By Matt Blittner, The New York Extra/TheNYExtra.com
Sorry boys and girls, it doesn’t look like Santa Claus is coming to the NHL, or the three Metropolitan Area teams, this year. I wish it didn’t have to come to this, unfortunately it has.
Sunday night, just hours before the Devils took on the Penguins at Prudential Center in Newark, New Jersey, two pieces of news were divulged by the NHL.
1) The NHL and NHLPA have jointly agreed to postpone cross-border games through December 23rd; which really means through December 26th because of the annual Christmas break. In total, 12 games are being affected by this decision, including Islanders vs Montreal, Rangers vs Montreal and Devils vs Montreal on the 20th, 22nd and 23rd respectively.
For the full list of games affected here’s the NHL’s release on twitter:
2) One day after the Devils lost to the Red Wings in Detroit the NHL announced the Red Wings’ season was being shut down until after the Christmas break.
That can’t be comforting to the Devils, who have already had their own issues this season with COVID-19. And recently too. Many have privately acknowledged they don’t believe the Red Wings-Devils game should have been played given the current number of players in COVID protocol on both teams. Now we wait and see and hope the virus didn’t spread even further through the Garden Staters.
And speaking of spreading, players like Torey Krug and Ryan O’Reilly (both on the Blues) should take a minute to think about what they said.
Krug and O’Reilly, as well as multiple other players – not just in the NHL but also in the NFL and NBA – spoke out against the current COVID protocols, stating they’d rather not be tested unless they have symptoms.
“We’ve got guys vaccinated and double vaccinated,” said O’Reilly. “Some guys aren’t showing any symptoms and they’re getting popped and they’re in COVID protocol. I think I’d like to see no testing unless you have symptoms, but it’s not up to me…”
“Guys just want to play,” Krug added. “Most of the guys that are testing positive are sitting at home with not many symptoms, feel pretty good and comfortable to play…We can’t really change anything about it until there’s different protocols in place. For us we’ve just got to do what we’re told unfortunately. Guys just want to play hockey. When they feel comfortable and they feel healthy enough to play, they just want to play.”
Good thing it’s not up to Krug and O’Reilly. Or any individual player.
We know for a fact the vaccines are not preventing people from getting and transmitting the virus. We know that just because one player gets the virus and is asymptomatic that doesn’t mean every other player will react the same way to the virus. It’s basic human biology. Every person’s body reacts differently. So, just because Player A doesn’t have symptoms, that doesn’t mean things will be the same for Player B.
It’s selfish for players to not want to be responsible to their teammates and to their opponents. And that’s not even counting wanting to keep their friends and families safe.
Look, I’m not trying to get political. And I know there’s a lot of politics surrounding this topic. But from a basic human standpoint these players need to think about more than just going out and playing a game. It’s not like the players are going to lose money from their salaries if games are postponed to a later date.
Meanwhile, in regards to potentially shutting things down, the NHL and NHLPA announced they plan to play through this new wave of COVID. However, that doesn’t mean things won’t or can’t change.
One thing we can safely – we hope – assume is that even though cross-border games are postponed for the moment, there’s no chance of going back to the four divisional alignments the league used last season. The sheer negative impact that would have on the competitive balance of the season would be beyond compare.
Another thing we can likely assume is that the NHL and its players are now out of the Olympics. While an official announcement is due in the coming days, there is no doubt the league and union are in lockstep at the moment and that means no “Best-on-Best” Tournament for the players.
Some players will likely be annoyed but again, health and safety are more important. Not to mention the more games the NHL postpones, the more games it will need to reschedule.
Before you get ahead of yourself, it won’t be as easy as plugging the makeup games into the three-week space that was dedicated for the Olympics. Many NHL arenas are already booked during that time frame for concerts and other events. Some games will likely be able to be squeezed into that window but the vast majority will need to be reconfigured into an even more condensed schedule than what was already in place.
It’s a time of many questions and few answers. For now all we can do is monitor the situation and do our best to make the smartest possible decisions.
