
at his sibling.
“You can speculate and try to
be fair but there is always going to
be somebody [upset] about it.”
Players chirped one another
about what they least miss.
“Jordan and Sidney cheat infaceoffs,” Giroux complained. “I
don’t miss that.”
“If Claude stopped talking in
the faceoff circle all the time, he’d
probably win a lot more,” Jordan
Staal said. Even if it was a for short
while, it seemed as though hock-
ey was back. There were smiles on
players’ faces.
Subban talked about a poten-
tial game show he is working on
in co-ordination with the NHL.
“At this time, I think it is im-
portant to bring some joy and
smiles to our fans,” he said.
“Sports has the ability to bring
people together.”
Nobody is losing sight of what
is happening in the world, how-
ever.
“I see images of the empty
streets in New York City and it is
surreal,” Marc Staal said.
“You go to the grocery store
and you can feel that everyone is
on edge and trying to avoid one
another.
“It is a crazy time.”NHLersspeakonCOVID-19pandemic
Onteleconferencecalls,
playersspeakabout
how‘quickly’the
situationchanged
MARTYKLINKENBERGTORONTO
Clockwisefromtopleft:JordanStaal,captainoftheCarolinaHurricanes;ClaudeGiroux,captainofthePhiladelphiaFlyers;MarcStaal,alternate
captainfortheNewYorkRangers;andSidneyCrosby,captainofthePittsburghPenguins,takepartinateleconferencecallarrangedbytheNHL.The
callwasoneoftwoheldonThursday.JOHNWAWROW/THEASSOCIATEDPRESSYouhavetothinkabout
people,yourfamilyand
thefans.It’sascary
situation.Thefirst
thingonmymind
isbeingsafe.ALEXOVECHKIN
WASHINGTONCAPITALSCAPTAINHealth and safety is the No. 1 pri-
ority, and then there is every-
thing else.
“I’d say half of you is in the
present and thinking about staff
and family and individuals, and
the other half is trying to partici-
pate in NHL matters with a lot of
variables at play,” he said. “I
think for many of us there are a
lot of balls in the air.
“I don’t know if there has
been a day where I have been
working on one thing without
the next day being entirely dif-
ferent.”
It is up to the coronavirus now
to decide what happens.
The NHL has no more control
than the NBA, Major League
Baseball, pro soccer or most
anything else.
Unless COVID-19’s spread can
be stopped, there is no way to
predict the future.
“There is no certainty and that
is our biggest challenge right
now,” Shanahan said of the
league.
“What you have is a group of
people that is used to planning
things well in advance and they
have that taken away.”
It is a daily battle for Shana-
han as it is for each of us. The
decisions he makes have wider-
ranging implications, of course,
and with that comes a tremen-
dous burden.
There is something at stake
now that is bigger than the Ma-
ple Leafs, more important than if
Auston Matthews will score 50
goals this season, things much
bigger than hockey and the NHL.
“The health and safety of the
community is priority No. 1 right
now,” he says. “If everyone takes
it seriously that will take care of
No. 2 and things will start getting
back to normal.”
Despite all of the variables out
there, there is nothing that can
be planned.Leafs:Shanahan’sdecisionshavewideimplications,andcarryagreatburden
FROMB11‘ThehealthandsafetyofthecommunityispriorityNo.1rightnow,’LeafspresidentBrendanShanahansays,
addingthatifpeopledotheirpart,thingswillgetbacktonormal.DARRENCALABRESE/THEGLOBEANDMAILIt is too soon to decide whether
the Tour de France can go ahead
amid the coronavirus pandemic,
but if it does it may be without
roadside spectators in order to
minimize infection risk, the
French Sports Minister said.
After the postponement of the
Euro 2020 soccer Championship
and the Tokyo Olympic Games,
the Tour de France – which takes
place in June and July – is one of
the last major global sporting
events that has not yet been can-
celled or postponed.
“The Tour is a sports monu-
ment. It is too soon to decide.
There is a time for everything.
For now, we have a more urgent
battle to fight. Let us focus on
this mountain in front of us and
then consider what’s next,”
French Sports Minister Roxana
Maracineanu wrote on Twitter.
Since the Tour’s inception in
1903, only the World Wars of
1914-18 and 1939-45 have forced
organizers to cancel the race.
A Sports Ministry spokeswo-
man told Reuters on Thursday
that the ministry was monitor-
ing the pandemic’s evolution.
“There is no rush to decide to-
day,” she said, 92 days ahead of
the Tour’s scheduled June 27
start in the Mediterranean city of
Nice.
It is slated to finish in Paris on
July 19.
In an interview with radio sta-
tion France Bleu late on Wednes-
day, Ms. Maracineanu said one
option would be to organize a
Tour without roadside specta-
tors.
“The Tour’s economic model
is not based on ticket sales buton TV rights. During this period
of confinement, everybody is
aware of the risks and responsib-
le,” the minister said.
“People understand the bene-
fits of staying home and watch-
ing event on TV rather than live.
It would not be too detrimental
to follow the Tour on TV.”
The Tour annually attracts
more than 10 million spectators
along France’s roads every year
and is broadcast globally.
However, Marc Madiot, the
president of the French cycling
league and director of the Grou-
pama-FDJ cycling team said it
would be hard to police a Tour
de France without spectators.
“How would you stop the pub-
lic from attending?” he said.
France’s 67 million people
have broadly respected the con-
ditions of an unprecedented
peacetime lockdown but fewsports stir the passions of French
sports enthusiasts more than cy-
cling.
Moreover, riders often race
large parts of a stage in closely
packed groups and team mem-
bers live in proximity to one an-
other for nearly a month in ho-
tels, and travel together on buses
and airplanes that shuttle them
between stages.
Teams are already grappling
with how to keep their riders fit
after the cycling season was sus-
pended last week. All races up
until the end of April have been
cancelled.
“As long as we are not allowed
to get out on the road, it is hard
to think about getting in shape
for the event,” AG2R-La Mon-
diale rider Romain Bardet told
France Bleu.REUTERSTourdeFrancemaygoaheadwithoutroadsidespectators,SportsMinistersays
GEERTDECLERCQPARIS
TheTourisasports
monument.Itistoo
soontodecide.Thereis
atimeforeverything.
Fornow,wehavea
moreurgentbattleto
fight.Letusfocuson
thismountaininfrontof
usandthenconsider
what’snext.ROXANAMARACINEANU
FRENCHSPORTSMINISTERREPORTONBUSINESS |