Dater’s Daily Links: Is there any hope for the Avs season resuming? (Yes, but the window is closing)

Hope everyone is healthy and staying sane out there. Myself, I don’t think I’ve handled this thing too well. I’ve eaten too much, slept too much and generally been too lazy probably. Before the shutdown happened, I had just joined a new gym (Chuze Fitness, in Thornton) and was really getting back into working out again. No, not like the days in college when I worked out six days a week (often twice a day, consumed 10,000 calories a day – yes, that number is accurate – and could curl 185 pounds for sets of 10) but I was getting back into it.

Now, I’ve become a fat, lazy slob again.

“Go outside, Dater, and do some jogging or a pilates session in the woods!” No. I can’t run much, for one thing, having had ankle replacement surgery three years ago. And I don’t like yoga.

So, about the Avalanche and the NHL in general:

• The people I talk to around the league (and team) are all pretty pessimistic any kind of season will resume. “Shut it down, start again fresh next year” is the consensus. Everybody wants a season to resume, mind you. But the people I talk to just don’t think it’ll happen. Keep in mind, too, the league has already said it won’t impinge on next season, as in changing it around with any shorter schedule, etc. etc.
• The City of New York plays a role in the pessimism. It’s considered the “epicenter” of the virus right now in the U.S. The NHL’s offices are in New York. League personnel mostly all live in New York, and they can’t go anywhere for probably quite a while. NHL league personnel are heavily involved in the playoffs, especially in the final two rounds. Events can’t be staged without them.
• An article here that will make Avalanche fans happy. (The Hockey News)
• I keep salivating over an Avs top-four defense of Makar, Girard, Byram and Timmins within two or three years.
• Some teams have to really be kicking themselves because they passed over Alex Newhook in last year’s draft. He’s the early favorite to win the Hobey Baker next year, assuming we ever play hockey again.
• Are Avs players skating informally together right now, you ask? No. Everybody is under orders not to practice or congregate like that with each other. Besides, all the local rinks are closed.
• Here is a Q&A by the NHL about all things virus, as it relates to its business (NHL.com)

FIVE THINGS I’VE DISCOVERED OR REDISCOVERED SINCE THE SHUTDOWN

1. Snarky Puppy – Wow, what a great band. I’ve become semi-obsessed with their music since being turned on to them from twitterer @normalkidrob. I would describe their sound as Chicago meets Miles Davis meets Steely Dan. I love it.
2. Scrambled eggs. I usually don’t cook breakfast during the season, or in general. But since the lockdown, with a 16-year-old son at home with me most all day (my wife still can work at her office) I’ve made them more again. The secret to making good scrambled eggs is to put a bit of grated cheddar in there, a bit of milk or cream and scramble continuously for a couple minutes over high heat. Salt and pepper upon plating and, voila, a hearty, nutritious and cheap meal. My dad made great scrambled eggs when I was a kid visiting his place in Vermont. The smell of the eggs and bacon would waft up from the kitchen to my bedroom, along with classical music hosted by the late, great Robert J. Lurtsema, as an audible pleasure to add to the olfactory one. His show, broadcast out of Boston public radio and well-known to many New Englanders, was called Morning pro musica. Good memories.
3. “Two Writers Slinging Yang” podcast, hosted by author Jeff Pearlman. Good show, with writers mostly talking about how they became writers and the craft itself and stories about those they wrote about, etc. etc. Hey, I was even a guest on one of them.
4. The Drudge Report. Hey, it’s an addictive site because Drudge knows how to grab you with a headline, especially in troubled times. I remember how I was always checking it after 9/11. Not so much in the interim.
5. My desire to write a book about legendary players who finished up their careers in a strange uniform, kind of what Tom Brady is doing. It would probably only sell about 50 copies, but it would be a labor of love and I’m thinking seriously of getting it started.