New York Post, Friday, March 13, 2020
nypost.com
By Brett CyrgalisPHOENIX — No sport
has been left unscathed by
the spreading of coronavi-
rus, 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, 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 sus-
pended its season Wednes-
day night after Jazz player
Rudy Gobert tested posi-
tive.
“The NHL has been at-
tempting to follow the man-
dates of health experts and
local authorities, while pre-
paring for any possible de-
velopments without taking
premature or unnecessary
measures,” the NHL state-
ment said. “However, fol-
lowing [Wednesday] night’s
news that an NBA player
has tested positive for coro-
navirus — 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 posi-
tive 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 Bluesh-
irts were
at their
hotel on
Thursday
morning waiting for word to
come down before 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 di-
rect sight? Will teams get to
practice during this down-
time? And if they do get a
chance to resume the
schedule, will they get a pe-riod similar to training
camp to get ready?
“We will continue to mon-
itor all the appropriate med-
ical advice, and we will en-
courage our players and
other members of the NHL
community to take all rea-
sonable precautions — in-
cluding by self-quarantine,
where appropriate,” 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 com-
plete 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 fourmajor 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 salary cap
for next season.
This decision was also
made in conjunction with
the NHL Players’ Associa-
tion, which will probably be
the group pushing to return
the fastest. But it just might
not be possible without put-
ting people at risk.
“The decision to tempora-
rily suspend play due to the
COVID-19 pandemic is an
appropriate course of action
at this time,” the Players’
Association wrote in a state-
ment. “The NHLPA will
continue to closely monitor
this very dynamic situation
and remain in daily discus-
sions with the league, our
medical consultants, andour players regarding all as-
pects of this matter. The
players are looking forward
to the opportunity to re-
sume play in front of hockey
fans everywhere.”
The league took this seri-
ously from the start, as it
closed locker rooms to me-
dia 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 out-
break of 2014 that blew up
Sidney Crosby’s face like a
balloon.
But never 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.
[email protected]HEADING FOR THE EXIT: Ryan Lindgren and Henrik Lundqvist leave the ice on
March 1 against the Flyers. It remains to be seen whether the NHL will resume play again
this season in the wake of the coronavirus pandemic. Getty ImagesCORONAVIRUS
IN HOCKEY
So little is known about
how the NHL is going to
deal with this period of
their schedule being
“paused” due to the
coronavirus pandemic.
And even if there are far
more questions than
answers, Brett Cyrgalis
answers some of them.
Q: How long will the
league be shut down?
A: Until it’s safe to play
again. Establishing a time
frame is very difficult,
with no way to predict
how long the virus will
continue to spread. Clubs
were told to try to find
dates at their buildings
into July, so there is hope
that there will be a
resumption of
play in the
near future.
That could
come
quicker if
games are
played
without fans
present. But at this
point, it is still safety first.
Q: What will the teams
do during this “paused”
period?
A: This is a big
unknown. For now, teams
are standing pat with no
practices or meetings.
Maybe at some point they
will be able to get back
together if they think they
will start playing games.
The minor league AHL
also shut down, as did
almost all international
competition.
Q: Could the schedule
be changed?
A: It’s very possible that
if this drags on for more
than a month or two, then
picking up the regular
season and going into the
postseason would be very
difficult. The league could
decide on something
totally different, like some
sort of contrived playoff
structure.Q: What will happen
with fans who already
have tickets?
A: Most teams are
planning on dealing with
their ticket holders
individually. If you have a
ticket to an upcoming
game, get in touch with the
team if it doesn’t get in
touch with you first. Most
clubs seem to be
accommodating, and at
least willing to transfer
your tickets to next season.
Q: Are the players still
getting paid?
A: The players’ salaries
are tied to hockey-related
revenue (HRR), which is
obviously minimal with no
gate receipts. So if
they do end up
getting paid, they
would likely
have to give it
back anyway so
that their split
of HRR evens
out to the 50-50
ratio negotiated in
the collective
bargaining agreement.
Q: Are the hourly
workers at arenas getting
paid?
A: This might be the
most hard-hit of any
sector involved in putting
on NHL games. From
stadium vendors to
ushers to security,
individual teams are
hopefully going to try to
find some means of
compensation.
Q: How will this affect
next season?
A: Most notably with the
salary cap. Based off of
HRR, the cap was
expected to go up a few
million dollars from the
current $81.5 million —
and go up substantially
once the next
broadcasting contracts
are negotiated in a year.
Teams planned for this.
Now, the penny-pinching
might go to an extreme.NHLQ&AGate crashing: With the NHL largely dependent
on ticket sales for revenue, suspending play could po-
tentially affect the salary cap. Getty Images