So, now what? A glance at the murky future ahead
By Ryan Pike
4 years agoA lot of stuff has happened over the past week in the world of sports and the larger non-sporting world. So now that we’ve had a bit of time to breathe, let’s dig into what’s going on, what it means, and what the heck we do now.
So what’s going on?
A lot happened this week. Here’s the basic rundown:
- On Friday, the San Jose Sharks were the first team to close their locker room to media as a precaution.
- On Saturday, several teams (including the Flames) followed suit. Media obligations were held as usual, but players were available by request in the hallway immediately outside the locker room. The same occurred on Sunday for post-game media.
- After the off-day on Monday, things changed a bit on Tuesday. Players were still available upon request, but based on league recommendations media interactions were more structured and media were kept a set distance away. The same structures were in place league-wide by Wednesday.
- On Wednesday night, it became clear that things were going to get bad. A game between the Utah Jazz and the Oklahoma City Thunder was delayed and then cancelled when it became clear that at least one Jazz played tested positive for COVID-19. The NBA postponed their season that night.
- On Thursday, the NHL followed suit, followed by much of the remainder of the hockey world.
Is anybody still playing?
So the NHL is suspended. The Flames have prospects playing in the American Hockey League (Stockton), ECHL (Kansas City), Western League (Everett, Vancouver), Quebec League (Rimouski, Moncton), NCAA (Arizona State, Michigan State, Denver), SHL (Oskarshamn, Malmo, Skelleftea), MHL (Yaroslavl), and Swedish junior league (AIK).
Hockey is still being played – for now – in Sweden, Finland and Russia. Loko’s games had people in attendance (870 and 380), but the Moscow-area games are being played in empty arenas. Thursday’s SHL regular season finales were played before empty rinks. The SHL playoffs are delayed until March 24 and it’s unclear if spectators will be allowed. Finland is similarly postponing their playoffs for at least a week. (Update: And now they’re not.)
So what happens now?
We’re not entirely sure. Basically, everybody’s staying away from big public events and assemblies to make the containment of COVID-19 easier on public health resources.
If the containment goes well, hockey (and other sports) could be back in a matter of weeks. The watchword is “if.”
Franchises were reportedly asked about building availability through July. In theory, the season could be bumped back by a month and resumed without too much creative re-imagination. Longer than that, though, and things would need to be truncated in one manner or another.
In other words? If all goes well, life could become a little more normal in a month. But that depends on a few things going very well. So in the interim, let’s all take care of ourselves and each other as we try to ride out this bizarre and unprecedented situation.
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