NHL suspending season

InstaFace

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the right thing to do, even if decisions are getting reversed so fast it'll make your head spin.

Time to start getting into e-sports.
 

SemperFidelisSox

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I know this goes beyond hockey and lives are at stake, but this sucks for the Bruins. Best team in the league and this happens a month before the playoffs. Sorry, can’t help but look at this through the eyes of a fan.
 

MiracleOfO2704

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I'm very curious to see how this goes over up here. There are only 119 confirmed cases in Canada, and relatively few are in-country person-to-person transmissions. That said, the fact that the vast majority of the teams are based in the US means this was always the inevitable decision.
 

kenneycb

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I'm very curious to see how this goes over up here. There are only 119 confirmed cases in Canada, and relatively few are in-country person-to-person transmissions. That said, the fact that the vast majority of the teams are based in the US means this was always the inevitable decision.
The messaging will get lost but every graph shows how important nipping this in the bud early is crucial to containment.
 

Mueller's Twin Grannies

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So... The President's Trophy winner automatically gets the Cup in the event of a cancelled season, right?

Right?

Seriously, the right move. Hopefully it isn't for very long.

Rest up, heal up fellas.
 

MiracleOfO2704

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The messaging will get lost but every graph shows how important nipping this in the bud early is crucial to containment.
Oh, I definitely get that. I'm honestly surprised I haven't had to send tons of samples to Winnipeg for testing, even though we're nowhere near the hot spots in the country.

Of course, no sooner did I post that than this alert came my way: PM Justin Trudeau and fam are self-isolating because the Mrs. is showing symptoms.

View: https://twitter.com/CBCNews/status/1238134581209022465
 

LogansDad

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Absolutely the right call, but also makes me really sad. Hope we can get this thing under wraps quick, and have some semblence of the playoffs, but obviously that's an afterthought right now.

Stay safe folks.
 

MiracleOfO2704

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Suspended, or outright canceled?
There's nothing official yet, but if the league is looking into building availabilities into July, it has to be suspension. What's more, it's suspension with intent to complete the schedule, so no cutting it off where the standings lie now.
 

Salem's Lot

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If the ice is any worse than it is now in July the only thing they could play there is water polo. Hopefully with this break the ice crew can figure out the problem.
 

cshea

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The problem is the ice plant. It is supposed to be replaced this summer, but that likely just went out the window.
 

cshea

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Mirtle on what a resumption could look like.

View: https://twitter.com/mirtle/status/1238157571179118594?s=21


Obviously most of it is unknown and will dictated by the virus.

He says absolute best case scenario is 3-weeks and playoffs start just about on time. This seems unlikely to me. They’d have to figure something out regarding unbalanced schedule and who makes the playoffs. They could go by points percentage (sorry, Columbus!) or maybe expand and have some sort of play in tournament, or just expand the playoffs all together.

If it goes on longer, they could also shorten the playoffs, best of 3’s and 5’s, that sort of thing.
 

santadevil

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My partner has a son playing in the WHL for the Everett Silvertips (Washington state)
They haven't officially announced anything, but she said they were on the bus, getting ready to head to Tri-Cities for their game, but were held in place
She said they the WHL is likely going to follow the NHL's lead, but don't know if the season will be suspended or cancelled. If cancelled, they need to figure out how to get him and all of his stuff home, especially with a winter storm getting ready to hit starting tomorrow night

Our billet is playing in the SJHL playoffs right now (same league as the Humboldt Broncos) and they are loading up and heading for their Game 5 tomorrow night
SJHL has not yet suspended the season
View: https://twitter.com/theSJHL/status/1238175135263100928

He's a US kid, so he'd rather be heading home, rather than dealing with this uncertain mess
 

RoDaddy

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Maybe I've missed something but I'm wondering why teams - including the NBA and MLB - can't just keep playing without fans? I doubt there's much risk of player to player transmission on ice. Locker room transmission could be an issue but teams could construct some temporary quarters where players don't intermingle.
 

lexrageorge

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Maybe I've missed something but I'm wondering why teams - including the NBA and MLB - can't just keep playing without fans? I doubt there's much risk of player to player transmission on ice. Locker room transmission could be an issue but teams could construct some temporary quarters where players don't intermingle.
I think it's harder than it seems to separate everyone in the locker rooms. You still have trainers that have to give treatments, monitor workouts, etc. And teams still travel together, along with a number of support personnel. Some of the position coaches and traveling secretaries in MLB aren't all that young, either.
 

santadevil

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SJHL has postponed, which we all figured was going to happen
View: https://twitter.com/theSJHL/status/1238270025301020672

They were 40 minutes away from their next game location, on a 5 hour bus ride, bus turned around and they came back. Total waste of a day and I cannot believe why they did not stay in place until the afternoon meeting. Game was supposed to be played tomorrow anyway, so not sure the rush to leave today at 1:00pm, when they turned around at 5:00pm
They do not know what is happening yet, if they can go home or what. Hopefully we will know more tomorrow

My partners son is being told to stay in their team home town until Tuesday, which is 5 days, then they will let them know if they can head home
He has at least a two day drive back home if they are allowed to leave, which I suspect they will be
 

Lose Remerswaal

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Maybe I've missed something but I'm wondering why teams - including the NBA and MLB - can't just keep playing without fans? I doubt there's much risk of player to player transmission on ice. Locker room transmission could be an issue but teams could construct some temporary quarters where players don't intermingle.
Donovan Mitchell got it from a teammate, didn't he?
 

MiracleOfO2704

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SJHL has postponed, which we all figured was going to happen
View: https://twitter.com/theSJHL/status/1238270025301020672

They were 40 minutes away from their next game location, on a 5 hour bus ride, bus turned around and they came back. Total waste of a day and I cannot believe why they did not stay in place until the afternoon meeting. Game was supposed to be played tomorrow anyway, so not sure the rush to leave today at 1:00pm, when they turned around at 5:00pm
They do not know what is happening yet, if they can go home or what. Hopefully we will know more tomorrow

My partners son is being told to stay in their team home town until Tuesday, which is 5 days, then they will let them know if they can head home
He has at least a two day drive back home if they are allowed to leave, which I suspect they will be
Following up, with news I'm sure @santadevil knows already, all 10 leagues under the CJHL (Junior A) have cancelled their postseasons, plus the four regional tournaments, and the Centennial Cup. The local team was ranked #2 nationally, with the top two scorers in the local league, so there's definitely a sense of a lost season, but the CJHL thinks this outcome was always an inevitability.
 

santadevil

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Following up, with news I'm sure @santadevil knows already, all 10 leagues under the CJHL (Junior A) have cancelled their postseasons, plus the four regional tournaments, and the Centennial Cup. The local team was ranked #2 nationally, with the top two scorers in the local league, so there's definitely a sense of a lost season, but the CJHL thinks this outcome was always an inevitability.
Thanks for that, I hadn't been informed yet
I spoke to our club's president this morning, before he jumped on a league phone call at 11:00am local, which I assume was passing this news along

We chatted with our billet at lunch and he was heading to a team meeting at 2:00pm, which this will be the news of
I'm assuming he will be heading home shortly, either this evening or tomorrow. Don't think my wife, our kids or myself will be able to handle that very well right away
 

MiracleOfO2704

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I'm sorry it was me breaking the news. I just figured the CJHL would have notified the teams before announcing it to the public.

You said your billet's American, and to this point I haven't heard of any cases in Saskatchewan. Does the end of the season void his student visa, or could he stay to its original expiry? Or is he just ready to go home?

Also, for those hoping for the best case scenario I've seen floated around (NHL players self-quarantine in their team's city for a week, another week of monitoring while ramping up physical activity, followed by mini-camps and restart), the fact that these guys are completely doing away with the season tells me there isn't a lot of confidence in best-case scenarios within Hockey Canada.
 
FYI, here's a great blog post - being updated daily - from a Russian hockey journalist I follow with information about the current state of pretty much every hockey league in the world in light of the pandemic:
https://conwaysrussianhockey.wordpress.com/2020/03/10/hockey-and-the-coronavirus-updates/#more-39001In short, the KHL playoffs are carrying on for now - with one game having been played behind closed doors and most of the rest likely to as well - but almost no other league is. (As I've noted in my Diary thread in the Media forum, I've suddenly become DAZN Canada's lead commentator on the KHL - I have up to 14 gigs in the Conference Semifinals lined up in 14 days starting on Tuesday, with more to come in the last two rounds as well - so I'm reeeeeally hoping the KHL does carry on, even if that seems pretty crazy to me.)
 

santadevil

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I'm sorry it was me breaking the news. I just figured the CJHL would have notified the teams before announcing it to the public.

You said your billet's American, and to this point I haven't heard of any cases in Saskatchewan. Does the end of the season void his student visa, or could he stay to its original expiry? Or is he just ready to go home?

Also, for those hoping for the best case scenario I've seen floated around (NHL players self-quarantine in their team's city for a week, another week of monitoring while ramping up physical activity, followed by mini-camps and restart), the fact that these guys are completely doing away with the season tells me there isn't a lot of confidence in best-case scenarios within Hockey Canada.
No worries about breaking it for me. It's tax season, so my head is kind of down while at work (another fun thing to think about, where have all my client's come from!)

Two days ago was the first confirmed (Saskatoon) and potentially a second was being confirmed yesterday

They are all ready to head home. When I was his age, I was only 1.5 hours from home. Can't imagine I would've wanted to stay away from home with the future being so uncertain
 

cshea

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Yeah, I think it makes sense. As the article notes, Pittsburgh and Dallas get screwed, but I think it is a nice balance. Maintains the playoff races, recoups some of the lost revenue from the canceled games, rewards the bonafide contenders.

From a Bruins perspective, my biggest concern would be that the Bruins start up after a 2+ month layoff in the playoffs against a team that just played a 3-game series. They probably have to figure out some sort of exhibition games for the bye teams. Maybe they play each other or the DNQ’s.
 

cshea

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Some re-start chatter and the issues the league is facing:

View: https://twitter.com/theathleticnhl/status/1248370352629088256?s=21


Obviously there is still a ton of unknowns, mainly if they will even be able to resume this season. But LeBrun outlines some key issues:

- League and Union want some kind of resumption of the regular season, or at least games before the playoffs so players get into game shape.

- Tough needle to thread to appease everyone, someone is going to be upset. If they go straight to playoffs then everyone is on equal footing, but the players will be grumpy. If they have regular season games before playoffs, bubble teams are essentially jumping right into playoff mode. It’s an easier re-entry for a team like Boston or Tampa who can manage those games without the urgency of fighting for a playoff spot. For the teams that are completely out of it, starting up to play 4-6 games after a lengthy layoff isn’t ideal either. With a likely shortened offseason, injuries during that stretch could impact 2020/2021.

- Full 82 game season next year, even if delayed, is a priority of both league and union.

- Elsewhere, TSN noted that the league has discussed a playoff scenario where they just roll back everyone’s record at the 68 game mark and go from there.

- Along the lines of the NBA talking about taking over Vegas, and MLB using spring training sites, NHL has looked into college facilities, perhaps having 4 locations (One for each division) where the season and playoffs are played. North Dakota and Manchester, NH among the sites mentioned.
 

Salem's Lot

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Kevin Hayes is on Portnoy's unboxing show and said the NHL is looking to resume around July 15th.
It could work. Start the playoffs August 1st after a couple of weeks of regular season games. Finals the last week of September. New season starts with the 2021 Winter Classic. Finals in July 2021 then back to normal for 21-22.
 

cshea

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They've said they want to do everything in their power to avoid a shortened 20/21 season. I think they'll cancel this year before shortening next year. If they start in July, It pretty much has to be straight into the playoffs, probably with shortened series like best of 5's.