The rest of the 2019-2020 NHL season has been suspended indefinitely. The news comes shortly after the NBA canceled the rest of the season and March Madness was canceled for the first time since 1938. The NHL playoffs were just around the corner, but they’ll have to wait due to the coronavirus.
Suspended Indefinitely
Unlike the NBA, no players in the NHL have tested positively for the coronavirus. Then again, since testing for the virus has been a disaster in the United States, that’s worth keeping in mind. Who really knows how many players have already been exposed or are at risk at this point? So far, the virus has infected over 1,300 people in the United States, but that figure is probably much lower than the actual number of infected.
The Decision
Yesterday, the NHL were still letting fans attend games across the country. The league still wasn’t publicly talking about postponing the season in a serious manner. Teams and owners weren’t taking the matter seriously enough. For example, despite Washington D.C. declaring a state of emergency, yesterdday fans attended a Washington Capitals game. They attended the game in a stadium, Capital One Arena, that seats over 20,000 people.
NHL’s Statement
n light of the news, the NHL released the following statement:
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. 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.”
How Long Will it Last?
At this point, who knows? ESPN reporter, Greg Wyshynski, tweeted he heard the hope is for the season to resume in 2-3 weeks. “Source on NHL players’ side thinks ‘best case’ would be a 2-3 week suspension, a short continuation of a sub-82-game reg. season and then a truncated playoffs with shorter opening series,” Wyshynski shared. “But playing into July is an option. Again, one person’s informed speculation.”
Continuing play in two-three weeks sounds awfully optimistic, if not completely naive given the state of sports and the world at large. Most likely, this suspension is going to gut people all over the country. How will people who work in the stadiums continue to get by and pay their rent?
The last time anything remotely like this happened to the NHL was in 1919. No team won the Stanley Cup that year. Montreal Canadiens and Seattle Metropolitans had to stop playing the series after five games, due to the Spanish influenza epidemic. 101 years later, the NHL has another epidemic on its hands.
