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Dater’s Daily Links: Maybe More Hope for an NHL Season After All?

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Happy Friday, Avalanche fans.

These remain troubled, uncertain times and whether the NHL resumes a season or not seems inconsequential by comparison. Yet, we all know – and know with a little more appreciation maybe now – how important things like sports can be to our daily lives, as an escape.

Whether there will be a resumption of the 2019-20 NHL season or not – nobody can say with any surety. We simply don’t have any idea whether we’ll be able to actually get the season going in time to have a meaningful playoff or not. We don’t know if fans will be able to be part of the experience or not. Just too many unknowns still, with this coronavirus.

But watching the TSN Insiders yesterday seemed to buoy my spirits a little more that we might still have a season. The gist: Unlike the rest of the hockey leagues out there (major junior, minor-pro) that have already canceled the rest of their seasons, no matter what, the NHL is going to try hard to get the rest of this season in, even if the balance of the regular-season schedule is either truncated or eliminated outright. A full, four-round, best-of-seven playoff format is still the desired goal. Of course, none of this can happen if the pandemic is still growing in this country, if that curve isn’t flattened. More here from the TSN Insiders (TSN).

  • What do some of the game’s biggest stars think of a potentially revamped schedule when/if they come back? (TSN).
  • I subscribe to a Sports Business Journal newsletter, and they did a poll of about 115 NBA executives and whether they thought their season would resume, and 78.9 percent said they think a season will resume by June 15, with a truncated season and playoffs. There was no sampling of NHL executives, but you’d have to think they’d have the same kind of thinking on this.
  • Boy, more two full months of waiting for play just to resume again still seems like a looooong time, and I definitely would worry about the quality of hockey we’d see after such a long layoff. I would especially worry about players getting hurt early on, especially with things like groin pulls and the like. But hey, they are professional athletes. They can adjust.
  • I did a Periscope chat last night on the 23rd anniversary of the March 26, 1997 game at Joe Louis Arena, and told some stories from the book I did on the whole Avs-Wings rivalry. (Here)
  • Marek Hejduk, son of Milan, sure looks like a chip off the old block. He was selected as one of 23 players to the U.S. National Development Camp (Detroit News)
  • Hey, I’ve got a $10 off deal right now for a yearly subscription to Colorado Hockey Now. Instead of $29.99 for 12 months, you can get it for $19.99. I know We’re gonna beat this thing, folks, and all be back to work soon enough. So, chins up – and take advantage of this deal in the meantime. (Colorado Hockey Now).
  • Brendan Shanahan’s take on whether there will be a resumption of the season or not (Toronto Star)
  • Bauer, the hockey equipment maker, is trying to help front-line medical personnel with new PPE (Toronto Star)

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