In the wake of heightened concerns over the coronavirus (COVID-19), the National Hockey League has elected to pause the regular season. In doing so, the NHL followed the NBA’s lead, which suspended its regular season last night after Ruby Gobert of the Utah Jazz tested positive for the virus on Wednesday.
“In light of ongoing developments resulting from the coronavirus, and after consulting with medical experts and convening a conference call of the Board of Governors, the National Hockey League is announcing today that it will pause the 2019-20 season beginning with tonight’s games.,” the NHL said in a statement.
“The NHL has been attempting to follow the mandates of health experts and local authorities, while preparing for any possible developments without taking premature or unnecessary measures. However, following last night’s news that an NBA player has tested positive for coronavirus — 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 positive at some point — it is no longer appropriate to try to continue to play games at this time.
“We will continue to monitor all the appropriate medical advice, and we will encourage our players and other members of the NHL community to take all reasonable precautions — including by self-quarantine, where appropriate. Our goal is to resume play as soon as it is appropriate and prudent, so that we will be able to complete the season and award the Stanley Cup. Until then, we thank NHL fans for your patience and hope you stay healthy.”
Major League Baseball also intends to suspend all operations.
Welcome to March Sadness!
Rick,
Thanks for posting! This is sad, but better safe than sorry.
It will bring up several interesting aspects around the NHL including several players including Penguins that were written off for the season.
I read that a little over a hundred years ago they cancelled not paused the season after game five of the Stanley Cup because of the Spanish Flu.
Hey Phil,
Yes, it is sad. But given all the uncertainty surrounding the virus, it’s probably the prudent thing to do.
From what my grandmother told me, the Spanish Flu was wicked. I may post a story about how it affected my family to fill in the blog blanks.
As, yes, they did cancel the 1919 Stanley Cup Finals due to the flu.
Rick
Hey Rick,
The good news is that the team has a chance to get healthy and get their heads screwed on straight (Sully and JR included), maybe this will help prevent a free fall.
On the other hand, they may end up cancelling the regular season so today represents the playoff bracket – Philly beats us out; how disgusting!!!!!
Hey tOR,
I don’t believe they could cancel the regular season without cancelling the entirety of season if not just for the fact that the Islanders have two games in hand over the Blue Jackets and are only 1 point behind them for the final playoff spot.
That is just one of several disparities along such lines for playoff seeds.
I agree with you about Sully probably for different reasons, but JR can’t really do to much at this point. The Sheary trade wasn’t JR’s best work. Time rather than knee-jerk is a better way to judge such trades. I still think it may have to do with Kahun wanting ridiculous numbers for next year. JR did just sign a nice prospect that was being courted by several other teams.
Only the League knows what it is going to do, but they could base the playoffs off of Pnts%. Because of weather incidents baseball has had teams not play all there games and they go by W%. So to solve the GP differential they could just opt to divide actual points by max potential points (2 x GP), then the CBJ – NYI GP disparity goes away.
Since all 3 players are UFA and the Penguins are allegedly in “All in Mode” which assumes losing UFA players to FA to win now, it may be possible that JR traded Kahun because he (Kahun) wanted to much $$$, but it is highly unlikely.
Teams in the midst of a playoff hunt trade for UFAs that can help them win now, not trade them away.
Hey tOR,
I was watching NHL tv just to see what they were saying before I get to watch non stop re-runs of Youngblood. They were saying that an idea has been floated to have a mini playoff that would include teams in the running for a wild card spots.
I hear what you are saying about “all in mode.” I’m just wondering if JR and Kahun had talks an weren’t even close in price or length of contract and JR decided the healthy two guys were a better decision than the oft injured guy coming off a concussion. I also wonder if playoff experience was a factor or a combination of both contract and experience.
If you look at all of the new guys the Pens brought in or up over the last two years that either don’t have playoff experience or players like Marcus Pettersson who has 7 games experience and hasn’t won one game or Jack Johnson who’s been in the playoffs the last five years, but his team each year never played more than 6 games. Playoff experience is supposedly invaluable.
I’m just trying to figure out JR’s mindset. I’m on your side about this. Not a fan of the trade at all.