SPORT-SCAN DAILY BRIEF NHL 4/20/2020 Pittsburgh Penguins 1183164 Coyotes hold meetings with players reviewing season, 1183189 Penguins on pause: Will Patrick Marleau get another shot looking ahead at a Cup run? 1183165 Mikkel Boedker’s Chicago story: Playoffs, pingpong, OT 1183190 Simulating the 2020 NHL playoffs: Penguins vs. Flyers heroics 1183191 ‘No pandemic playbook’: Sports grapples with how to 1183166 Pegula Sports and Entertainment could look different return moving forward 1183192 Sharks interim coach Bob Boughner discusses offseason 1183167 Milt remembers: A night of high hockey drama in roster improvements 1183168 Call off the regular season and make plans for a bigger version of the playoffs St Louis Blues 1183193 Started by Sansone Jr., Blues Special Hockey gives St. Calgary Flames Louisans on-ice opportunities 1183169 Competitive juices still flowing for Flames’ Tkachuk during 1183194 Health care heroes deserve first round of applause when pause sports crowds return 1183170 Lowetide: Comparison of Oilers, Flames drafts 2010-19 closer than it should be 1183195 A guide to the Tampa Bay dining (and takeout) scene, courtesy of the Lightning 1183171 Bourne: NHL is built for a season-long docu-series like ‘Sunderland ’Til I Die’ Maple Leafs 1183196 Canada Day time to celebrate for sports fans? One Vegas oddsmaker calls it ‘very reasonable’ 1183172 Rozner: Is there still time for NHL postseason? 1183197 Crosby? Ovechkin? Our all-time NHL redraft dream team 1183173 NHL 20 sim: Blackhawks fall in Game 6 as Jordan starts with Super Mario — let the debate begin Binnington dominates 1183198 Travis Boyd shows off his incredible new painting and his 1183174 Michael Arace | Blue Jackets’ upset of Lightning echoed quarantine hair Oilers’ 1981 stunner 1183175 Nationwide Arena’s ice man works alone during Websites coronavirus closure 1183199 The Athletic / Bourne: NHL is built for a season-long docu-series like ‘Sunderland ’Til I Die’ 1183200 .ca / The best team in Canucks 1183176 Matt Friedman: How sports can overcome this no-win history, Part I – Sportsnet pandemic 1183201 Sportsnet.ca / What Gretzky and Ovechkin respect most 1183177 No. 1-ranked defenseman Jamie Drysdale could skate into about each other as players Red Wings' future 1183202 Sportsnet.ca / Remembering Vesuvio's pizza and its 1183178 'I’m good enough to play in the NHL': Evgeny Svechnikov connection to Toronto sports determined to realize Red Wings dream 1183179 Dominik Shine signs new deal with Griffins World Leagues News 1183203 Novak Djokovic's opposition to vaccination may stop his return to tennis 1183180 There is no way of knowing who won at the NHL draft right 1183204 The Coronavirus Doesn’t Care When Sports Come Back away 1183205 With NHL Draft on Hold, USHL Prospects Prepare in 1183181 Lowetide: Comparison of Oilers, Flames drafts 2010-19 Waiting closer than it should be 1183206 When coronavirus pandemic is over, sports will be changed forever 1183207 The Latest: 500 fans watch as soccer resumes in 1183182 Ranking the best Rangers, Devils and Islanders regular- Turkmenistan season performances 1183208 Report: MLB to Allow Teams to Furlough, Reduce Pay of Club Employees Islanders 1183209 Youth sports are feeling the financial brunt of the 1183183 Ranking the best Rangers, Devils and Islanders regular- COVID-19 pandemic, report says season performances 1183210 Los Angeles mayor says coronavirus will likely halt sporting events with crowds until 2021 1183211 Some sports may not survive the coronavirus 1183184 Ranking the best Rangers, Devils and Islanders regular- 1183212 ‘We have no coronavirus’: Turkmenistan football season season performances restarts with crowds SPORT-SCAN, INC. 941-284-4129 1183185 NHL needs to shut down regular season and use a shortened playoff format | Sam Carchidi 1183186 Former Flyers coach skeptical on holding games in empty arenas 1183187 Flyers vs. Penguins in Stanley Cup Playoffs? Predicting the series 1183188 Simulating the 2020 NHL playoffs: Penguins vs. Flyers 1183164 Arizona Coyotes

Coyotes hold meetings with players reviewing season, looking ahead

BY MATT LAYMAN

APRIL 18, 2020 AT 5:26 PM

It’s typical for NHL teams to hold exit meetings with players at the conclusion of the season.

Right now, though, teams can’t say for sure whether their season will continue or if it’s over.

“Myself and our GM John Chayka, we had player calls,” head coach Rick Tocchet said in a video call with reporters last Friday. “We had 15, 20 minutes per guy, talking. It’s not exit meetings because I still believe that we’re going to play in the next couple months, I’m trying to be optimistic. But I think it’s important that you stay connected with the team. I know it’s a little harder to do that.

“So we had basically somewhat recap of the first 70, what’s expected and then also the future. So we did that the last couple of days. I’ve had a couple of zoom meetings with our coaches the last week.”

While it’s not known how the 2019-20 NHL season proceeds from here, the games that have already been played are set in stone. The Coyotes arrived at the coronavirus-caused halt at 33-29-8, in fifth place in the Western Conference Wild Card standings with 74 points.

Arizona once held first place in the Pacific Division but fell out with a 3-8- 4 stretch from January to February.

“We just kind of talked,” defenseman Jakob Chychrun said Thursday of the meetings. “The first bit was about your season individually. Then kind of talked about the future and what they expect from you and where they think you can improve. It was good. They were good phone calls, good conversations.

“It’s always nice to speak with them and just kind of give ideas and receive information on how they feel and vice versa. So it was a good talk.”

Chychrun’s season was unique. Battling injuries in previous years, he got in 63 games in 2019-20 — the most since his rookie season three years prior. He and Alex Goligoski emerged early in the season as a strong defensive pairing.

“My year personally I think it went pretty well,” he said. “I think there’s a little more opportunity there with a few injuries and I think was able to take advantage of it and play some bigger minutes, which was very nice. I definitely enjoyed that.

“I think as a team, too, we started really good. I think we started how we expected to and kind of started to fall off a little bit. Obviously we lost control of first in our division there and we started to kind of find it again. I think for us as a group, it’s just that consistency and buying in like Toc always says to our system and the way we have to play every single night.”

Forward Clayton Keller, meanwhile, had similar remarks on Tuesday about the individual meetings. He said he was asked what he was up to during the down time and that they talked about the past and future. He also happens in the middle of a move.

“I’m moving out of my place now and going to my parents’ house where I have a nice shooting area there, which I think some of you guys saw from last summer,” he said. “So it will be good to go in there and keep shooting, stick-handling and keeping everything intact, I guess.”

Arizona Sports LOADED: 04.20.2020 1183165 Arizona Coyotes puck in the corner, he pushed it up the boards, right to a trailing Boedker. Shooting from an impossible angle on the line, Boedker beat goalie Corey Crawford for a 3-2 win at 13:15 of the first .

Mikkel Boedker’s Chicago story: Playoffs, pingpong, OT heroics “I was just trying to throw it at the net and it took a weird bounce and went in,” Boedker said. “The whole bench skated out and I didn’t really know what to do when I saw everyone coming at me. It was just pure excitement; pure joy. You’re in such a quiet building after four periods of By Craig Morgan Apr 19, 2020 it being so loud with the crowd screaming.”

It got even quieter when Boedker scored at 2:15 of the first OT in Game Every Monday and Thursday through the end of May, The Athletic 4, but this goal required a lot more skill than a first glance suggested. Arizona is reliving the Coyotes’ 2012 playoff run to the Western “It was a breakaway so he created the opportunity,” coach Dave Tippett Conference final. You can also watch the games on Fox Sports Arizona said. during their “Classic Coyotes Night” programming series that debuts April 20. More information available here. After Boyd Gordon chipped a loose puck out of the Coyotes’ zone, Boedker arrived at the loose puck in the neutral zone at the same time as Todd Walsh had just arrived at the Ritz-Carlton Chicago after a long night Chicago defenseman Nick Leddy, but Leddy took a bad angle to the covering Game 4 of the Coyotes’ Western Conference quarterfinal series puck, allowing Boedker to chip it past him and get a step on him. By the against the Blackhawks. The final media bus that normally takes time Boedker got to top of the circles in the Chicago zone, Leddy was at reporters and broadcasters back to their hotels during the playoffs had his left flank, but Boedker fended him off with his body until he got to the already left United Center, leaving a substantial group of reporters stuck crease. Just as Crawford moved to cover the puck, Boedker got his stick on the west side of town, late at night, in need of cabs. back on it and redirected it between his legs. The Ritz-Carlton Chicago has two banks of elevators. The first can take “People will say it’s just another goal, but it’s really not,” he said. “It’s one you to either the Water Tower Place shopping center and parking of the coolest feelings you can have is ending a game and then to end it garage, or up to the 12th floor where you have to disembark and round a in the Stanley Cup playoffs is something everyone dreams of. You don’t corner into the hotel lobby and lounge areas. There you’ll find another set know what to do with your arms or anything. of elevators that takes you up to the guest rooms. Before Walsh could ride the second lift all the way up to his room on the 32nd floor, the “I had time to do a little bit of a celebration after that one and then the elevator paused and the door opened. Standing in front of him, soaked in whole team jumped out again and you’re reliving the same feeling you sweat, was Game 4 hero Mikkel Boedker, who had just scored his had two days ago at about the same time of day in the same building. It second consecutive overtime goal at United Center to give the Coyotes a was weird.” 3-1 series lead. Boedker became the 11th player in NHL history to score an overtime “I asked him what he was doing and he said they were having a playoff goal in consecutive games, and he is still the last to do it, per NHL pingpong tournament,” Walsh said. “I just thought that was the funniest Stats. thing. Here’s a guy who just did something only a handful of people have ever done, he’s the talk of the hockey world, it’s probably around Most of the postgame was a blur for him. He remembers that it was midnight, and here he is playing a game of pingpong with his teammates. impossible to catch his breath before he had to conduct an on-ice It was just the unbridled joy and enthusiasm of youth.” interview with NBC’s Daryl Reaugh. He remembers sitting on the bus back to the hotel feeling “kind of dazed and thinking, ‘Wow, that just The details of that pingpong battle are fuzzy to Boedker. They are not to happened.’” He remembers how fans “six rows deep” greeted the team at captain Shane Doan, who recalls coaches, trainers and players all Sky Harbor Airport the next day with a banner. And he defers all factual competing. details on that pingpong tournament to his captain.

“Yeah, I remember that tournament,” Doan said. “I won.” “Of course Doaner would remember,” he said, laughing.

Here’s how it worked. No one has stepped forward to counter Doan’s account.

“If you won, you got to stay on the table and if you lost you were off the “Mikkel was a pretty good pingpong player,” Doan said, “I’d rate him top table,” Doan said in a perfect, deadpan phone voice. “I didn’t lose, and five on the team, but of course, he couldn’t beat me.” everyone else you talk to will have the same recollection about themselves. No one lost, but I know I won. I definitely did win.” The Athletic LOADED: 04.20.2020

It may seem strange that a team competing in a playoff series would stay up late to play pingpong when it was facing a long flight home the next day and a potential series-clinching win the following day, but Doan said it’s standard fare for teams.

“You can’t sleep after games so we would have pingpong tournaments and (video game) FIFA tournaments,” he said. “You need that after games in order to go to bed because you’ve got so much energy. I think we played Guitar Hero one time. We’d go to bed at 2:30 a.m.

“One of the best parts of the playoffs is you get a lounge from the hotel you’re staying in because you’re in the same city for five or six days. It’s just for the team. Guys come and go. There are games and snacks. You can’t believe how connected you get with each other in the playoffs. Not only are you always together, but you’re isolated so it builds that camaraderie way up.”

So does winning, and Boedker played a starring role in that result in Chicago.

“He scored the two overtime winners and never actually took a shot,” Doan quipped. “That’s how we always teased him, but if you look at the goals, he’s so powerful that he just skates through stick checks. His nickname was Quadzilla because he had the biggest legs. He just skated through guys and put himself in position to score.”

In Game 3, Boedker was the beneficiary of a rare mistake by Blackhawks defenseman Niklas Hjalmarsson. Hjalmarsson beat Taylor Pyatt to a puck below the goal line in the Chicago zone, but instead of eating the 1183166 Buffalo Sabres Team owners "are affluent on paper and, by the way, less affluent on paper right now,” said David Carter, an associate professor of clinical management and organization at the University of Southern California.

Pegula Sports and Entertainment could look different moving forward Said Neal Pilson, a former president of CBS Sports and a lecturer at Columbia University: "A lot of these issues with the owners don’t have to do with the football team or the basketball team; they have to do with their other assets. Ultimately, the ownership of the pro teams itself, By Jason Wolf and Lance Lysowski they’re going to be OK, in my view, so long as their other assets don’t Published Sun, Apr 19, 2020|Updated Sun, Apr 19, 2020 sink ‘em."

Kim Pegula says the PSE cutbacks have been necessary. Most PSE businesses aren’t producing revenue right now. A month into the coronavirus shutdown, even billionaires Terry and worry about what may happen to their businesses. The recent layoffs include three vice presidents with a combined 61 years of experience. The owners of the and Sabres, two pro lacrosse teams, a minor league hockey team, various hospitality and real estate ventures – “Terry and I, that’s our No. 1 goal: to make sure we’re viable, and a natural gas empire that financed it all – are navigating the sustainable,” she told The News. “And unfortunately, this pandemic hit. It simultaneous stoppage of professional sports and the collapse of oil and has made us look back and say, ‘Hey, we’re going to have to make some gas prices. changes and how do we come out of this a better organization?’ ”

On Tuesday, the Pegulas laid off 21 people at Pegula Sports and Added Pegula: “We have to make sure we’re here for a long time. We Entertainment, the parent company of their sports and entertainment have to make sure we’re here for the next few months, the next year and businesses; furloughed 104; and temporarily cut pay for more than three into the future.” dozen executives. Last month, PSE laid off an undisclosed number of Bills at ‘normal levels’ employees at its hospitality businesses with no guarantees that employees will be rehired. Amid criticism for initially not declaring that it In the short term, it’s possible the only Pegula business bringing in much would pay game-day workers in Buffalo and Rochester even if there were money is the Bills. no games, PSE said March 14 that it would pay for wages lost if the pro hockey and pro lacrosse seasons were canceled. The NFL’s 32 teams evenly split $8.78 billion in national revenue in 2018, the Action Network reported in July, basing that figure on the $274.3 The Pegulas are preparing for the possibility that their sports and million cut reported by the league’s only publicly owned team, the Green entertainment businesses – franchises that have an outsized effect on Bay Packers. the identity and psyche of Western New York – might never be the same. “That might mean it's smaller,” Kim Pegula, the president of PSE, told Forbes last year pegged the Bills’ total revenue at $386 million for the The Buffalo News. “That might mean some areas are bigger and others 2018 season, and its operating income – the company’s profit after are smaller.” subtracting expenses – at $82 million. Gate receipts, including club seats, accounted for $53 million, or an average of $5.3 million per home The husband and wife owners are operating as if they won't receive any game, including the preseason. significant income from their sports and entertainment holdings for the foreseeable future. Kim Pegula says she is girding the staff for a "new “Right now, cash is very important for these teams because of all their normal." expenses,” USC’s Carter said. “You could go back and determine through collective bargaining, you can go back and work collaboratively "We don’t know yet what that’s going to be,” she said, “but I know it’s not with the players’ association and figure out a workaround for players’ going to be the same as it was in early March." salaries, but you have to think about it.

‘Make sure we’re viable’ “If your expenses remain relatively steady but your revenue is cut way down then you have a real problem on your hands.” Since buying the Sabres NHL team in 2011, the Pegulas have built a sports conglomerate in Western New York. They own the National PSE said the Bills continue to operate at “normal levels,” because the Football League’s Bills and the Bandits pro lacrosse team in Buffalo, and start of the NFL regular season has not been affected. The NFL draft is the Americans' minor league hockey team and Knighthawks pro lacrosse this week. team in Rochester. Not including players, PSE-related businesses employ more than 570 people full-time, a number that swells to 3,000 if While Dr. Anthony Fauci, the director of the National Institute of Allergy game-day employees are included. With LECOM Harborcenter and other and Infectious Diseases, said it may be possible to have pro sports real estate investments, the Pegulas have built part of Buffalo’s revival. resume this summer, a major caveat was doing so with no fans in the stands. Should that stretch into the fall, a reasonable assumption given Privately owned PSE doesn’t release its finances, but the Pegulas are that health experts do not expect a safe, effective and widely available wealthy, coronavirus or not. Forbes magazine said is the coronavirus vaccine until 2021, the Pegulas are left to bank on NFL TV world’s 20th richest pro sports franchise controlling owner, estimating his money as the lifeblood of their sports and hospitality businesses. And net worth at $5 billion. Pegula made his fortune from natural gas drilling, that’s if games are actually played. selling a portion of his company’s assets in 2010 for $4.7 billion, funding his purchase of the Sabres and Bills. The Pegulas bought the Sabres for Pilson, the former CBS Sports president, said he suspects the NFL will $165 million and then the Bills for $1.4 billion in 2014. not begin its season as scheduled.

At his introductory news conference, Terry Pegula said he would pour an “What we’re looking at," Pilson said, "on top of the issues regarding the infinite amount of resources into bringing a Stanley Cup to Buffalo – "If I pandemic, is it looks like we’re going to get into a brawl between the want to make money, I’ll drill another well," he quipped – but the natural president and the governors of the state of New York and California and gas business isn’t doing much for Pegula these days. His companies others, who are simply going to put their bodies in front of the resumption stopped drilling months before the pandemic because of a decrease in of full-time sports activity before the health experts give you an opinion demand and low prices in the oil and gas industry. The price of natural that the risks are minimal, to the where you take some chances of gas closed Thursday at $1.69 per 1,000 cubic feet, a 21% drop since his serious illness. And this virus kills people, too.” Pennsylvania-based JKLM Energy stopped drilling in July. The hockey problem Two of his holdings, GRMR Oil and Gas in Colorado and JKLM, recently Hockey TV revenue pales in comparison with the NFL. The business of instituted cost-cutting measures, including staff reductions, a company hockey revolves around the games: tickets, corporate suites, in-arena spokesperson told The News. The spokesperson wouldn't provide the advertising, parking, concessions and merchandise sales. Projections on number of staff cuts. revenue per home game range from $1 million to $3 million depending on The Bills are valued at $1.9 billion, according to Forbes, but that value is market size. locked into the organization’s assets. That doesn’t mean the Pegulas have $1.9 billion on hand. The Sabres have been idle since the NHL suspended its season March 12. Buffalo has 13 regular season games remaining, six of them at KeyBank Center.

The Sabres' strong television ratings – first in the league in three of the past four years – earned them a better local broadcasting deal than half the league's 30 other teams.

Television contracts include a force majeure clause in the event of a significant event beyond either sides' control. If invoked, the sides would negotiate to make each other whole. That could include an extension of broadcasting rights or added advertising opportunities. However, the force majeure clause is different in every contract.

"Force majeure is a rarely invoked clause, but there’s no more majeure time for this clause than now," said Lee Berke, the president and CEO of LHB Sports, Entertainment & Media, who helped the Yankees launch the YES Network.

If the Stanley Cup playoffs are held this summer, the Sabres and other nonplayoff teams can recoup some money through the league's revenue sharing. The more money the league makes, the more the Sabres receive.

The Sabres need it. Forbes' most recent Business of Hockey report said the Sabres made $1.9 million in operating income in 2018-19. A PSE official disputed that figure but wouldn't provide details. It's doubtful the Sabres are making money, though, because ticket revenue hasn't risen enough to offset increasing costs. The salary cap has increased by more than $22 million – from $59.4 million to $81.5 million – since Terry Pegula bought the team in February 2011. The Sabres average 17,194 tickets sold in their 19,070-seat arena, their lowest attendance since 2005-06. The team's nine-year playoff drought means the Sabres have missed out on TV and arena revenue from postseason games.

If games are played without fans, teams lose revenue from tickets, parking, concessions and broadcast rights. That would cause players' salaries to drop because the players and owners split hockey-related revenue 50-50 under the collective bargaining agreement. Changing the allocation would require cooperation between the league and the players' association.

The potential financial hit from lost television revenue is enough to entice owners to push for this season to be completed, even if games need to be played late into the summer at a neutral site.

"If you can come up with ways to at least salvage the TV revenue, if you can then restart at the end of the year and a vaccine is in place, then the relative hit from a ticket revenue standpoint is not going to be as bad as it would be if you lost an entire season," Berke said.

Beyond NFL and NHL

Like the Sabres, the Amerks, Bandits and Knighthawks are dependent on turnstile count and sponsorships. There is no television revenue to fall back on.

"If you don’t have fans in the stands or arena, you lose that ticket revenue and, in turn, the sponsors are going to say, ‘Wait, nobody is seeing what I’m doing here,’ " Berke said. “Then you add to the fact the sponsors themselves – some of them are in very difficult shape.”

No fans or even social distancing mandates would also hurt PSE's five hospitality operations around , and Harborcenter, which hosts events for youth and college hockey.

Even if fans are allowed back, it's unclear how many will have money to spend.

"You have to remember our business is predicated on our fan base," Kim Pegula said. "And if our fan base doesn't have discretionary income because they’ve lost their business or lost their jobs, it's a big trickle- down effect that isn’t only affecting certain industries. ...

“We’re running through all these different scenarios. What does it look like if there are half of the fans in the building? What does it look like if there are no fans? What does it look like if we’re back to normal?"

The biggest challenge is the unknown, Pegula said. "It’s the uncertainty that really hurts us right now.”

Buffalo News LOADED: 04.20.2020 1183167 Buffalo Sabres ever. "Tonight, Gil was fresh. He was still fresh in the third period. He, Martin and Robert controlled play."

Perreault scored twice, Robert also tallied and the Sabres put 50 shots Milt remembers: A night of high hockey drama in Montreal on Montreal goalie Ken Dryden. The advantage was 39-13 after two periods.

"Ooh, ahh ... Sabres on the warpath," the Buffalo fans chanted as the By Milt Northrop Sabres piled up their big advantage. Montreal had scored first, but tied it in the 12th minute of the second period and it was all Published Sun, Apr 19, 2020|Updated Sun, Apr 19, 2020 Buffalo the rest of the way. Perreault scored his second goal and Don Luce also scored in the final minute.

Greater Buffalo Sports Hall of Fame member Milt Northrop has seen a lot "Give Buffalo credit, but this was a bad game for us," said Peter in his 52-year career at The Buffalo News and even before that. Mahovlich of the Canadiens. "We got worse as we went along. I don't Occasionally he will share some of the events that have left a lasting think we'll repeat it." impression on him. Today, it's a memorable time in April 1973 when the Buffalo fans dreamed of an upset. Montreal had swept the first two Sabres were in their first Stanley Cup playoff series and Rene Robert games of the series at the Forum, but the first was 2-1, decided by a scored an overtime winner to send the series back to Buffalo. power-play goal in the third period. Montreal had lost only 10 games and In my first five-plus years on The Buffalo News sports staff I had never tied 16 in the regular season. One loss was to the Sabres in the Aud in covered a or Buffalo Sabres hockey game. Guess I was December which came in the middle of an eight-game Buffalo win streak. thought of as a basketball guy. After all, I had been around hoops since I Two of the three games in Montreal ended in 3-3 ties, the last on St. was a 3 or 4-year old when my dad took me along to his company Patrick's Day. basketball team practices. Now it was on to Montreal, a city I had never visited. With the Buffalo Braves' third season in the NBA concluded in late March After the Sabres traveling party arrived the next day, Crozier held an of 1973 the next thought was the coming NBA Draft. Would Buffalo draft informal press conference in his suite at the Mont Royal hotel. He was in Ernie DiGregorio? While pondering that possibility, to my surprise I was rare form, giving it back to the great Red Fisher and the rest of the assigned to pick up our coverage in Game 4 of the first round Stanley Montreal media. That night, the Buffalo media was invited to the Press Cup series between the Sabres and the Montreal Canadiens at Memorial Club de Montreal for a reception. I can remember sitting in the lounge Auditorium. there with Phil Ranallo, the great and popular columnist of the Courier- Coach 's powerful Habs already owned a 3-0 lead in the Express. He and I had spent many hours rehashing Braves game in the series and it was supposed to be a mere formality that the NHL's best Aud Club, but never about the Sabres. team that season would complete a sweep of the Sabres on that Sunday "This is the big game and the French Connection is going to win it for night (April 8) in the Aud. me," Crozier had proclaimed as he held court earlier in the day in his Dick Johnston, the News' veteran reporter, was the Sabres beat writer suite at the Mont Royal. "I'll play the Connection 50 minutes, if I have to." then. For the first two games at the Forum, Lee Coppola, a city-side Montreal led 1-0 after a first-period goal by Frank Mahovlich but much to reporter at the paper, was assigned to go to Montreal and assist in the the dismay of the Forum crowd, the Sabres dominated the second, reporting. We weren't too pleased in the sports department that an a outshooting the Habs, 15-9 and taking the lead on goals by Martin and reporter from outside the department drew such an important sports Robert. assignment. That lead stood up until defenseman Guy LaPointe took a feed from "The We doubted that sports editor Charley Young made that decision. Pocket Rocket," Henri Richard, and beat goalie Roger Crozier from the Besides that, there was an appearance of a conflict of interest. Coppola slot with 7:14 left in regulation. It was tense the rest of the way. Montreal worked for the Sabres on game nights, preparing material for the had to survive a short-handed situation to start the overtime when message board in the Aud. Crozier successfully challenged the measurements of Dryden's goal In the middle of the Sabres-Canadiens series some decision-makers at pads, which were found to exceed the legal limit. The Habs killed the The News must have agreed. To my surprise I was assigned to take over and the tie stood for another seven minutes. for Coppola as the second man on the series. Until then, I had Nearing the halfway point of OT, Schoenfeld picked up the puck behind experienced the Sabres only as a fan. his goal, made a clearing pass off the boards to Martin at left wing. Rico When I had the chance between Braves games I often took in Sabres avoided a check by Jacques Lemaire and passed to Perreault at the red games, many of them memorable. That was especially true the night line. Gilbert wasted no time in finding Robert approaching the Montreal Gerry Meehan scored the goal on the last night of the 1971-72 season line on the right wing. His pass nicked the skate of defenseman Jacques against Philadelphia and knocked the Flyers out of the playoffs. Laperriere but it got to Robert.

I once received a pair of skates and a stick from Santa at Christmas, but "I saw Gil was going to get the puck so I kept breaking," Robert said. "He hardly used them. I came from a hockey town, however. Our high school gave me a perfect pass just before I got to the blue line. had had varsity hockey since the early 1930s. There was good college Now it was Robert going in alone on Dryden with Laperriere desperately and pro hockey with Yale and Lynn Patrick, Ott Heller and Jack Evans trying to get back in the play. with the New Haven Ramblers of the AHL and later Don Perry and the New Haven Blades in the East Coast League. The last hockey game I "If Gil's pass was soft I think Laperriere would have caught me. But he actually reported on was probably in the New England High School gave me a hard pass and I was in on Dryden 'cold turkey,'" Robert said. tournament in Providence, R.I. ten years before. "Dryden moved to my side and left me about 2 feet to shoot at. He made the first move. When he went down low, I just let it go." Now I was in the middle of what until then were the biggest pro hockey moments in Buffalo history. Instead of the series ending that Sunday It came at 9:18 of OT. night at the Aud, the fun was just beginning with the French Connection of Gilbert Perreault, Rick Martin and Rene Robert giving as many thrills Sabres defenseman Larry Hillman watched the play unfold from the as they ever did in the decade they were together. bench. After Robert shot, "I saw Dryden take one step toward the bench," Hillman said. "He knew it was in. He never looked back." Instead of gaining the 4-0 sweep, the Canadiens left town that night on the short end of 5-1 score. In the previous game, Sabres coach Joe Once counted as DOA, the Sabres had come back to make it a 3-2 Crozier had drawn some criticism, mostly from the Montreal media, for series with Game 6 coming up two nights later in the Aud. not giving the Connection enough ice time in a 5-2 loss in Game 3. When the Sabres' charter landed around 3 a.m. at Buffalo International, Crozier had the last laugh. there was a delirious throng of between two and three-thousand waiting to greet them. It was a scene that was to be repeated on a snowy night "I saved Perreault's line last night and see what they did tonight," Crozier crowed after Buffalo had broken through for its first postseason NHL win seven years later when the Bills came home from San Francisco with a playoff berth in hand.

The dreams of Sabres fans ended, however, when Montreal closed out the series with a 4-2 win two nights later, scoring four times in the first period to take command.

Bowman of the Canadiens had determined that he was not going to let the French Connection beat him again. He put together a checking line of rookie Murray Wilson, center Rejean Houle and veteran Jimmy Roberts to combat the French Connection and it succeeded. In addition, Wilson scored a goal with Houle assisting.

"Defense was our strength all season," Bowman reminded the media after the clincher. "We won 17 games by one goal and tied seven others by pulling the goalie for an extra attacker.

"People think we walked all over the other teams because of our record, but that's not so. Tonight, we went back to the basics of checking."

As the clock wound down on Buffalo's first appearance in the Stanley Cup playoffs the Aud crowd chanted "Thank you, Sabres ... Thank you, Sabres."

As for the French Connection, they showed what all the fuss was about, why they commanded so much attention. In the last five games of the Montreal series, they accounted for 23 points among them. They scored 11 of the Sabres' 15 goals in those five games. Perreault scored three times and assisted on seven of the 12 goals he didn't score. Robert, the Game Five hero, had five goals and three assists. Martin went 3-2-5.

Buffalo had its first taste of Stanley Cup playoff hockey and was ready for more. It didn't come, though, until 1975, but that's another story.

Buffalo News LOADED: 04.20.2020 1183168 Buffalo Sabres done by late June as normal by eliminating the All-Star Game and bye week.

The league's priority, no matter what it is does, is not to impact next Call off the regular season and make plans for a bigger version of the season. The league can continue to wait on 2019-20 with this as a main playoffs plan. It also can set up its offseason calendar. Teams need to know what's going to happen with the lottery, the scouting combine, the draft, free agency and arbitration. All of those things are currently in limbo and in need of clarity. By Mike Harrington Tough calls, tough look for Pegulas Published Sun, Apr 19, 2020|Updated Sun, Apr 19, 2020 Still baffled about the decision of Pegula Sports and Entertainment to fire

three vice presidents with decades of combined experience. Economics The news ping-pongs back and forth every day so much that it's hard to obviously are an overriding factor but that's really how you treat longtime figure what to believe or who to believe, but the view from this corner is employees? Ship them out the door in the middle of a global pandemic? we have to gradually get society moving again and that means sports They couldn't be furloughed until conditions improve? have to get back on the field. One of the three, Chris Bandura, was the Sabres' vice president of media When President Trump and the coronavirus task force completed their relations and had been a primary media contact for the team since 2005. presentation during Thursday's briefing, the first question asked by When news of his dismissal spread, the texts and tweets I got were from reporters was about the resumption of sports. It's forefront in everyone's across and they were universal: Big mistake. mind. We're still only in mid-April so I'm baffled by how many columns Bandura isn't responsible for the team's sickly penalty kill, the failures of I've read across the country that leagues like the NHL should just bag it previously axed PSE workers in properly planning for the 50th right now and call the whole thing off. anniversary season or any of a myriad of issues the franchise has on and Why? If health conditions improve and we can play hockey again – even off the ice. He's responsible for media relations and he does it better than in the summer – why shouldn't we do it? The NHL is constantly weighing almost anyone in the NHL. Especially when you're talking about a its options and has to know what kind of drop-dead dates it's facing for franchise that hasn't made the playoffs since 2011. He was clearly the 2019-20 season, but it seems hard to believe we're even close to that unappreciated by his own employer if this was the decision they made. point yet. There were 21 layoffs across the PSE empire as well as 104 furloughs. The path to play should be simple: Forget about the rest of the regular Times are brutal, even for billionaires. There's no revenue coming in. season and get ready to play with an expanded playoff format. Social media, as it usually is, was already in a firestorm over the Pegulas' decision not to pay game-day employees in Buffalo and Rochester until No one is skating right now so this isn't like an NBA player who can run NHL and NLL games are officially canceled rather than just postponed. and jump and even shoot hoops in their house. Hockey players are going And this just added to it. to need a good training camp to get up to speed. It's going to take a couple weeks at least for players to be ready. From a business standpoint, the Pegulas were certainly acting reasonably with their part-timers at first glance. Why should people who We've already played 85% of the season. P.K. Subban may want don't work get paid? I have family members, friends and neighbors who everybody in the pool but the first thing I would do would be to tell seven have also been dealt sudden unemployment and they're not getting paid teams thanks but no thanks. So that means the Sabres, Subban's New by their employers. Jersey Devils, Anaheim, Los Angeles, San Jose, Ottawa and Detroit can tell their players to stay home and not bother coming back, and the front So why should game-day workers at a hockey arena get paid for not offices can prepare for the draft lottery. working? And if the games would get played, should they get paid twice? The knee-jerk reaction is "they're billionaires, they should pay." That So why 24 teams and not the standard 16? Desperate times call for doesn't work in this view. The Pegulas aren't a charity. unusual measures. You want to drive some revenue and push TV ratings, just check the standings and look at who are Nos. 23 and 24 But where they failed was where they usually fail: Optics. Too often when overall? It's Chicago and Montreal. Think NBC and Sportsnet would like it comes to so many aspects around the Sabres, there's a lack of them in the playoffs at least for a little while? You bet. You need to figure understanding of how things look. And that often matters as much as the out problems at the bottom of the top 16 with uneven numbers of games actual decision itself. played and berths needed to be figured out by points percentage? Don't In this case, while it seems to make sense not to pay employees until need to if you expand and let all the bubble teams in. games are canceled, it was not the industry standard. As surprised as I The players need to play, too. They could be looking at escrow payments was to see it develop, that standard quickly became teams biting the out of their paychecks as high as 34% if the season is lost and the bullet and announcing in a timely matter that the employees were getting league loses close to $1 billion in revenue. That point was made by paid. Winnipeg chairman Mark Chipman held a similar view as the former NHL goalie, TV analyst and Players Association executive Glenn Pegulas when he said of the employees "they work when we work" and Healy on a podcast Thursday with TSN's and Ray would not be paid. Ferraro. A few days and lots of criticism later, Chipman reversed course and Said Healy: "My recommendation would be move heaven and earth to announced the employees would get paid and even apologized. come back and play and get a champion." Meanwhile, the Pegulas and Boston Bruins owner Jeremy Jacobs, whose Delaware North concession industry is also battered by the crisis, It's pretty simple really. The top four teams in each conference get a bye. were the last two holdouts on that front. The other 16 play in the first round, probably in a reduced format like best-of-five or even best-of-three. The eight teams on byes can keep Not much of a #OneBuffalo feeling there. Just plain tone deaf. It's practicing. Maybe even an exhibition game or two. You get your eight disappointing. Frankly, I would have rather seen the Pegulas simply pay winners with the eight byes and now you're at 16 teams and you can and retain their employees than trumpet their seven-figure donation to move on with your playoffs. Covid-19 community funds through their team foundations.

The goal would be for the Stanley Cup Final to be best-of-7. If you can Whopper for Scandella get a seven-game series in any other round, that would be a bonus. The St. Louis Blues signed former Sabres defenseman Marco Scandella Logistics are obviously complicated. It's clear no fans will be in arenas for to a four-year, $13.1 million contract Thursday and that's an eye-popping the resumption of play and maybe for the entirety of it. Neutral-site deal to give a 29-year-old who has been on your team for only 11 games clusters of teams and games seems like it's the most viable alternative as and has one point. cross-continent hop-scotching won't be a thing until the fall, if not later. Scandella has looked good paired with Colton Parayko since being If you can start by mid-July, the whole thing would be over by Labor Day. acquired from Montreal and the Blues were certainly very familiar with You could start the 2020-21 season in early November and still have it him from his time in Minnesota. The Blues also expect to have a hole to fill, with veteran Jay Bouwmeester likely to be forced into retirement because of the February cardiac incident he had on the bench in Anaheim.

St. Louis got Scandella from Montreal, after the Sabres sent him to the Habs in January to clear cap space to get Michael Frolik from Calgary. Bad move. Scandella was playing well for the Sabres. Dumping him for a fourth-round pick more than a month from the trade deadline made little sense, even with the Habs picking up salary. That all went away when GM Jason Botterill inexplicably took on Frolik at $4.3 million.

Around the boards

• Hall of Fame defenseman Borje Salming turned 69 Friday and revealed to NHL.com that he spent a day in a Swedish hospital with serious respiratory issues. Salming was never tested for Covid-19 because its presence was not yet established in Sweden but it's certainly possible that's what he was dealing with.

"It was scary," said Salming, the former Maple Leafs legend. "I was having problems breathing. At times I couldn't even breathe. I was shivering and shivering. It was awful. I felt like I was dying. I thought I was. That's how bad it was. You can't really describe it. I was so sick. I really did think, 'Well, this could be it.' Thankfully the ambulance came and rushed me to the hospital."

• While it seems unlikely many teams will be playing at home in the playoffs, at least for early rounds, Carolina is one franchise that has publicly admitted it's thinking of contingency plans for any games at PNC Arena in Raleigh. GM Don Waddell said the team is drawing up plans for games with no fans, and for games with a limited number of fans.

"One (option) is that we come back with no fans, and how we're going to deal with that," Waddell said on a video conference call last week. "The second option is we come back and can only have – pick the number – five or eight thousand people in the building. The third option is that we can be totally open."

• With no World Under-18 tournament, no CHL playoffs and no Memorial Cup, wouldn't this be the year for teams to trade draft picks out of the 2020 selection pool into the future? Teams better have gotten a lot of their draft legwork done early. Those who were waiting for the postseason have some severe catchup to do.

Buffalo News LOADED: 04.20.2020 1183169 Calgary Flames A self-described creature of habit, Matthew is an early-riser during hockey season but hasn’t been crawling out of bed until about 11 a.m. during the pause.

Competitive juices still flowing for Flames’ Tkachuk during pause The Flames’ current leading scorer with 61 points, he misses being on the ice and around his buddies. Shooting pucks in the basement just isn’t the same.

Wes Gilbertson He’s trying to focus on the bright spots — like Chantal’s home-cooking.

Published:April 18, 2020 “Right now, you’re at the point where we don’t know if we’re going to finish the season or not. And honestly, we don’t know what maybe the Updated:April 18, 2020 3:27 PM MDT start of next season holds at this point,” Matthew said. “So you’re working out, and I think the hardest part is you’re working out but you don’t really know when you’re coming back, so you don’t know what you’re working You don’t have to worry about Matthew Tkachuk losing his competitive out for right now, other than to stay in shape. So the uncertainty is the edge. hardest part, by far, and just not being able to play the game you love. And it probably happened at the worst time, too — we were 10 games Not while the Calgary Flames’ fan-fave forward and his younger brother left until playoffs, and playoffs are the best time. That’s the stuff you Brady, another of the NHL’s rising stars, are isolating under the same dream of as kids, so I think that’s probably the hardest part is not playing roof. playoff hockey. This is one sports rivalry that hasn’t been paused due to the pandemic. “But it’s actually been kind of nice to hang out with the family. It’s not the “It’s been pretty even so far,” Matthew reported from back home in St. ideal situation, but my mom, she says it the best. She looks at everything Louis, where he’s waiting out the COVID-19 crisis with his family of five in a positive frame of mind and even though it’s a horrible thing and all — also including his parents Keith and Chantal and sister Taryn, a high- our lives are affected by this and we’re all not doing our thing right now, school field-hockey standout. “I would say Brady has beat me more times at least she has the whole family under one roof and it’s a blessing for in basketball out in the driveway. I think I’m probably the king of the her to have that. It’s not often we can do that. So that’s a positive. house at pickleball right now. Brady is better at video games downstairs. Hockey has been second in our minds right now. It’s been family-first and We’ve been playing a bit of Kan-Jam, with the frisbee, and I would say health-first.” I’m better than him at that. And I think I have him in golf. We have been Family-first, of course, is especially sweet if you can earn bragging rights playing a ton of golf, and I’ve always had the edge in golf on him. He’s over your younger brother. gotten a lot better and he can hit it a mile now, but I think I still have the edge. “Everything is a competition for us — even if it’s not intended to be,” Matthew said. “So we haven’t lost that edge at all.” “But we’re really, really close in everything, and we’re thankful to have each other that we can compete with each day and each competition that Calgary Sun: LOADED: 04.20.2020 we have.”

Sportsnet has even turned this sibling rivalry into a weekly segment, calling it Stuck with the Tkachuks.

“This next week coming up is pickleball, not to give too much away,” Matthew said.

The Tkachuks have been getting tons of TV time — and we’re not just talking about that Giuseppe pizza commercial — over the past month, solidifying their status as one of the most famous families in puck.

Keith was a five-time all-star during his power-forward prime.

His boys, age 22 and 20, skated in the mid-season showcase this winter.

Matthew and Brady ooze both skill and personality.

They’re easy to cheer for. Or if your allegiances are not in Calgary or Ottawa, where Brady has become a beacon of hope for the Senators, even easier to root against.

But imagine if there’s finally another playoff edition of the Battle of Alberta and Matthew isn’t being booed anytime he touches the puck at Rogers Place in Edmonton.

Or imagine if the Flames and Oilers were facing off in a neutral arena. Grand Forks, N.D., and Manchester, N.H., have been rumoured among could-be sites of a Stanley Cup tournament, a completely different take on bubble-hockey.

“It’s hard to envision, because fans are such a big part of the games,” Matthew said of the idea of completing the 2019-20 campaign in empty rinks. “But I think it could actually be maybe a bit interesting too — maybe you’d be able to hear more stuff between the teams on the ice. I just picture, if that happens, it’s going to be kind of like practice, where you can hear everything. You could hear the coaches yelling on both sides. I’m sure it would be definitely interesting and I’m sure the fans, if they’re watching on TV, would maybe pick up some stuff on the mics that they wouldn’t pick up during a game. But that’s not something we want to do. We want to play with the fans. We want to play, but we don’t know what that’s going to hold.

“If we decide to come back and play without fans, I’m sure the fans would understand. But I’m sure we’re not going to come back and play if we’re risking lives around us, our families or anything like that. It’s all about keeping people safe right now.” 1183170 Calgary Flames Calgary has three players from that 2015 draft (Rasmus Andersson, Oliver Kylington and Andrew Mangiapane) who appear to be a match for the Oilers trio. Two more from the 2016 selection (Dillon Dube, Adam Fox) and Juuso Valimaki from 2017 are also emerging. Lowetide: Comparison of Oilers, Flames drafts 2010-19 closer than it should be Major edge to Calgary, and in truth, Fox could be another Gaudreau based on a stunning rookie season.

Games played By Allan Mitchell Apr 19, 2020 I’m going to divide the games played into two categories. I think the 2010-14 drafts have enjoyed a full viewing, while those from 2015 and on are still developing. One team spent the decade in the front row of tables at the annual draft, the other seemed to wake up after pick No. 60. At the end of the decade, Oilers, 2010-14: 4,373 the Edmonton Oilers and Calgary Flames landed very close to even in the number of impact players added. Here’s the breakdown. Flames, 2010-14: 2,941

Impact players Edmonton had an enormous advantage during these years, picking early in each draft. Discounting the first round, the Oilers’ edge in games The Oilers drafted Taylor Hall (No. 1 in 2010), Leon Draisaitl (No. 3 in (1,642 to 1,537) disappears. 2014) and Connor McDavid (No. 1 in 2015). The three men are responsible for two Hart Trophy wins (plus a third possibly on the way Now, the second group: this summer), two Lindsay Awards and three scoring championships. Flames, 2015-19: 826 The Flames drafted Johnny Gaudreau (No. 104 in 2011) and Matthew Oilers, 2015-19: 762 Tkachuk (No. 6 in 2016). Gaudreau is the only award winner (Byng Trophy) but had a 99-point season and remains a major part of the Both teams are doing well. Calgary has seven men up and running, with Calgary offence. Edmonton counting five.

The edge goes to the Oilers even after dealing Hall, but the Flames get The ones who got away massive credit for finding a winger who has scored .96 points per game during his NHL career. It’s also true Calgary didn’t get a shot at Hall, There are two bookend drafts from this decade that will be associated Draisaitl or McDavid because of its draft ranking. Edmonton had a shot at with selections by Edmonton that directly affected the Flames. Tkachuk and many chances to draft Gaudreau. In 2014, when Craig MacTavish took Leon Draisaitl No. 3, it left Calgary Quality regulars with the obvious choice (Sam Bennett) at No. 4 overall. Bennett has emerged as a useful NHL regular, but Draisaitl went supernova and Edmonton’s Ryan Nugent-Hopkins and Oscar Klefbom arrived via the became one of the best players in the game. It was not a clear choice at 2011 first round, and Darnell Nurse was a top-10 pick in 2013. Calgary the time, and it changed the fortunes of both teams. grabbed a quality regular in Sean Monahan in 2013, one pick ahead of Nurse. In 2016, things set up the same way but worked out better for Calgary. When Jesse Puljujarvi fell unexpectedly to Edmonton at No. 4, it meant Edge to Edmonton, built almost entirely due to the draft position gained Calgary had a chance at Matt Tkachuk. When the by losing hockey games. chose defenceman Olli Juolevi with the fifth pick, Flames management rushed the stage to take the world-class agitator. Regulars As thrilled as Oilers fans are with Draisaitl, the possibility of having I’m counting regulars as players who played 325 or more NHL games, Tkachuk on McDavid’s wing lingers. the equivalent of four complete seasons. I’ve included a couple of players on each side who have built a résumé that suggests that kind of What does it all mean? trajectory. I’ve been staring at drafts since 1971, and here’s one true thing: The For the Oilers, I’ll list Tobias Rieder, Erik Gustafsson (221 games but a team that grabs the best player wins. That would be Edmonton, and I’ll solid NHL regular) and Nail Yakupov as qualifiers in this category. double down and opine that Draisaitl is the second-best player in the conversation. Calgary players include Michael Ferland, Markus Granlund and Sam Bennett. That established, Flames fans should be damned impressed with Calgary’s work. You can say luck was involved with Gaudreau, but to find Edge goes to Calgary, partly because two of the three draft picks by a player with that kind of talent after pick No. 100 should put the scout Edmonton played their first NHL games in other cities and Oilers who argued for him in the Hall of Fame. management was unable to get much in return. Both teams should be pleased with their drafting from 2015 on, and that’s Stragglers who could become regulars the big takeaway here. Oilers fans bitched and moaned in the 1990s and There are several men from the first half of the decade who took their then 2000s when the club was outside the playoffs, blaming trades and time emerging but are building résumés that resemble those of an NHL players and coaches all along the way. regular. Drafting was a big part of the issue. Check out the draft “Death Valley” for Edmonton counts Tyler Pitlick (190 games in the past three seasons) and Edmonton from 1990 to 2000 and the uneven work from 2003 to 2007 for Jujhar Khaira (193 games in the past three seasons). The Flames count proof that bad drafting has effects that linger two to five years after the Laurent Brossoit (54 games in the past three seasons), Mark Jankowski failure. (207 in the past three) and Brett Kulak (184 in the past three). It’s important not to count on prospects before they emerge complete. Edge goes to the Flames. However, the 2015 haul for Edmonton behind McDavid, added to encouraging signs from Yamamoto and the 2019-20 group, suggests Picks from 2015 on who are emerging good times could be ahead for Edmonton and Calgary.

This is perhaps the most fascinating area for both teams, as there are The Battle of Alberta could become a common springtime playoff series substantial riches in the pipeline (or turning a spark into a flame). again.

From the Edmonton side, three blueliners from 2015 (Caleb Jones, Ethan The Athletic LOADED: 04.20.2020 Bear, John Marino) all look like legit NHL regulars who might spend years playing in the heart of the game. Kailer Yamamoto emerged in 2019-20 right on time from the 2017 draft and can be counted as a player who is matriculating. 1183171 Carolina Hurricanes the one after), gave great insight into the other kinds of stakes that can be at play when a team isn’t fighting for the division, conference or league’s top spots. There may not be relegation in the NHL, but there are ice time and contracts and jobs and reputations and relationships and Bourne: NHL is built for a season-long docu-series like ‘Sunderland ’Til I heavily invested fans that make every season interesting for every team, Die’ if you know enough about what’s really going on. (The fan thing is worth noting, as it was a super-intriguing part of the Sunderland doc. Could a

camera crew select a few hardcore season-ticket holders to be a part of By Justin Bourne Apr 19, 2020 a season-long NHL show?)

It also doesn’t seem unlikely to me that there’d be interest in making a season-long doc about an NHL franchise. There’s a uniqueness to Sports fans are getting desperate. Slowly but surely, the games we loved hockey that brings curiosity from outsiders, and those who are already got cancelled at exactly the climax of the sporting calendar, shoving us fans would salivate at the chance for something more in-depth. I also directly into the time of year most of us loathe: the sports dead zone. think that although “24/7” demonstrated where hockey can be tribal, with That’s usually late July, early August, when the NHL’s calendar is in its fans focusing heavily on just their own team, well-produced looks at other deepest state of hibernation, the NFL isn’t back yet, the NBA is long gone clubs can be deemed worthwhile for all fans. There’s little doubt in my and just as long from returning and baseball isn’t yet into playoffs. mind there’d be an audience for this.

Only it’s been far worse than the usual dead zone, for obvious reasons As plain as I can be, then: An NHL team should sign up to be followed for we don’t need to get into. an entire season as part of a docu-series that wouldn’t run in numerous parts until after the season ended. So as I said off the top, we’ve gotten desperate. Gamblers are literally betting on simulated games. While I share that passion, I’ve chosen to Let’s address the two biggest questions you’d likely have: aim it differently: I’ve been watching sports documentaries, and more recently, sports “docu-series.” It’s not exactly the real stuff, but it’s doing 1. Why would an NHL team agree to do that? The thing is, an “NHL more than just staving off withdrawals. It’s actually been pretty team” doesn’t need to decide to do this. Just one team owner or fascinating. ownership group does. The league would almost certainly agree provided it had some sway over how it looks in the end (which I’ll get to next), so it My sporting interests are pretty heavily North American, but I had a friend would just come down to an owner wanting to do it. And I think a lot of with common interests tell me the Netflix series “F1: Drive to Survive” owners would or at least should. was a must-watch, and I’m here, in turn, telling you the exact thing. It was riveting. It was one of those shows that when it ended, I had that “well, For one, there’s money involved. You don’t agree to be the subject of a what do I do with my life now?” moments that happen when all great documentary as an unpaid volunteer. (It was leaked that Amazon paid series ends — books, movies or otherwise. I spent some time looking Man City about $12.5 million USD for the access. Two years later, it’s not into and getting excited about when “F1” comes back, then immediately impossible to see someone paying $5 million or more to an NHL team, is searching for my next docu-fix. it?)

I’ll steer clear of this becoming a review of random sports docs, but I But the biggest thing is that getting fans familiar with the people behind should note that two of them — specifically the also-excellent the visors (and those in the front office) is the key to forming the deeper “Sunderland ’Til I Die” from Netflix but also “All or Nothing” on connections that make fans diehards, that keep fans engaged even when Manchester City from Amazon — had me thinking about how things aren’t going well, that guarantee they’ll want to be a part of underserved hockey fans are when it comes to season-long whatever event you dream up when things are going well. (And it doesn’t documentaries. Over that period of time, numerous questions can be hurt the bottom line, either.) asked and answered, and you’re able to focus on what really ends up Yes, there would be some stuff that wouldn’t look great for the team; mattering, rather than day-to-day overreactions. Big-picture thinking has that’s inevitable. There are daily decisions to be made in hockey that time to play out. Breaking down full seasons into a digestible length (call even Cup-winning teams get wrong. But I think that only serves to it an hour a month?) is a concept perfectly suited to capturing the ups humanize the whole process and brings an understanding of thought and downs of a single team’s NHL season. processes, furthering the deeper connection with fans. (I also think it Both of those aforementioned soccer documentaries follow the clubs highlights how many daily and weekly decisions get made, which should from the beginning of the season through the conclusion, taking you excuse a few given the sheer quantity.) behind the scenes to catch the emotion of how people felt in The 2. How do you keep it from being edited into an all-bubblegum NHL Moments, rather than how they feel reflecting on The Moments. I think commercial? Assuming the NHL would want some say in what the final that’s an important difference that eliminates potential revisionist history. I product would look like, how do you keep them from putting out some recognize that in almost every case, the team or the league has to at sort of state-approved propaganda series? The exact answer of the how, least somewhat vet what gets shown, so you don’t get all the good stuff, I freely acknowledge not knowing. That’s up to those on the legal side in but even with that, you’d get a better sense for the internal hurdles a terms of how they negotiate the agreement. But there are enough docu- team had to overcome (and that applies most specifically to how the series that don’t polish things up too much that we should be hopeful it personalities involved handled the cards they were dealt). can be done (Sunderland actually agreed to a second season, despite That’s one of the areas the NHL and its fans have long identified as the debacles of the first). There has to be some sliding scale in terms of lacking: the exposure of the players’ personalities. In a game so fast, with what a documentary producer would be willing to pay versus who has the visors on, in a culture that frowns on overt shows of individuality, the final say on what. Dollars equal access and editorial control, and some of players often come off as interesting as oatmeal, if you get any taste at these producers (like Netflix) have thrown scads of money at bigger all for what they’re really like. Creating that personal investment in the projects like what we’re talking about here. players is something teams should value. And I promise you, there are That detail is huge in terms of the quality of the finished product. That big personalities underneath all that gear and those “pucks in deep” Manchester City documentary is steps behind the Sunderland one quotes. Not with everyone, obviously, but a daily behind-the-scenes look because it feels a little too polished and perfect. (I recognize the would at least give a clearer picture of who’s actually oatmeal and who differences in team success and organizational … well, everything, has a little of that fajita sizzle. contribute to that, but there’s no doubt the Sunderland doc lets you in Many years ago, the NHL hit an absolute home run with “24/7: Road to more.) the Winter Classic,” but ultimately, with each additional Classic (and the As I’ve been saying: The exposure of some negative details doesn’t addition of so many other outdoor games with less-marquee teams) the mean negative big-picture outcomes for a club. It can help people realize stakes of the game started to diminish, the payoff of the series did the how hard it is along the way and appreciate the positive outcomes even same, and the show lost its lustre. In a season-long affair, the lustre more. As in our own relationships, some of our strongest bonds come comes from the different stakes at the different spots on the calendar, with those we accept as imperfect. from making the team to the trade deadline to the playoff push and more. Then there’s one more question that seems relevant while I’m trying to I think, in particular, the documentary on Sunderland FC, which followed wish this into existence: the team in its first season after relegation from the Premier League (and 3. Which team is best suited for such a thing? No hedge from me there: The answer is Carolina.

These sorts of things generate new fans all over the world (for example, I absolutely find myself rooting for Sunderland now, despite what it has become), something that should appeal to a smaller-market team. The Carolina organization has shown that it’s willing to do things a little differently, as it was an early adopter of analytics, and the Hurricanes have an owner who’s been willing to march to the beat of his own drum. I also think they’d welcome the extra dough (who wouldn’t?).

It’s a younger team that would likely be more comfortable with such a concept than a bunch of old vets. Age dictates that Hurricanes players are more familiar with social media and more accepting of cameras everywhere (and that so much more of their lives is shared than in generations past). They’re also very good, fairly Cup contenders I’d say, and at least good enough that the odds of going through a miserable lottery-pick type of season are extremely unlikely. They just seem like the perfect fit to me.

Of course, it would be great for any team. It just makes the most sense for a team like the Canes.

NHL teams have recognized the need for something like this before and have produced their own soft-focus versions of behind-the-scenes shows. And even in team hands, a few of those have had interesting moments (there are a number of fans who will tell you they love the behind-the-scenes stuff their teams have put together). But that’s not at all the same as the what-could-be potential of a well-made season-long version that contains some new angles and explains some old thinking.

“24/7” showed hockey fans have a massive appetite for something like this. So hopefully this can at least put the seed in some documentary producer’s head out there (and if it does, give me a call, I’d love to help make it happen!). I know times are lean right now, but even when everything comes back, I have no doubt there’s a year-long hockey doc to be made that would be a massive success.

The Athletic LOADED: 04.20.2020 1183172 Chicago Blackhawks Everything that Doughty says has merit, but the NHL doesn't want to lose a billion dollars in revenue and hockey fans won't care what it looks like or what the format is if they get to see the playoffs.

Rozner: Is there still time for NHL postseason? Playoff hockey is still playoff hockey. We'll take whatever we can get.

Daily Herald Times LOADED: 04.20.2020

Barry Rozner

Updated4/19/2020 6:03 PM

Drew Doughty was only voicing what everyone has been thinking for weeks.

"Honestly, I don't see how this season is going to return," the veteran Kings defenseman said on a conference call last week. "I really don't."

Since math is a specialty here, let's take a quick look.

It's already past the middle of April and for every month they've been off the ice, the players need at least a week of serious on-ice work in order to look like hockey players again.

They've been away from the rink for a month and best case would probably be another month before they can find any ice time.

That puts us at June 1 with two weeks of on-ice training or exhibition games.

"We're all sitting at home hoping to return to the season, or hoping to watch the playoffs," said the 30-year-old Doughty. "But we're just sitting here waiting, working out, being ready to return at any point.

"I think the NHL would have to make some kind of decision on that soon, and it seems like it's pretty tough to resume the season or the playoffs."

A baseball player can throw and hit anywhere. Basketball players can toss up jumpers all day long at home. A pro golfer can get out on the course in some states, and almost all of them have home gyms, nets and simulators.

But hockey players need to skate, period. The bike is a poor substitute. A treadmill accomplishes little. They need to skate and 99 percent of them haven't been allowed near a rink for a very long time.

For some of them, it's longer than they are away from the ice in the offseason.

"Everything keeps getting delayed," Doughty said. "I don't see how or when we're going to be able to make a decision to return. And when that (happens), you have to figure out all the logistics. So it seems very, very hard to be able to do, but us players are going to be ready for whatever."

Sure, hockey players will do anything you tell them to do. They want to play. But the not knowing what's next is taking a toll.

"I don't know what I'm working out for," Doughty said, meaning a return to play or a summer of preparation. "They've been telling us we can come back at any time. We only got about four days without training. I like to take at least three or four weeks off. I don't really know what's going on here."

Players need time off to heal and train in the summer. If the playoffs don't end until August, it could be dangerous and a health risk from a hockey standpoint.

"We had to play that World Cup (in September 2016). It was tough to go into games like that after one or two exhibition games coming right out of the summer," Doughty said. "I never recovered from that World Cup for the rest of the season. I was in absolute pain that whole season.

"As much as I could mentally be in game mode, your body's not ready for it if you don't get a full offseason of training. If you only get one week of training camp with a couple of exhibition games, you're going to ruin your body."

Doughty then admitted what many are thinking.

"I know they want to give out the Stanley Cup this year, but in all seriousness it's not going to be like winning a real Stanley Cup because the season wasn't finished," Doughty said. "There are teams that (missed) the playoffs (that won't get a chance), and I'm assuming the (NHL would) have to come up with a different format." 1183173 Chicago Blackhawks The Blackhawks continued to struggle on the power play, failing to convert on their only chance while St. Louis cashed in on one of their two. We said earlier in the series, for the Hawks to pull off the upset, special teams had to be clicking. They have gotten themselves to Game NHL 20 sim: Blackhawks fall in Game 6 as Jordan Binnington dominates 7 against the West’s best with a meager penalty kill and an 0-for-8 power play. It’s reasonable to ask whether the Hawks would have already

advanced past St. Louis had they had even just minimal success with a By Matthew Rooney April 19, 2020 12:18 AM man-advantage.

Notable performances:

Game 6: Blues at Blackhawks (April 19th) - Dylan Strome (Goal)

Result: Blues win 3-2 (F/OT) (series tied 3-3) - (Goal)

Three Stars: - Ryan O’Reilly (2 Assists)

1st Star: Jordan Binnington (38 Saves) - Brayden Schenn (OT GWG)

2nd Star: Jaden Schwartz (1 G, 1 A, 4 SOG, +1) Reminiscent of Chicago’s Game 7 loss vs Vancouver in 2011, Toews tied things up on a scramble in front of the net with just seconds to play, only 3rd Star: Brandon Saad (2 A, 6 SOG, +1) this time the Hawks had the home crowd behind them and going wild. Unfortunately, much like the heartbreaking loss in 2011, the Hawks were Brandon Saad was all over the ice for the Hawks after a couple of down- unable to build on to their momentum. The Captain is pacing the Hawks games. He looked much like the power forward that got the Hawks to the with four goals in the series, but needs to show up in Game playoffs with a pair of helpers and six shots on goal. But Jordan 7 and finally get on the board if the Hawks want to prevent the Blues Binnington put in his best effort of the series by far and was the best comeback. Look for Jeremy Colliton to shake up the lines to try and player on the ice. Binnington’s hot streak could end up being the final nail reignite Kane and the scoring. in the Hawks’ coffin. Comcast SportsNet.com LOADED: 04.20.2020 Scoring Summary:

First Period

- No Scoring

Second Period

- 1:51 PP Jaden Schwartz (A. Pietrangelo, R. O’Reilly) 1-0

- 7:56 Dylan Strome (D. Keith, B. Saad) 1-1

Third Period

- 10:30 MacKenzie MacEachern (I. Barbashev, S. Blais) 2-1

- 19:47 Jonathan Toews (B. Saad, A. DeBrincat) 2- 2

Overtime

- 1:04 Brayden Schenn (J. Schwartz, R. O’Reilly) 3-2

Box Score:

Shots on Goal:

- St. Louis: 25

- Chicago: 40

Just a gut-punch of a loss for Chicago. In front of the fans at the Madhouse, the Hawks dominated play. They carried the play for all 60+ minutes and outshot their rivals by 15, but in the end, just couldn’t finish when they needed to. While he didn’t register a goal, Ryan O’Reilly again was a thorn in Chicago’s side, assisting on the opening goal and the overtime winner. For the second time at home this series, the Hawks found a late equalizer to force overtime, but this time St. Louis was able to weather the storm and find the eventual winner.

Goalies:

- Jordan Binnington 38/40 (.950)

- Corey Crawford 22/25 (.880)

If the Blues go on to complete the comeback and take Game 7 at home, look no further than Jordan Binnington’s Game 6 effort as the X-factor. Since his brutal .750 SV% effort in Game 2, Binnington has steadily gotten better every game and, along with O’Reilly, been a vital part in the Blues comeback.

Power Play:

- Chicago: 0-1

- St. Louis: 1-2 1183174 Columbus Blue Jackets “(Sevigny) said he was going to put Gretzky in his back pocket, or something like that,” said longtime Edmonton Journal hockey writer Jim Matheson, another Hall of Famer.

Michael Arace | Blue Jackets’ upset of Lightning echoed Oilers’ 1981 “Gretz just skated by the guy and tapped his pads,” Matheson said. “It stunner was like, ‘We’ll see about that.’ ”

Gretzky had 11 points in the three games. It was the Oilers’ first series victory in franchise history. Michael Arace Of the 24 Cups the Canadiens have claimed, they won five in the 1960s Apr 19, 2020 at 6:10 AM and six in the ‘70s. Their fans demanded annual silver. Who, in 1981, were the Oilers? They were, in some ways, like the 2019 Jackets.

“We were a bunch of kids, and we just beat the Montreal Canadiens,” Brian Hedger, our fine Blue Jackets beat writer, on Saturday put the Coffey said. “We weren’t expected to win, but we weren’t afraid to lose. finishing touches on an oral history of last year’s first-round upset of the And when you’re not afraid to lose, it’s just ‘let’s go play.’ And that’s mighty Tampa Bay Lightning. It was a chronicle of the first time in NHL dangerous for any team to play against ― i.e. with Tampa last year, history that a Presidents’ Trophy winner was swept from the first round of against Columbus. the playoffs. It was an all-time stunner. “I watched that series. It was one of the best I’ve seen in a long time. We’ve groped for analogies over the past couple of weeks. Brian Columbus got them off their game, as Brian (Engblom) said. Columbus Engblom came up with a good one. A personal one. hit everything that moved. Hit, hit, hit. ... I was surprised that Columbus Engblom has served as a color analyst for ESPN, ABC, NBC and, during didn’t have more success after that. I thought in the second round they’d the 2006-07 season, for Jackets telecasts on Fox Sports Ohio. He’s one be a lot better than they were.” of the best in the business. For the past five years, he has provided color But Coffey digresses. for Lightning telecasts, which is to say he had a front-row seat in Amalie and Nationwide arenas last spring. “We beat the Montreal Canadiens,” he said. “Then we gave the Islanders, who went on to win the Stanley Cup, a good run. We were like, And history rhymed. ‘We’re going all the way! We’re the best team ever!’ And what happened Lest we forget, Engblom was a first-rate defenseman with a scoring the next year (1982)? Boom. LA. First round. Beat us. touch who played 659 games over 10 years. He made his debut with the “That’s the beauty of sports.” Montreal Canadiens during the 1977 playoffs, at the height of the Habs’ last dynastic period. His name is twice etched into Lord Stanley’s silver. Columbus Dispatch LOADED: 04.20.2020 “My personal analogy (for Jackets-Lightning) is from 1981,” Engblom said. “We’d won four Cups in a row (1976-79). We had a pretty good season. We played Edmonton in the first round, and they took our game away from us and they played to their strengths.

“We were dumping the puck in and trying to get the forecheck going ― and they were waiting for us. Paul Coffey had the puck and he was coming back at us. The traffic was going one way and we were going the wrong way down a one-way street. It was like, ‘Oh, my goodness.’ We never had the puck.”

The 1981 Canadiens had six future Hall of Famers: Bob Gainey, 27 years old at the time; Steve Shutt, 28; Guy Lafleur, 29; Larry Robinson, 29; Guy Lapointe, 32; and Serge Savard, 35.

The 1981 Edmonton Oilers had a future Hall of Fame coach, Glen Sather, and five future Hall of Fame players: Paul Coffey, 19, and four 20-year-olds: Wayne Gretzky, , Jari Kurri and Glenn Anderson.

Gretzky turned out to be the greatest hockey player who ever lived. His teammates weren’t chumps, either. Coffey, for one, would go on to score more points than any other defenseman not named Raymond Bourque.

These Oilers were a dynasty-in-waiting ― they’d win five Cups in seven years (1984-1990) ― but in 1981, they were just the No. 14 seed in a 16- team tournament.

“We didn’t find out who we were playing until the last night (of the regular season),” Coffey said. “I remember like it was yesterday. We were all at a Rod Stewart concert at Northlands Coliseum and Slats (Sather) called us downstairs after the concert and said, ‘Guys, the good news is we’re in,’ and then he kinda looked at us and said, ‘and we’re playing the Montreal Canadiens.’

“To a man, we just kind of giggled and said, ‘We’re going to get (expletive deleted) killed.”

The first round back then was a best-of-five. At the fabled Montreal Forum for Games 1 and 2, the Oilers beat the Canadiens by a combined score of 9-4. The Oilers completed the sweep at Northlands in Edmonton with a 6-2 victory on April 11, 1981.

“When I think about (Jackets-Lightning) last year, it feels the same,” Engblom said.

Edmonton’s rookie , Andy Moog ― called up from Wichita on the eve of the series ― outdueled Montreal’s Richard Sevigny, who won the Vezina Trophy that year. 1183175 Columbus Blue Jackets

Nationwide Arena’s ice man works alone during coronavirus closure

Mike Wagner

Apr 19, 2020 at 5:05 AM

Nationwide Arena could have been roaring with playoff hockey, but instead, when Ian Huffman walks in, he is greeted by darkness and silence. Huffman, the arena’s ice technician, removed the ice weeks ago but remains hopeful, like many other Columbus Blue Jackets fans, that the ice and the sport they love will return this season.

The only sounds that echo through the dark, desolate arena when Ian Huffman enters are the wind howling outside and maybe a lone worker painting something inside.

The ice where the injury-ravaged Blue Jackets skated into playoff contention is gone.

Huffman, the ice technician for Nationwide Arena, melted it away with hot water weeks ago, when the coronavirus pandemic forced the to pause play March 12.

The only ice left for Huffman to drive the Zamboni over is in the OhioHealth Ice Haus, where the Blue Jackets practice.

>> This story is being provided free as a public service to our readers during the coronavirus pandemic. You can find�more stories on coronavirus here. Please support local journalism by subscribing to The Columbus Dispatch at subscribe.dispatch.com.

A few days a week, Huffman preps the practice ice for the injured players who are going through rehabilitation. They are the only players allowed in the building; the rest are barred through April under a league-ordered home quarantine. They skate one or maybe two at a time for about 30 minutes. The man whom everyone at the arena calls “Huff” normally chats with the players, but during this shutdown, he keeps his distance, sharing occasional waves from afar.

Huffman’s normal workdays at this time of year are sometimes so long that he sleeps at the arena and guzzles two or three pots of coffee a day. Instead, he is down to maybe two cups a day in his Hilliard home while he monitors the practice-ice temperature from there on the days he’s not at the rink.

“This is all so surreal without hockey in there,” said Huffman, 36, who has been in charge of caring for the ice at Nationwide for 11 years. “It was hard to believe when we took the ice out. I feel so bad for the players, everyone with the team and, of course, our awesome fans.

“We were having an amazing year, and we all are hoping we can still have playoff hockey here.”

Instead of potential sellout crowds for first-round playoff games, the arena holds only about a dozen people on most days. They include a few Blue Jackets staff members helping the injured players, plus security personnel and a handful of workers doing maintenance.

Huffman, considered one of the best ice technicians in the league, feels lucky that he is still working during the shutdown. He has received emails from friends who work at arenas across the country who have been laid off or furloughed.

Aside from the Blue Jackets games, the arena has lost concerts and other events to cancellations.

Huffman said he understands that other people are dealing with far more serious effects of the pandemic, but he hopes that hockey will return to lift the city’s spirits through a tough time.

It would take about four days to restore the ice in the main arena, but he is more than ready to do so if the NHL decides it’s safe to play hockey again.

“We all miss hockey. We all miss seeing this team play,” Huffman said. “Like I said, it’s just surreal in here and everywhere right now.”

Columbus Dispatch LOADED: 04.20.2020 1183176 Detroit Red Wings Right now, with so many unknowns, sports communications has something in common with sports itself. Think about what happens in the week leading up to a big game. Absent any news, the attention turns to opinions, some more informed than others. Everyone feels the need to Matt Friedman: How sports can overcome this no-win pandemic present their takes. When you don’t know what will happen, you feel compelled to venture a guess. Predictions replace information.

Regardless of sport, everyone responsible for communications now faces Matt Friedman, Special to Detroit Free PressPublished 6:00 a.m. ET April the same opponent every day: speculation. 19, 2020 Amid the rush to guess how, when and where games will resume, sports leagues and teams must remember the emotion that fuels their businesses. They must communicate to their audiences to provide facts, Matt Friedman is co-founder of Michigan-based Tanner Friedman as they know them, and also to provide reassurance that they are Strategic Communications. He has served as an advisor to sports working, even behind the scenes, to resume competition. Most programs during times of crisis and change and serves on the Board of importantly, they must demonstrate vividly that they care about those Directors of the Michigan Sports Hall of Fame. He agreed to write this who are missing work and their livelihoods along with the fans who long column for the Free Press in the wake of the coronavirus pandemic for action, scores, highlights, debates and even predictions about shutting down sports around the globe. something other than when this will all end.

During a crisis, there’s a question that I ask myself and my clients every Detroit Free Press LOADED: 04.20.2020 day: “Are we closer to the beginning of this or are we closer to the end?”

That's exactly the question sports leagues around the country are grappling with as they scramble to react to the fallout of the coronavirus pandemic.

The goal in any crisis is to work toward a conclusion, while building or regaining trust. The challenge is determining what can be said or, more importantly, what can be done to move forward. For those running most sports leagues, however, they can’t yet answer that key question, leading to frustration and speculation from their most loyal customers: the fans.

This is not simply about reputation. This is about sports’ ability to exist as a part of our society. Unlike strikes or lockouts or scandals, this coronavirus crisis affects everyone and everything. Best practices in public relations don't necessarily apply here, as this situation is so complex and changes so quickly, leaving fans confused and longing for answers.

Typically, in crisis, you want to level with audiences as quickly as possible, laying out what’s known in direct terms, in order to maintain or regain trust. Right now, that's nearly impossible, and it has put sports in a no-win situation.

Professional leagues are handling communications differently as their circumstances differ. And yet the advice to each of them remains the same: Communicate what you know, as soon as you know it.

So far, so good for the pros, who have it easier — for now — than the colleges.

The PGA Tour has announced it will resume its season in mid-June, but with the disclaimer that it would likely only work as a series of TV-only events, with no fans onsite, including at Detroit's Rocket Mortgage Classic in July. The NFL has moved forward with its offseason, including free agency and the upcoming draft, which should be the most attention- getting TV event of the spring, before the league plunges into uncertainty. has carefully and publicly floated several ideas about how it could play an abbreviated season, sending a message to its customers that owners are at least trying to have baseball this year. The NBA and NHL have similarly communicated attempts to bring a conclusion to their interrupted seasons, while communicating caution.

Empty stadium seats.

One key piece of crisis PR is, “Speak for yourself because if you don’t, others will gladly speak for you.” That's what college sports is experiencing, but not because athletic administrators, universities or the NCAA are ignoring questions. With hundreds of universities running dozens of sports, the media covering them are filled with what seems like an infinite number of voices, with no coordination or cohesion whatsoever. While Clemson coach Dabo Swinney said he has “zero doubt” the football season will start as scheduled, conference commissioners reportedly told Vice President Mike Pence that if campus openings won’t kick off on time, neither will college football. Fans already crushed about missing the NCAA Tournament and now worried about football season aren’t sure who to believe and are left to their emotions, something conferences and schools must account for, and make up for, as soon as they know the plan forward. 1183177 Detroit Red Wings 20:28 of ice time. Lafreniere, the tournament MVP, scored twice on five shots in 16:06 of ice time.

"I found out I was going to have a bigger role probably 5-10 minutes No. 1-ranked defenseman Jamie Drysdale could skate into Red Wings' before the puck drop," Drysdale said. "It's something you have to future embrace. You have to have confidence in your game, to know you're there for a reason. It was one of the best hockey experiences of my life."

For now, Drysdale is working out at home in Toronto and shooting pucks Mark Falkner, The Detroit NewsPublished 3:50 p.m. ET April 19, 2020 | in the backyard during Ontario's economic shutdown. Even though he's Updated 3:51 p.m. ET April 19, 2020 "undeniably a Leafs fan," Drysdale said he would welcome being drafted by the Red Wings.

"The Yzermans and (Nicklas) Lidstroms are names you can't miss," For just one day, coach Chris Hartsburg says he would like to Drysdale said. "They're definitely special players that made a name for skate like his 18-year-old defenseman Jamie Drysdale, who could wind themselves and helped make a name for the organization." up in Detroit if the Red Wings fall out of the top two spots in the NHL draft lottery. Only the top three players from last year's draft played significant minutes in the NHL this year (Jack Hughes of the New Jersey Devils, Kaapo "Watch out when he gets those first three strides going," says Hartsburg, Kakko of the New York Rangers and Kirby Dach of the Chicago the son of former NHL captain Craig Hartsburg of the Minnesota North Blackhawks) so it's likely Drysdale will return for his third season in Erie Stars and a seventh-round pick by the New Jersey Devils in 1999 after next year. playing four years at Colorado College. Hartsburg, who had the Otters in the playoffs for the first time in three "He's a new-age defender who skates extremely well and thinks the seasons when the season ended on March 18, said "it wouldn't break my game extremely well. His edge work allows him to pick up speed out of heart if he (Drysdale) was sent back" next year. corners and turn up ice quick. "Everyone had Bowen Byram penciled into Colorado's lineup this year," Hartsburg also coached Edmonton Oilers superstar Connor McDavid, Hartsburg said. "Lo and behold, he gets sent back to junior and it widely regarded as the NHL's fastest skater. McDavid was granted certainly didn't hurt him. I don't think Jamie is far off from being an NHL exceptional status into the as a 15-year-old with player, but he wants to go in and play important minutes. If we're Erie in 2012. fortunate enough to get him back, he would be our best player and have "Jamie would be the first one to tell you he's not on the same level as the opportunity to be one of the best players in our league." Connor," Hartsburg said. "Connor's strides are so quick and he's able to Jamie Drysdale profile build so much momentum. But Jamie is relatively similar. He doesn't have a long stride, but he's super quick and gets to areas quicker than WHO: Jamie Drysdale his opponents." WHAT: No. 1-ranked defenseman among North American skaters in the Drysdale's skating ability is one of the main reasons he was the No. 1- NHL Central Scouting final rankings rated defenseman in the NHL Central Scouting's final rankings and the third-ranked North American player behind winger Alexis Lafreniere and TEAM: Erie Otters in the Ontario Hockey League center Quinton Byfield. AGE: 18 The dates for the lottery and the draft haven't been announced as the HEIGHT: Five-foot-11 NHL makes future plans during the coronavirus pandemic, but when things are finalized, the Red Wings could be looking at Drysdale or WEIGHT: 175 pounds German forward Tim Stutzle with the third or fourth pick if they don't have a shot at Lafreniere and Byfield. STATS: Nine goals, 38 assists, 47 points in 49 games this year

"Knowing Steve Yzerman, he would be very happy to have a player like JERSEY NUMBER: No. 4, the number worn by his dad's favorite player, Jamie Drysdale," said Dan Marr, the director of NHL Central Scouting. "In Bobby Orr of the Boston Bruins today's NHL, smaller defensemen have success if they can skate and MINOR HOCKEY: Played in Toronto minor hockey for five years with No. handle the puck, and this is what he does in abundance. He is arguably 2-ranked forward Quinton Byfield the smartest defenseman in this draft. He's very composed and his puck control game is at an elite level." Detroit News LOADED: 04.20.2020

At 5-foot-11 and 175 pounds, Drysdale is following in the footsteps of undersized NHL defensemen Quinn Hughes (Vancouver Canucks/University of Michigan) and Cale Makar (), who are leading candidates to win the Calder Trophy as the best rookie in this year's abbreviated season.

"Every team finds a balance on the back end," Drysdale said. "You need big players who can play a solid defensive role. I can bring the quick transition game. Move the puck up quickly, make smart plays, a first pass kind of guy. I'm confident in my skating to take away time and space from forwards."

After leading OHL rookie defensemen in scoring with 40 points in 63 games in 2018-19, the Toronto native had 47 points in 49 games with the Otters this year.

On the international scene, he was plus seven in seven games at the 2019 world U18 championships (this year's U18 tournament in Ann Arbor and Plymouth was canceled because of COVID-19), the captain for Canada's U18 team at the (five assists in five games) and just the seventh defenseman to play for the national U20 team as a 17-year-old, joining NHLers Aaron Ekblad, Ryan Ellis, Jay Bouwmeester, Chris Phillips, Wade Redden and Scott Niedermayer.

In this year's 5-0 semifinal victory against defending champion Finland at the world championships in the Czech Republic, Drysdale, a late replacement for Colorado first-round pick Bowen Byram, scored a goal in 1183178 Detroit Red Wings He started well with the Griffins, too. The Wings recalled Svechnikov in late October and he played four games (no points) before being returned to Grand Rapids.

'I’m good enough to play in the NHL': Evgeny Svechnikov determined to But as the schedule progressed, it was an up and down season with the realize Red Wings dream Griffins.

Svechnikov played in 51 games with 11 goals and 14 assists (25 points). After the impressive, all-around start, the points became harder to come Ted Kulfan, Published 10:50 p.m. ET April 18, 2020 | Updated 5:55 a.m. by. ET April 19, 2020 “It was frustrating,” Svechnikov said. “I couldn’t get the success. I was playing good all season, a lot of games I was playing good. But of course, I was losing confidence (when points didn’t come) and it was Detroit — The news about Michigan’s weather the past few days, with frustrating. the snow and cold, alarmed Evgeny Svechnikov. “And I was in a lot of pain, too.” Really? For this late in April? The right ACL was reconstructed during the October 2018 surgery. “Oh man, that’s crazy,” said Svechnikov, the Red Wings’ 2015 first-round Everyone in the Wings’ organization predicted a tough road back — and draft pick, who is hunkering down during this pandemic in North Carolina it proved to be. with his younger brother Andrei (Carolina Hurricanes). “The sun is out here every day. It’s not as bad.” Svechnikov expected it too, although the impressive training camp and start to this season gave him hope. It reaffirms Svechnikov’s decision in the opening hours after the season was paused, to drive from his rented “I was in a lot of pain but I played well and I was impressed with myself, I home in Muskegon to spend the quarantine with his brother. was proud,” Svechnikov said. “I had a good start to the season. I was playing good the whole time, and I was getting rewarded with points.” Svechnikov quickly realized it was going to be difficult going it alone, with the ’ season stopped, and being stuck by himself. But as time wore on, the knee pain was a factor. It wore on Svechnikov.

He was bored and restless. “I was in a lot of pain a lot of games,” Svechnikov said. “A lot of games. Maybe more than half. It was tough. “I was going insane sitting at home,” Svechnikov said. “Doing nothing by myself. So I just drove down here and at least we can work out together. “Now, it was better as the season went on. But it was painful a lot of games I played. It was painful but I got used to it. It was better. It’s better “We’re doing everything together. Working out in the morning. It’s just now.” more fun than being by myself and it’s helped me a lot.” Svechnikov isn’t using the knee as an excuse for his offensive numbers. This season may or may not be resumed, but in Svechnikov’s mind, he is For that, it was simply more the puck not being kind to him. already preparing for next season (though, whenever that’ll be). “I wasn’t getting any production,” Svechnikov said. “It was kind of tough. I Ripe for the taking was going up and down the lineup, playing with different players, I was Next season, Svechnikov, 23, is no longer exempt from waivers, so he’ll doing good with what I could control, but it was frustrating. either start the season with the Red Wings — or be exposed on waivers “I did a lot well but I just wasn’t getting enough points. I was playing good and risk being lost to another team for nothing in return. but I couldn’t get rewarded.” The assumption is, the Wings will keep Svechnikov and give him his first And with that, Svechnikov stayed in Grand Rapids while the Wings called extended NHL look. It’s certainly what he wants. up Filip Zadina and Givani Smith to the NHL during the season. That elusive prolonged chance to prove himself. Svechnikov appeared to fall on the organizational depth chart. “I believe I’m good enough to play in the NHL,” said Svechnikov, who has There’s a good chance Svechnikov would have still been recalled had played in 20 NHL games (2 goals, 2 assists). “I’m not thinking about the pandemic not hit. But at this point, it’s speculation. where. I’m just going to come (to training camp) and do my best and go from there. Svechnikov doesn’t want to dwell on it.

“It’s time. I’m not getting any younger.” “Very frustrating,” said Svechnikov, of his inability to get more of an NHL opportunity this season. “I think I deserved it. A lot of people were That is true. Svechnikov, a rugged 6-foot-3, 208-pound right wing has focused on why I was struggling. been on the brink of the NHL, but several factors have kept him out. “I’m good enough to play in the NHL.” No room on the NHL roster, the organization wanting to make sure Svechnikov earned more pro experience in the AHL, injuries, and his Not sold inconsistency in Grand Rapids have conspired against him. Svechnikov earned 14 games at the end of the 2017-18 season (2 goals, But when Svechnikov tore his ACL in September 2018 and missed the 2 assists), the largest amount of NHL time he’s received. entire 2018-19 season, that could have been the defining point of his career to date. It was a good stretch, but Svechnikov didn’t make the impact to convince the Wings to hold a roster spot the following autumn (although the knee The knee injury took a crucial year of hockey out of his development, and surgery would have squashed those plans). made for a rocky season thus far (the AHL season, too, has been paused, though unlikely to be resumed). Svechnikov wants an opportunity over time to show what he can do at the NHL level. “I lost the whole season,” said Svechnikov of the surgery. “I didn’t play the whole time, so it’s tough. It was a tough spot. I could have been in the “It’s different when you have two weeks, or a month in the NHL, people NHL that season. I had a good (training) camp. need more time,” Svechnikov said. “You need to see (over) a season in the NHL how a person does. You have to be comfortable and see how “Everybody else was playing. I was hurt.” you can do.”

Game on The frustration aside, Svechnikov is intent on reaching the NHL with the Wings. Svechnikov returned this season and was actually one of the better Red Wings during the exhibition season, before being sent to Grand Rapids to “It’s my dream,” Svechnikov said. “I was drafted there and I have too get game action. many friends inside and outside the organization. It’s like home now. I want to be there and I’m good enough, I think, to be there. “But it’s going to be up to me again.”

The Wings aren’t going to hand Svechnikov a job.

General manager Steve Yzerman has stated the roster will look different. With the Entry Draft, free agency, trades, potential buy-outs, there are many variables that will contribute to the roster looking different.

Svechnikov isn’t taking anything for granted.

“When you have injuries it makes it tough, but nothing is going to break me,” Svechnikov said. “I’ve said it before, I’m going to keep working and working hard. I believe I’m good enough for the NHL.

“I haven’t even started my NHL career yet.”

Detroit News LOADED: 04.20.2020 1183179 Detroit Red Wings

Dominik Shine signs new deal with Griffins

Posted Apr 19, 2020

By Peter J. Wallner

Dominik Shine has re-signed with the Grand Rapids Griffins with a one- year contract for the 2020-21 season.

Shine has 14 points (4-10-14) – two shy of equaling his career best he set as a rookie – in 50 games for Grand Rapids with career highs with 10 assists and 57 penalty minutes.

Shine, a Detroit native in his third season, made his pro debut with the Griffins on March 19, 2017 at Milwaukee and has logged 188 regular- season games with the Griffins, netting 44 points (18-26-44) and 171 PIM. He has two points (1-1-2) and four PIM in 10 Playoff appearances.

Before turning pro, Shine spent four seasons (2013-17) at Northern Michigan University, where he had 97 points (48-49-97) and 185 PIM in 131 games and served as a two-time alternate captain. During his senior year in 2016-17, Shine paced the conference with 20 goals in 33 contests en route to his second consecutive 30-point season and was named to the All-WCHA Third Team.

Shine also played four seasons for the USHL’s Lincoln Stars from 2009- 13 and served as captain during his final two years. He totaled 134 career points (64-70-134) and 503 PIM in 188 regular season contests while chipping in five points (2-3-5) and 22 PIM in 15 postseason appearances.

Michigan Live LOADED: 04.20.2020 1183180 Edmonton Oilers looking at Edmonton and saying: ‘How do we compete with them or beat them?’

“We’ve got these big pieces in place and we have to add to that. We There is no way of knowing who won at the NHL draft right away have a big

opportunity to make this thing go for a long time.”

Jim Matheson The Oilers have the 20th pick in Round 1 at the pause in the NHL March 12, but they won’t have a full complement of picks in the seven rounds as it stands now.

What bugs NHL scouts the most? “We have no second-rounder and the third is in question, but that could change a bit,” said Wright. “With no second-round pick now, it may limit Those who won and who lost team-by-team ratings at the draft. the amount of interviews we do because we can’t set up 90 calls. Obviously, the Edmonton Oilers got a home run when they called out “We’re taking the process slower, watching video.” Connor McDavid’s name, so there was no debate in 2015, but how does anybody really know about how truly dynamic an 18-year-old is on draft Having no second-rounder this year has to be remedied somehow. day? “You’re always working to get more picks. There’s always somebody at “You leave the draft table and you get a ranking (from experts) the day the table who you’re saying, ‘Wow, I can’t believe he’s still there,’ after,” said Edmonton Oilers head of amateur scouting Tyler Wright, whether it’s right or wrong, hindsight five years down the road. laughing. “We’re picking first rounders and we’re wondering is he going to be an average player, a star player or a superstar? That’s the question “More kicks at the can, the greater the opportunity to make the picture you’re always asking after Day 1. You know you’re getting a good player, clearer. There’s always a cluster of players in Round 1 and you’re but how big an impact is that player going to have in three years? You thinking maybe if we moved back we would get two picks.” have to develop them correctly, have the right message going through.” Not having fitness testing results at a combine hurts, but isn’t vital. Winger Ethan Moreau was the 14th player picked in the 1994 NHL Draft “Some people take more stock in it than others. Numbers are numbers,” by Chicago. The former Edmonton Oilers captain was a third-liner for Wright said. “I’m not a physical fitness expert as far as projecting what a most of his career, with 287 career points but he also played 928 NHL VO2 Max scores means, but there have been players who couldn’t do a games, so all good, right? Well, he was an average player but a very pull-up and went on to have a pretty good NHL career.” useful one. Edmonton Sun: LOADED: 04.20.2020 “You want to take players you’re intrigued by. It’s a hard league to be a great player in. Lots of good players. We’ve got a couple of those guys and we want to add to them,” Wright said of Connor McDavid and Leon Draisaitl.

And those retrospectives about past drafts are something people talk about too.

“(David) Pastrnak was the 25th pick (by Boston in 2014). Two years later, if we were looking at the first round, he’s probably a top-three pick,” said Wright.

In Pastrnak’s draft year, playing in Sweden, he weighed about 175 pounds. He’s 194 pounds now and close to 50 goals before the league stopped.

There’s a formula for what Wright’s looking for: Size in net, puck-moving skills on defence, no matter whether you’re 175 pounds or 205, character and especially hockey smarts for forwards, again whether you’re Brad Marchand’s size or Draisaitl’s. There is a variable all teams ponder over and that’s evaluating players playing against their age group or in a men’s league in Europe.

“A prospect playing against men speeds up the process a bit, especially having success. You’re able to project easier because he’s already doing it,” said Wright, conceding an 18-year-old in Sweden might only be playing 12 minutes a night in the Swedish Hockey League and a junior they like might be playing 22 minutes with the Oil Kings against their peers.

“It’s a hard projection when a kid gets eight, nine minutes a game, one, two three shots on net. But you have to dig back and when the 17-year- old was playing junior and playing more. Or if they’re playing against men, do they still go to the world juniors and what role do they have?” said Wright.A “It’s a hard sell though, kids playing against men. Tomas Hertl was a prime example (in the Czech Republic). He played against men, not a lot and not playing in a lot of tournaments and he got hurt. He slid to 17th. Good on San Jose, they got a heck of a player by doing their due diligence.

“We also have this internal debate where we see a kid play phenomenal for 10 days but do you want to go back and see him play bad.”

Sometimes you’re looking for the good and the fall-off to gauge.

“It’s the ultimate when do you see these young men play enough, can you see them too much? Absolutely. Can you pick them apart? Yeah,” said Wright. “A bigger question is trying to figure out where the game’s going four years from now. We want to pick players so other teams are 1183181 Edmonton Oilers Calgary has three players from that 2015 draft (Rasmus Andersson, Oliver Kylington and Andrew Mangiapane) who appear to be a match for the Oilers trio. Two more from the 2016 selection (Dillon Dube, Adam Fox) and Juuso Valimaki from 2017 are also emerging. Lowetide: Comparison of Oilers, Flames drafts 2010-19 closer than it should be Major edge to Calgary, and in truth, Fox could be another Gaudreau based on a stunning rookie season.

Games played By Allan Mitchell Apr 19, 2020 I’m going to divide the games played into two categories. I think the 2010-14 drafts have enjoyed a full viewing, while those from 2015 and on are still developing. One team spent the decade in the front row of tables at the annual draft, the other seemed to wake up after pick No. 60. At the end of the decade, Oilers, 2010-14: 4,373 the Edmonton Oilers and Calgary Flames landed very close to even in the number of impact players added. Here’s the breakdown. Flames, 2010-14: 2,941

Impact players Edmonton had an enormous advantage during these years, picking early in each draft. Discounting the first round, the Oilers’ edge in games The Oilers drafted Taylor Hall (No. 1 in 2010), Leon Draisaitl (No. 3 in (1,642 to 1,537) disappears. 2014) and Connor McDavid (No. 1 in 2015). The three men are responsible for two Hart Trophy wins (plus a third possibly on the way Now, the second group: this summer), two Lindsay Awards and three scoring championships. Flames, 2015-19: 826 The Flames drafted Johnny Gaudreau (No. 104 in 2011) and Matthew Oilers, 2015-19: 762 Tkachuk (No. 6 in 2016). Gaudreau is the only award winner (Byng Trophy) but had a 99-point season and remains a major part of the Both teams are doing well. Calgary has seven men up and running, with Calgary offence. Edmonton counting five.

The edge goes to the Oilers even after dealing Hall, but the Flames get The ones who got away massive credit for finding a winger who has scored .96 points per game during his NHL career. It’s also true Calgary didn’t get a shot at Hall, There are two bookend drafts from this decade that will be associated Draisaitl or McDavid because of its draft ranking. Edmonton had a shot at with selections by Edmonton that directly affected the Flames. Tkachuk and many chances to draft Gaudreau. In 2014, when Craig MacTavish took Leon Draisaitl No. 3, it left Calgary Quality regulars with the obvious choice (Sam Bennett) at No. 4 overall. Bennett has emerged as a useful NHL regular, but Draisaitl went supernova and Edmonton’s Ryan Nugent-Hopkins and Oscar Klefbom arrived via the became one of the best players in the game. It was not a clear choice at 2011 first round, and Darnell Nurse was a top-10 pick in 2013. Calgary the time, and it changed the fortunes of both teams. grabbed a quality regular in Sean Monahan in 2013, one pick ahead of Nurse. In 2016, things set up the same way but worked out better for Calgary. When Jesse Puljujarvi fell unexpectedly to Edmonton at No. 4, it meant Edge to Edmonton, built almost entirely due to the draft position gained Calgary had a chance at Matt Tkachuk. When the Vancouver Canucks by losing hockey games. chose defenceman Olli Juolevi with the fifth pick, Flames management rushed the stage to take the world-class agitator. Regulars As thrilled as Oilers fans are with Draisaitl, the possibility of having I’m counting regulars as players who played 325 or more NHL games, Tkachuk on McDavid’s wing lingers. the equivalent of four complete seasons. I’ve included a couple of players on each side who have built a résumé that suggests that kind of What does it all mean? trajectory. I’ve been staring at drafts since 1971, and here’s one true thing: The For the Oilers, I’ll list Tobias Rieder, Erik Gustafsson (221 games but a team that grabs the best player wins. That would be Edmonton, and I’ll solid NHL regular) and Nail Yakupov as qualifiers in this category. double down and opine that Draisaitl is the second-best player in the conversation. Calgary players include Michael Ferland, Markus Granlund and Sam Bennett. That established, Flames fans should be damned impressed with Calgary’s work. You can say luck was involved with Gaudreau, but to find Edge goes to Calgary, partly because two of the three draft picks by a player with that kind of talent after pick No. 100 should put the scout Edmonton played their first NHL games in other cities and Oilers who argued for him in the Hall of Fame. management was unable to get much in return. Both teams should be pleased with their drafting from 2015 on, and that’s Stragglers who could become regulars the big takeaway here. Oilers fans bitched and moaned in the 1990s and There are several men from the first half of the decade who took their then 2000s when the club was outside the playoffs, blaming trades and time emerging but are building résumés that resemble those of an NHL players and coaches all along the way. regular. Drafting was a big part of the issue. Check out the draft “Death Valley” for Edmonton counts Tyler Pitlick (190 games in the past three seasons) and Edmonton from 1990 to 2000 and the uneven work from 2003 to 2007 for Jujhar Khaira (193 games in the past three seasons). The Flames count proof that bad drafting has effects that linger two to five years after the Laurent Brossoit (54 games in the past three seasons), Mark Jankowski failure. (207 in the past three) and Brett Kulak (184 in the past three). It’s important not to count on prospects before they emerge complete. Edge goes to the Flames. However, the 2015 haul for Edmonton behind McDavid, added to encouraging signs from Yamamoto and the 2019-20 group, suggests Picks from 2015 on who are emerging good times could be ahead for Edmonton and Calgary.

This is perhaps the most fascinating area for both teams, as there are The Battle of Alberta could become a common springtime playoff series substantial riches in the pipeline (or turning a spark into a flame). again.

From the Edmonton side, three blueliners from 2015 (Caleb Jones, Ethan The Athletic LOADED: 04.20.2020 Bear, John Marino) all look like legit NHL regulars who might spend years playing in the heart of the game. Kailer Yamamoto emerged in 2019-20 right on time from the 2017 draft and can be counted as a player who is matriculating. 1183182 New Jersey Devils 3. Mika’s Game, No. 93 scoring five goals, including the overtime breakaway backhand winner in the Blueshirts’ compelling 6-5 victory over the Caps in the penultimate match played at the Garden on March 5, 2020. Ranking the best Rangers, Devils and Islanders regular-season performances 2. Johnny Mac makes history, John MacLean scoring the tying goal at 11:57 of the third period before getting the winning goal at 2:21 of overtime — both on rebounds in the slot left by — to give the Devils a 4-3 victory in Chicago on April 3, 1988 on the final day of the By Larry BrooksApril 19, 2020 | 11:38PM season to thereby clinch the first playoff berth in team history. Tie or defeat would have eliminated team and given final spot to the Rangers.

I’m just watching the classic games go ’round and ’round, Rangers, 1. Two in the third for 50 in 50 for Mike Bossy, who, under immense self- Devils and Islanders from yesteryear on MSG. And while it is the playoff made pressure to tie Maurice Richard’s goal-scoring standard memories that tend to endure for a lifetime, there have been a boatload established in 1944-45, strikes at 15:50 and 18:31 of the third period of regular season performances that captivate the imagination. against Quebec’s Ron Grahame in the Islanders’ 7-4 victory at the Coliseum on Jan. 24, 1981 after having been blanked the previous two For instance, by . games.

As follows, the top 14 individual regular season performances in New New York Post LOADED: 04.20.2020 York/New Jersey history.

14. Fifty-six saves by Rick DiPietro at the Garden on March 5, 2007. The Blueshirts outshot the Islanders 57-30 yet needed Matt Cullen’s shootout tally to defeat DiPietro, 2-1, as the netminder established a franchise single-game record for saves that was broken three years later when Dwayne Roloson stopped 58 in an overtime victory in Toronto.

13. A franchise-record 59 saves by Mike Richter in Vancouver on Jan. 31, 1991 in the Rangers’ 3-3 tie. Canucks should have scored that fourth goal, for immediately following the game, Bob McCammon was fired as coach and replaced behind the bench by GM Pat Quinn.

12. Fifty-one saves by at MSG on Jan. 12, 2010 in the Devils’ 1-0 shootout victory over the Rangers in which Patrik Elias scored in the fourth round of the skills competition against Henrik Lundqvist, who’d made 45 saves in the only double shutout in the history of the Battle of the Hudson.

11. Randy McKay and John Madden, not exactly Patrik Elias and Petr Sykora, score four goals apiece for the Devils in a 9-0 victory over the Penguins at Pittsburgh on Oct. 28, 2000.

10. Threes are wild as the Blueshirts’ Steve Vickers becomes the first freshman in NHL history to record back-to-back hat tricks, striking for three goals against the Flyers on Nov. 15, 1972 three days after getting three against the Kings, with both games at the Garden.

9. The best regular season performance of Henrik Lundqvist’s career, the King making 42 saves in a 3-0 victory in Boston on Feb. 14, 2012, in which the Rangers are outshot 18-3 in the third period, 32-8 over the final 40 minutes, and out-attempted 34-5 in the third. After the game, Lundqvist says this: “It’s my seventh season. The clock is ticking.”

8. An explosion of offense for Rod Gilbert, who scores four goals while sending an NHL record 16 shots on Rogie Vachon in the Rangers’ 6-1 victory in Montreal on Feb. 24, 1968. Record would be eclipsed by Raymond Bourque, who recorded 19 shots in the Bruins’ 3-3 tie against Quebec on March 21, 1991 in which Nordiques netminder Ron Tugnutt made 69 saves.

7. Five for Pav, with Mark Pavelich becoming the first and only American- born player to score five goals in a game in the Rangers’ 11-3 victory over the Whalers at MSG on Feb. 23, 1983, the final goal coming with 11:09 remaining in the game.

6. Dial 14 for Murder, Don Murdoch scoring five goals in the fourth game of his NHL career in Minnesota in the Blueshirts’ 10-4 victory over the North Stars on Oct. 12, 1976. Final goal came on the power play at 19:55 of the third period.

5. Bryan Trottier records a franchise-record eight points while scoring five goals in the Islanders’ 9-4 victory over the Rangers at the Coliseum on Dec. 23, 1978. Trottier would also score five goals on five shots on Feb. 13, 1982 in an 8-2 victory at home over the Flyers in which Mike Bossy records five assists.

4. Halfway home with Jean Ratelle overtaking for the 1971- 72 NHL halfway scoring lead (which was a real thing) by recording five points to vault over No. 77 by one point, 72-71, in an 8-0 victory over the Kings at the Garden on Jan. 9, 1972. Tied after getting a goal and three assists through the first two periods, Ratelle registers a power-play assist with 8:19 to go in the game as fans spend the third counting aloud the number of passes following No. 19 touching the puck. 1183183 New York Islanders assists through the first two periods, Ratelle registers a power-play assist with 8:19 to go in the game as fans spend the third counting aloud the number of passes following No. 19 touching the puck.

Ranking the best Rangers, Devils and Islanders regular-season 3. Mika’s Game, No. 93 scoring five goals, including the overtime performances breakaway backhand winner in the Blueshirts’ compelling 6-5 victory over the Caps in the penultimate match played at the Garden on March 5, 2020.

By Larry BrooksApril 19, 2020 | 11:38PM 2. Johnny Mac makes history, John MacLean scoring the tying goal at 11:57 of the third period before getting the winning goal at 2:21 of

overtime — both on rebounds in the slot left by Darren Pang — to give I’m just watching the classic games go ’round and ’round, Rangers, the Devils a 4-3 victory in Chicago on April 3, 1988 on the final day of the Devils and Islanders from yesteryear on MSG. And while it is the playoff season to thereby clinch the first playoff berth in team history. Tie or memories that tend to endure for a lifetime, there have been a boatload defeat would have eliminated team and given final spot to the Rangers. of regular season performances that captivate the imagination. 1. Two in the third for 50 in 50 for Mike Bossy, who, under immense self- For instance, by Mika Zibanejad. made pressure to tie Maurice Richard’s goal-scoring standard established in 1944-45, strikes at 15:50 and 18:31 of the third period As follows, the top 14 individual regular season performances in New against Quebec’s Ron Grahame in the Islanders’ 7-4 victory at the York/New Jersey history. Coliseum on Jan. 24, 1981 after having been blanked the previous two games. 14. Fifty-six saves by Rick DiPietro at the Garden on March 5, 2007. The Blueshirts outshot the Islanders 57-30 yet needed Matt Cullen’s shootout New York Post LOADED: 04.20.2020 tally to defeat DiPietro, 2-1, as the netminder established a franchise single-game record for saves that was broken three years later when Dwayne Roloson stopped 58 in an overtime victory in Toronto.

13. A franchise-record 59 saves by Mike Richter in Vancouver on Jan. 31, 1991 in the Rangers’ 3-3 tie. Canucks should have scored that fourth goal, for immediately following the game, Bob McCammon was fired as coach and replaced behind the bench by GM Pat Quinn.

12. Fifty-one saves by Martin Brodeur at MSG on Jan. 12, 2010 in the Devils’ 1-0 shootout victory over the Rangers in which Patrik Elias scored in the fourth round of the skills competition against Henrik Lundqvist, who’d made 45 saves in the only double shutout in the history of the Battle of the Hudson.

11. Randy McKay and John Madden, not exactly Patrik Elias and Petr Sykora, score four goals apiece for the Devils in a 9-0 victory over the Penguins at Pittsburgh on Oct. 28, 2000.

10. Threes are wild as the Blueshirts’ Steve Vickers becomes the first freshman in NHL history to record back-to-back hat tricks, striking for three goals against the Flyers on Nov. 15, 1972 three days after getting three against the Kings, with both games at the Garden.

9. The best regular season performance of Henrik Lundqvist’s career, the King making 42 saves in a 3-0 victory in Boston on Feb. 14, 2012, in which the Rangers are outshot 18-3 in the third period, 32-8 over the final 40 minutes, and out-attempted 34-5 in the third. After the game, Lundqvist says this: “It’s my seventh season. The clock is ticking.”

8. An explosion of offense for Rod Gilbert, who scores four goals while sending an NHL record 16 shots on Rogie Vachon in the Rangers’ 6-1 victory in Montreal on Feb. 24, 1968. Record would be eclipsed by Raymond Bourque, who recorded 19 shots in the Bruins’ 3-3 tie against Quebec on March 21, 1991 in which Nordiques netminder Ron Tugnutt made 69 saves.

7. Five for Pav, with Mark Pavelich becoming the first and only American- born player to score five goals in a game in the Rangers’ 11-3 victory over the Whalers at MSG on Feb. 23, 1983, the final goal coming with 11:09 remaining in the game.

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6. Dial 14 for Murder, Don Murdoch scoring five goals in the fourth game of his NHL career in Minnesota in the Blueshirts’ 10-4 victory over the North Stars on Oct. 12, 1976. Final goal came on the power play at 19:55 of the third period.

5. Bryan Trottier records a franchise-record eight points while scoring five goals in the Islanders’ 9-4 victory over the Rangers at the Coliseum on Dec. 23, 1978. Trottier would also score five goals on five shots on Feb. 13, 1982 in an 8-2 victory at home over the Flyers in which Mike Bossy records five assists.

4. Halfway home with Jean Ratelle overtaking Phil Esposito for the 1971- 72 NHL halfway scoring lead (which was a real thing) by recording five points to vault over No. 77 by one point, 72-71, in an 8-0 victory over the Kings at the Garden on Jan. 9, 1972. Tied after getting a goal and three 1183184 New York Rangers 3. Mika’s Game, No. 93 scoring five goals, including the overtime breakaway backhand winner in the Blueshirts’ compelling 6-5 victory over the Caps in the penultimate match played at the Garden on March 5, 2020. Ranking the best Rangers, Devils and Islanders regular-season performances 2. Johnny Mac makes history, John MacLean scoring the tying goal at 11:57 of the third period before getting the winning goal at 2:21 of overtime — both on rebounds in the slot left by Darren Pang — to give the Devils a 4-3 victory in Chicago on April 3, 1988 on the final day of the By Larry BrooksApril 19, 2020 | 11:38PM season to thereby clinch the first playoff berth in team history. Tie or defeat would have eliminated team and given final spot to the Rangers.

I’m just watching the classic games go ’round and ’round, Rangers, 1. Two in the third for 50 in 50 for Mike Bossy, who, under immense self- Devils and Islanders from yesteryear on MSG. And while it is the playoff made pressure to tie Maurice Richard’s goal-scoring standard memories that tend to endure for a lifetime, there have been a boatload established in 1944-45, strikes at 15:50 and 18:31 of the third period of regular season performances that captivate the imagination. against Quebec’s Ron Grahame in the Islanders’ 7-4 victory at the Coliseum on Jan. 24, 1981 after having been blanked the previous two For instance, by Mika Zibanejad. games.

As follows, the top 14 individual regular season performances in New New York Post LOADED: 04.20.2020 York/New Jersey history.

14. Fifty-six saves by Rick DiPietro at the Garden on March 5, 2007. The Blueshirts outshot the Islanders 57-30 yet needed Matt Cullen’s shootout tally to defeat DiPietro, 2-1, as the netminder established a franchise single-game record for saves that was broken three years later when Dwayne Roloson stopped 58 in an overtime victory in Toronto.

13. A franchise-record 59 saves by Mike Richter in Vancouver on Jan. 31, 1991 in the Rangers’ 3-3 tie. Canucks should have scored that fourth goal, for immediately following the game, Bob McCammon was fired as coach and replaced behind the bench by GM Pat Quinn.

12. Fifty-one saves by Martin Brodeur at MSG on Jan. 12, 2010 in the Devils’ 1-0 shootout victory over the Rangers in which Patrik Elias scored in the fourth round of the skills competition against Henrik Lundqvist, who’d made 45 saves in the only double shutout in the history of the Battle of the Hudson.

11. Randy McKay and John Madden, not exactly Patrik Elias and Petr Sykora, score four goals apiece for the Devils in a 9-0 victory over the Penguins at Pittsburgh on Oct. 28, 2000.

10. Threes are wild as the Blueshirts’ Steve Vickers becomes the first freshman in NHL history to record back-to-back hat tricks, striking for three goals against the Flyers on Nov. 15, 1972 three days after getting three against the Kings, with both games at the Garden.

9. The best regular season performance of Henrik Lundqvist’s career, the King making 42 saves in a 3-0 victory in Boston on Feb. 14, 2012, in which the Rangers are outshot 18-3 in the third period, 32-8 over the final 40 minutes, and out-attempted 34-5 in the third. After the game, Lundqvist says this: “It’s my seventh season. The clock is ticking.”

8. An explosion of offense for Rod Gilbert, who scores four goals while sending an NHL record 16 shots on Rogie Vachon in the Rangers’ 6-1 victory in Montreal on Feb. 24, 1968. Record would be eclipsed by Raymond Bourque, who recorded 19 shots in the Bruins’ 3-3 tie against Quebec on March 21, 1991 in which Nordiques netminder Ron Tugnutt made 69 saves.

7. Five for Pav, with Mark Pavelich becoming the first and only American- born player to score five goals in a game in the Rangers’ 11-3 victory over the Whalers at MSG on Feb. 23, 1983, the final goal coming with 11:09 remaining in the game.

6. Dial 14 for Murder, Don Murdoch scoring five goals in the fourth game of his NHL career in Minnesota in the Blueshirts’ 10-4 victory over the North Stars on Oct. 12, 1976. Final goal came on the power play at 19:55 of the third period.

5. Bryan Trottier records a franchise-record eight points while scoring five goals in the Islanders’ 9-4 victory over the Rangers at the Coliseum on Dec. 23, 1978. Trottier would also score five goals on five shots on Feb. 13, 1982 in an 8-2 victory at home over the Flyers in which Mike Bossy records five assists.

4. Halfway home with Jean Ratelle overtaking Phil Esposito for the 1971- 72 NHL halfway scoring lead (which was a real thing) by recording five points to vault over No. 77 by one point, 72-71, in an 8-0 victory over the Kings at the Garden on Jan. 9, 1972. Tied after getting a goal and three assists through the first two periods, Ratelle registers a power-play assist with 8:19 to go in the game as fans spend the third counting aloud the number of passes following No. 19 touching the puck. 1183185 Philadelphia Flyers If you go back to records after 68 games, the Flyers and Capitals both had 89 points, but the Capitals would win the tiebreaker and finish first in the Metro thanks to a 37-36 advantage in regulation and overtime wins.

NHL needs to shut down regular season and use a shortened Stanley Washington would play Carolina, the top wild-card team in the 68-game Cup playoff format | Sam Carchidi rollback format, in the first round, and the second-place Flyers would play the third-place Penguins.

In their plan, 16 teams (eight in each conference) would still make the by Sam Carchidi, playoffs. That’s too many. That would take four playoff rounds to determine a champion.

Higher risk The NHL needs to bag the regular season and start preparing for the playoffs, without fans, to start around mid June – provided the As mentioned, the more games, the higher the risk that someone will get coronavirus is under control, of course. the virus.

Stop the charade. Cancel the regular season. If you play all the And if one player tests positive, the whole team would have to be remaining regular-season games, it not only adds at least three weeks to quarantined for two weeks. That makes me wonder if the NHL should just the schedule, but it greatly increases the chances of a player contracting forget about the playoffs, too. the coronavirus from a teammate or an opponent. But finishing the season would add some normalcy, so I can understand As this space has suggested, go back to the old days and play just three trying to hold the playoffs in, say, June after a two-week training camp. playoff rounds: the Stanley Cup quarterfinals, semifinals, and finals. It would take about six weeks to complete the tournament, which would Play fewer games. Play in closed arenas. Keep the players sequestered end around Aug. 1 and would allow the 2020-21 season to start in a hotel. Give the shut-in fans something to watch. Give the NHL and sometime in October. the players some TV money to divide, but only if the health risks are minimal. If the NHL chose to jump right into the playoffs with the top four teams in the conference based on points percentage, the Flyers would be a fourth And if a player competing in the playoffs tests positive for the virus and seed in the East against the top-seeded Boston Bruins. forces a team to be quarantined for two weeks? It would create too much chaos, and would ruin the fairness of the tournament, which should If the NHL chose to jump right into the playoffs with the top four teams in cause the league to cancel the playoffs. the conference based on points percentage, the Flyers would be a fourth seed in the East against the top-seeded Boston Bruins. From here, it’s worth the risk of trying to play playoff games, but only if the medical experts say its viable, only if it’s a shortened tournament, and Have just four teams in each conference make the playoffs instead of only if there’s an understanding that there’s a chance the Stanley Cup eight. Base the qualifiers on points percentage of all games played. If champion may not be crowned this year. that was done, here is how the first-round matchups would look: In the East, Boston (1) vs. Flyers (4), and Tampa Bay (2) vs. Washington (3). In Philadelphia Inquirer / Daily News LOADED: 04.20.2020 the West: St. Louis (1) vs. Dallas (4), and Colorado (2) vs. Vegas (3).

Yes, teams like Pittsburgh (and their fans) who would have qualified in a “normal” year would be upset they weren’t in the playoffs, but there is nothing normal about these times.

Make the first two rounds best-of-five series and the last round a best-of- seven.

Dr. Anthony Fauci, the nation’s top infectious-disease expert, said earlier this week that if sports return this summer – he was in favor of it – the games should be played in empty arenas/stadiums because of the health risk. He also said athletes should be placed in hotels and tested every week for the virus.

“At the end of the day, we just want to play, so if we can play with no fans, we’ll do it,” Flyers rookie winger Joel Farabee said on Thursday.

Yes, it would be odd to play without spectators, without much noise except for what is generated by skate blades, shots, saves, and body checks.

‘Unfamiliar’ times

“Right now, our whole life and experience is defined by strange and unfamiliar, right?” Valerie Camillo,president of business operations for the Flyers and the Wells Fargo Center, said on Friday. The times are strange “in every facet of our life, and this will be another one. But I know the players are eager to get back on the ice and eager to finish out the season. I think people from home are really starved for things to watch that aren’t the news. I think the country is ready for sports to come back.”

Valerie Camillo has been the president of business operations for the Flyers and the Wells Fargo Center since last spring.

Valerie Camillo has been the president of business operations for the Flyers and the Wells Fargo Center since last spring.

There have been many NHL restart plans going around since the season was suspended on March 12.

One playoff proposal, floated by TSN in Canada, has the teams rolling back to 68 games – the most contests every team has played. (The Flyers have played 69.) 1183186 Philadelphia Flyers

Former Flyers coach Mike Keenan skeptical on holding games in empty arenas

By Joe Fordyce April 19, 2020 9:00 AM

The NHL is no stranger to work stoppages, but the current state of the sports landscape — and the world in general — is unprecedented. The nature of this stoppage has caused leagues to take drastic measures and explore the possibility of playing in bubble cities, with players sequestered in hotels and no fans permitted to attend games.

Former Flyers coach Mike Keenan expressed concern about that possibility.

“I don’t know what that means, without any fans, I don’t know what it means in terms of driving the sport forward," Keenan said to NBC Sports Philadelphia’s Michael Barkann in a recent interview. "Maybe there’s an economic impact and the fact that they can draw sponsors into an arena like that.

“I really search for the reason or answer why they would want to participate that way, and what is the need — is it an economic need for the ownership, is it a need for the players who are so passionate for what they do?”

Either way, a decision of that magnitude will have many layers and details to work out, and not everyone will be pleased, regardless of the decision that is made.

“Whether those men would want to be away from their families in isolation for such an extended period of time I think will be debated amongst the players,” Keenan said.

The NHL and its teams, like any business, are losing revenue during the hiatus, and whichever way the league decides to resume its operations, finances are sure to be one of the deciding factors.

“The owners have to make a decision: Can they drive this concept hard enough economically to make it worth their while to pay the players?" Keenan said. "At the same time, they have ownership. They don’t do it for nonprofit.

"Can the owners generate in that environment with so many teams in one place, the economic results to have them be able to have them all pay the players? I don't know if that would work or not."

The NHL will surely be monitoring what their counterparts in other pro sports leagues do moving forward, as well.

Comcast SportsNet.com LOADED: 04.20.2020 1183187 Philadelphia Flyers Championship. Also, the likelihood that there will be no fans attending these games could lessen some of those first-time nerves.

Thanks to his championship pedigree, Matt Murray will likely be Mike Flyers vs. Penguins in Stanley Cup Playoffs? Predicting the series Sullivan’s choice in net for a Game 1. But Murray’s goaltending partner in Pittsburgh, Tristan Jarry, had a better year than Murray prior to the suspension of the season. Murray is capable of stealing important games. He has two oversized rings as evidence of that. But he also has By Casey Feeney April 19, 2020 9:00 AM failed to show much of that title-winning form in the last year and a half or so.

Who knows what the NHL season will look like when it comes back — or Edge: Flyers if it even comes back at all. Coaching Commissioner Gary Bettman has stated several times that his goal is to Flyers head coach Alain Vigneault and Pens bench boss Mike Sullivan have a resolution to the regular season before moving to the playoffs. are both top-echelon coaches. Both men have led teams to the Cup Final Whether or not that’s possible remains to be seen. on multiple occasions. Sullivan has lifted the Cup in each of his two trips Regular season or not, the Flyers’ most likely playoff opponent appears to the Final, while A.V. has been on the wrong end of the handshake line to be their cross-state rival, the Pittsburgh Penguins. twice. That said, it’s tough to imagine either side being out-coached in this series. So what would a Flyers-Penguins playoff series look like? Let’s break down some of the positions and key factors. Edge: Push

Forwards The hiatus

It wasn’t that long ago that an evaluation between the Flyers and These teams were moving in opposite directions prior to this extended Penguins forwards would have been over quickly. The 1-2 punch up the halt of play. The Flyers were rolling, winning nine of their last 10 games. middle of and Evgeni Malkin has been the envy of the Conversely, the Penguins had dropped eight of their last 11 contests. But NHL for well over a decade. But times change. this break alters the entire dynamic. Its impact is uncertain, but it certainly would not have helped the Flyers. Crosby and Malkin remain capable of dominating for stretches but are not quite the irresistible force they once were. Prior to the league If nothing else, the delay helps the Penguins on the injury front. An April suspending play, Crosby was struggling to play to his lofty standards as series would likely not have included Guentzel. The Pens’ top goal- he continued to search for his rhythm following sports hernia surgery in scoring threat has been sidelined since the start of the calendar year with November. a shoulder injury. However, his return for the playoffs is now possible. Pittsburgh is a different team with Guentzel on Crosby’s wing. Meanwhile, the Flyers boast four balanced lines, all of which can provide scoring without sacrificing in their own zone. Most importantly, the Flyers Also, the home-ice edge the Flyers likely would have had in this series possess the top-tier center depth, with Sean Couturier and Kevin Hayes, will no longer be a factor as these games could be played at a neutral to make Crosby and Malkin have to play the game from goal line to goal site and almost definitely won’t have fans. line. Edge: Penguins Nevertheless, it’s tough to go against Crosby. Series prediction Slight edge: Penguins All of this is a study in the unknown. We just have no way of knowing Defensemen how any NHL team will come out of this hiatus.

It’s clear that the Penguins have the best forward in this potential series. Will a battle-tested team of veterans like the Penguins be more suited to But that’s not the case on defense. handle this unique situation? Or will younger legs allow the Flyers to more quickly regain their form? Even though Pittsburgh has the biggest name in Kris Letang, Ivan Provorov would be the best blueliner in this series. By a wide margin. When in doubt, go with youth. Flyers in seven.

You might recall the last time these two teams met in the playoffs, Comcast SportsNet.com LOADED: 04.20.2020 Provorov committed a costly turnover that led to a Jake Guentzel goal in the series-sealing Game 6 loss. The 23-year-old doesn’t need extra motivation to be great. But I’d imagine he’d have something to prove if these teams meet again in the playoffs.

Matt Niskanen brings championship experience to the Flyers’ back line and the knowledge of how to walk the slim line of establishing a physical presence without taking unnecessary penalties. Look for him to play a big role if this series comes to pass.

On the other side, injuries and poor performance have left the Pens searching for consistency. Health might not be a factor when play resumes. But Jack Johnson and Marcus Pettersson will both remain vulnerable to good forecheck play. Meanwhile, Letang plays to extremes. He's a dynamic, offensive creator at his best and a turnover machine at his worst, with little in between.

Edge: Flyers

Goaltending

At this moment, only one of these teams knows which goalie would start Game 1 of a playoff series, and it’s not the club with the two-time Stanley Cup winner on its roster.

Carter Hart, barring injury, would undoubtedly get the call between the pipes for the Flyers when the playoffs begin. You never know exactly how a young netminder will perform in the pressure-cooker that is playoff hockey. But Hart has been groomed for this moment, experiencing the anxiety that comes with being Canada’s goalie at the World Junior 1183188 Philadelphia Flyers inevitable conclusion to their long-standing Twitter beef, and ends up spending the night in jail, costume and all. In the dressing room after the win, Kevin Hayes reaffirms his willingness to pay all of Gritty’s legal fees, an offer that the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette deems “classless.” The Simulating the 2020 NHL playoffs: Penguins vs. Flyers Philadelphia Daily News gleefully slaps a “Free Gritty!” headline on their back page in response.

In other words, just your average Game 1 between the Flyers and By Rob Rossi, Charlie O'Connor and Dom Luszczyszyn Apr 19, 2020 Penguins.

— Charlie O’Connor The NHL isn’t back yet, but we’re going to pretend it is. Over the last Game 2 month, we’ve run a simulation of how the NHL’s regular season might have played out if the league hadn’t been suspended on March 12. Now, Mike Sullivan prioritized balance to begin this series. His lineup reflected the standings have been set and we’re carrying that forward through the that for Game 1. But the Penguins need a victory, so he isn’t messing playoffs. This time around, one of our beat writers from each team will be around for Game 2. Captain Sidney Crosby gets two new wingers — in charge of every lineup decision, the narrative for every playoff game Jason Zucker, with whom he produced well over the regular season’s and they’ll get to decide what “happened” in each game. Join us as we final weeks, and Patric Hornqvist, a veteran who knows how to play with make our way through the simulated postseason to crown a virtual Crosby and score big playoff goals. Those moves, along with moving Stanley Cup champion. Patrick Marleau to Evgeni Malkin’s line, will likely weaken the third line. But the insertion of Sam Laffety, will bolster the speed of a third line that One of the greatest, strangest, craziest series of all-time was played in now also features Conor Sheary. And Sullivan is hoping that speed helps 2012 between these two teams, a battle of Pennsylvania like no other. open shooting lanes for Jared McCann. Look for the top six to earn more Each game was a spectacle, as if the laws of hockey no longer applied to minutes this game. either team. There were unexpected blowouts, 1980s-like goaltending, shocking upsets and utter ridiculousness all around. On the scale of — Rob Rossi batshit craziness, it will probably never be topped. No changes for Philadelphia. Coming into this series, both teams were pretty hot. Pittsburgh was the stronger of the two to earn home ice, going 10-2-1 down the stretch while Another decisive victory for Philadelphia in Game 2 has already given Philadelphia went a respectable 7-4-2. While the two are reasonably this series some serious 2012 vibes. close in talent, the Penguins do have a decent edge over the Flyers on Game 1 was chock-full of drama and intriguing storylines despite the paper. Their chances of winning this series are 56 percent, so this should blowout nature of the Flyers’ victory; Game 2 was just a thrashing, plain be tight. and simple, as Philadelphia cruised to a 6-2 victory and a 2-0 lead in the In terms of sheer star power, the edge is unsurprisingly Pittsburgh’s, with series. Sidney Crosby, Evgeni Malkin and Kris Letang playing elite-level hockey After letting depth forwards carry the load in Game 1, Philadelphia’s big into their 30s. There’s also Bryan Rust, who’s emerged as a force to be guns were out in full force this time. Sean Couturier’s natural hat trick in reckoned with this year after finding chemistry with Malkin. the second period that made quick work of a 1-1 tie earned the most In Philadelphia, Sean Couturier has blossomed into an elite two-way star, headlines, but was good for two goals and two assists of but it’s hard to still have Claude Giroux or Jakub Voracek at that level. his own, while Jakub Voracek chipped in with four helpers. Those two, along with Travis Konecny and James van Riemsdyk give “Our best players were the best players on the ice, and that’s why we Philadelphia a strong collection of top line talent, but it’s still a step won this game,” Alain Vigneault pointed out, in a nod to Crosby and behind what Pittsburgh can offer. Ivan Provorov is no Letang, either. Malkin combining for just one goal over the series’ first two contests. Both teams look equally deep aside from star players, but where In Game 1, Pittsburgh looked the part of a frustrated club, but two nights Philadelphia bridges the gap is in net where Carter Hart is looking like a later, they simply appeared lethargic and disengaged after putting forth a legitimate No. 1 goalie and Matt Murray’s status has fallen from grace a passable first period. Matt Murray was pulled for the second straight bit. Goaltending’s big come playoff time and that might be the edge the game after allowing five goals on 22 shots, but Mike Sullivan’s decision Flyers need to get the win here. to yank him felt less a critique of his goalie, and more a desperate The hype for any battle between Pittsburgh and Philadelphia is very hard attempt to wake up his sleeping club. There was no response. to live up to. The 2017-18 series between the two paled in comparison to “Heading back home up 2-0, sure, we feel confident,” Jakub Voracek such a degree that in a post earlier this year I genuinely forgot it ever said after the win. “But like I said, that’s a great team over there. They’ll happened. The gods of chance will decide where the latest iteration of be a lot better in Philly.” this series goes, but the hope as always when these two meet is that chaos reigns supreme. — Charlie O’Connor

Game 1 Game 3

The Flyers take Game 1 in decisive fashion. Mike Sullivan took the unusual measure of closing practice to the public after the Penguins’ loss in Game 2. He then revealed that Tristan Jarry The Flyers win Game 1 by a 6-1 score on a night that somehow exceeds would start in Game 3 — breaking from his traditional “lineups are game- the craziest moments of the classic 2012 series between the clubs. An time decisions” mantra. Seemed strange. early Sidney Crosby goal sends the PPG Paints Arena into a frenzy, but the party comes to a screeching halt when Matt Murray wanders out of Seemed a blatant attempt to change the dynamic for a squad that his crease to retrieve a dump-in and tosses the puck right at a appeared lethargic in Game 2. forechecking Joel Farabee, who slips it into a wide-open net. That opens the floodgates – by the midway point of the second period, Philly is up 5- Seemed to make sense, though, when before a matinee in Philadelphia, 1 and Murray is out of the game, mercifully pulled after a performance winger Jake Guentzel joined the Penguins for warmups. Perhaps that reminds every Penguins fan of Marc-Andre Fleury circa 2012 Sullivan had orchestrated the goalie announcement to quiet chatter that playoffs. Guentzel could return as the series shifted to Philadelphia.

With the game out of reach, the third period devolves into sheer That has been the informed speculation, as Guentzel’s recovery from a madness. When Brandon Tanev blasts just-back-from-injury James van shoulder surgery was said to have gone better than for which anybody Riemsdyk after the whistle, the series’ first line brawl ensues, highlighted could have hoped. He was diagnosed with a 4-6 month recovery, and at by an instant classic bout between Tanev and Scott Laughton. Nicolas the time of his injury, the Penguins privately had all but ruled out a return Aube-Kubel is tossed for a blindside hit that sends Bryan Rust to the before, say, the conference or Stanley Cup final. However, general quiet room, though Rust ultimately returns (which spares Aube-Kubel manager Jim Rutherford cryptically alluded to Guentzel being “as good a from supplemental discipline but not from the eternal ire of Pittsburgh healer as he is a goal scorer” late in the regular season before walking fans). And as the players are scrapping on the ice, somehow Gritty the comment back to The Athletic’s Josh Yohe. himself sneaks into the arena and KOs Penguins mascot Iceburgh in the Still, nobody really thought Guentzel could play in the opening round. Did they did in 2012 and haven’t appeared to be blowing it as much as they they? are being blown out.

“Nobody outside our room,” a player said, speaking on the condition of — Rob Rossi anonymity. “But Jake has been skating on his own for two weeks. So we knew something was up.” Game 4

Well, Guentzel is back for Game 3. Something is decidedly up. The Penguins are on the brink, so it’s time to throw the kitchen sink at it. They’ve decided to go with an 11/7 split for forwards and defensemen, — Rob Rossi trying to find more ice time for both Crosby and Malkin who will split double shifting duties with a skilled fourth line featuring Patrick Marleau Juuso Riikola also slots in for Jack Johnson. No changes for and Conor Sheary. Chad Ruhwedel will be the seventh defensemen, Philadelphia. though it doesn’t appear that anyone outside the top four will see much Shades of 2012! Philadelphia takes a commanding 3-0 series lead, ice anyways. spoiling Guentzel’s surprise return. The Flyers are sticking with what works.

Finally, Flyers-Penguins delivers the type of back-and-forth, tightly The Penguins aren’t done yet, putting up a decisive victory to send this contested playoff-style game that everyone expected. It’s not without its series back to the Steel City. sideshow charms – before puck drop, a newly bailed out Gritty swings down from the Wells Fargo Center rafters in full prison garb to raucous On the off day between Game 3 and 4, Evgeni Malkin made a prediction: cheers from the Philadelphia faithful. But on the ice, it’s all business. “We win next game, and who knows?”

It’s immediately clear that the Penguins came to play this time – three OK, so it wasn’t exactly Mark Messier-stuff. But, as did Messier in the minutes in, Crosby and surprise returnee Jake Guentzel work a 2-on-1 to 1994 conference final for the Rangers, Malkin said his piece and then perfection to give Pittsburgh the early lead. But the Flyers don’t back delivered in a must-win game for the Penguins. His first-period hat trick down. Kevin Hayes pots his first shorthanded goal of the series, and an chased Carter Hart before 15 minutes in the Penguins’ 12-4 win in Ivan Provorov power play blast allows Philly to keep pace at 2-2 after Philadelphia. Evgeni Malkin storms through the Flyers’ young second pair of Travis Sanheim and Philippe Myers on the rush for his first goal of the playoffs. “I think it was finally good luck for us,” Malkin said after his first five-goal game at any level of hockey. “Maybe, you know, we see good Penguins But it’s the third period that will long be remembered in Philadelphia and rest of way?” Pittsburgh. With 10 minutes remaining in regulation and intensity at a fever pitch, surprise series villain (at least in the Steel City) Nicolas Aube- Malkin’s five goals tied Mario Lemieux’s franchise record for a playoff Kubel crushes Conor Sheary face-first into the boards, forcing the game. It was Sidney Crosby, however, who nearly made Lemieux’s Penguins forward to leave the game with an apparent shoulder injury. record for most points by a Penguins player in a playoff game his own But the officials controversially deem the hit legal, holding that Sheary record. Crosby’s two goals and five assists — including three on power- turned toward the boards at the last second. play snipes by Malkin — gave him seven points. Lemieux’s added three assists to his five goals in the Penguins’ Game 5 win at home against the The Penguins’ bench is livid, and their anger reaches epic proportions Flyers in the 1989 Patrick Division final. when with three minutes remaining, it’s none other than Aube-Kubel himself who breaks the tie with a top-corner snipe to make it 3-2. Mike The Penguins, of course, lost that series. Sullivan keeps his emotions in check until Giroux clinches the game for They remain likely to lose this series, too. But the dominance of Crosby the Flyers with an empty-netter, at which point the Pens head coach lets and Malkin, each of whom split time centering a fourth line as coach Mike loose an epic tirade directed at the officials and earns his third ejection of Sullivan opted to dress seven defensemen, showed how dangerous his NHL coaching career, leaving the bench to unanimous stick taps from these Penguins can be when they get hot. his players. “It’s one game, and we have to remember that it’s only one game,” Hart “He didn’t look too happy, did he?” Vigneault remarks after the game with said, after stopping only four shots and allowing six goals before he was a barely concealed smile, reveling in his team’s 3-0 series lead. pulled. “It’s a good reminder of how well we have to play against that — Charlie O’Connor team. If not, you can see what they’ll do if you give them any life.”

At first glance, the Penguins would appear to be repeating history. Not The Penguins had felt good about their performance in Game 3, despite the kind they would prefer, either. A deep, talented and — here’s the the loss. Their full practice the day after was loose, as if they had nothing important part: favored — Penguins squad is down, 3-0, to the Flyers. to lose going forward. They looked free and easy in the first minute. And they’re coming into a Game 4 absolutely incensed after the series Make that the first 37 seconds. Crosby, then Malkin, each scored on shifted to Philadelphia and turned nasty. breakaways to silence Flyers fans and force Alain Vigneault into an early But unlike a memorable (for all those goals allowed) opening round in time out. 2012, this postseason edition of the Commonwealth Cold War is less A pause didn’t punish the Penguins, though. about the Penguins blowing up and more about the Flyers seeming to be better built for the playoffs. And that has to call into questions some Patrick Marleau scored just before the three-minute mark, tapping in his moves made by general manager Jim Rutherford on the day of the NHL first of the playoffs after a masterful individual effort from Crosby, who trade deadline. weaved through a maze of three Flyers before faking a backhand, spinning and firing a hard pass to an open Marleau. Rutherford added three new forwards at the deadline. He also added one a few weeks prior. That’s four new players joining a squad that, as On the next shift, Brandon Tanev ate a high stick and bled. That gave the Rutherford had said, was winning in spite of injuries in part because of its Penguins a five-minute power play, and on it perhaps this series shifted. chemistry. But that chemistry was altered by the new additions, and the After not registering a shot for the first two-plus minutes of the power Penguins have not looked cohesive when going against the same play, the Penguins made a statement in the third minute of the opponent every other day. advantage. Crosby set up two Malkin for two one-timer goals that chased In 2012, the Penguins were appreciably deeper and more skilled than Hart. almost any other NHL team. Rutherford appeared to enhance the depth “Not his fault,” Vigneault said. “We were so bad defensively, I didn’t want of these Penguins, but what’s it say that one of the forwards he acquired to keep him in.” hasn’t dressed in this series — or that the defense, which he left alone, has been exposed, especially the third pairing. Justin Schultz, who hadn’t scored a power-play goal in two seasons, fluttered a shot to cap the Penguins’ power-play scoring. In 2012, there was a feeling that one of either the Penguins or Flyers had to win a series in which neither team tried to deny the other from scoring At that point, ahead by a score of 6-0, the Penguins tried to take a goals. But in 2020, there is a sense the Flyers are just better suited for a defensive approach. However, the Flyers kept taking penalties, and Mike best-of-seven than these Penguins, who lack as many elite scorers as Sullivan’s squad ended up adding two more power-play goals to finish with five. “I don’t think you ever expect to have 11 power plays in a playoff game,” Hart was not available for comment. The Flyers said he was being Sullivan said. “I don’t know if you expect that many in a series. We took treated for dehydration. advantage of a unique situation, but it’s not something I would expect to have again. “He’s been our best player,” Flyers coach Alain Vigneault said. “We need to be better for him. Pittsburgh had too many great chances again in this “Obviously, our best players set the tone for us, especially on the power game. If that happens again in Philadelphia, we’ll be back here for Game play, and I’m happier about that than how the goals were scored.” 7.

Added Crosby: “One game, a strange game, one where everything went “We don’t want to be back here again.” our way. We’ll take it. But that’s a good team, and we know they are going to be a lot better in Pittsburgh. So, we better be ready for their Jarry, who needed to make only 49 saves, including just 11 through parts best.” of four overtime periods, said he sympathized with his Flyers counterpart.

— Rob Rossi “It was really hot on the ice, and we made him work a lot,” Jarry said. “I remember between the first and second overtime, Matt (Murray) told me Game 5 to be especially careful at the end of periods because you’re dying to get to the room, and it only takes one bad read to end the game.” “I’ve coached a lot of games, but I don’t think I’ve ever been a part of a more ‘burn the tape’ game than that one,” Alain Vigneault said with a Flyers captain Claude Giroux tipped his cap to the Penguins. He said sheepish grin at practice the day after the 12-4 shellacking. their decision to play with seven defensemen has changed the series.

Still, there’s no major changes for the Flyers despite the embarrassing “It’s not the extra D,” Giroux said. “It’s having Crosby or Malkin on that defeat, aside from Nicolas Aube-Kubel — a thorn in Pittsburgh’s side all fourth line. Those guys are great players. It’s hard enough when they’re series — getting a minor promotion to Line 3 and pushing Tyler Pitlick to not double-shifting. When they are, it’s almost impossible. the fourth line. Vigneault also hints that he might rely a bit more heavily on his top pair of Provorov and Niskanen, and pull back on the Hagg- “We need to make an adjustment. We need to win the next game. It’s our Braun duo, which was gashed repeatedly at both even strength and on Game 7.” the PK in Game 4. — Rob Rossi

— Charlie O’Connor What a difference a few days can make in the NHL playoffs. After Pittsburgh claws back to make it a 3-2 series winning Game 3 in dramatic fashion, the Flyers looked poised to cruise into Round 2. Now, after dropping Game 4 in blowout form and coming Well, it’s official: This series between the Penguins and Flyers has now out on the short end of an instant Flyers-Penguins classic in Game 5, an offered hockey fans a little bit of everything. epic collapse suddenly seems legitimately possible.

Kris Letang’s goal near the end of a fourth overtime won Game 5 in “They’ve been the better team for the last 10 periods of hockey,” Matt Pittsburgh. His seeing-eye wrist shot somehow eluded Flyers goalie Niskanen bluntly stated after the Flyers breezed through an extremely Carter Hart, who was a hard-luck loser despite allowing only that goal on light skate late in the afternoon back in Philadelphia. “They’re straight up 71 shots faced. outplaying us.”

“Their goalie stopped how many breakaways?” Letang said, referring to Despite the fluky nature of the game-winner in Game 5, the Flyers Hart’s regulation-time denials of Sidney Crosby, Jake Guentzel and players to a man made it clear that the skaters were the ones to blame Jason Zucker on full breakaways, not to mention a second-overtime for the heartbreaking defeat, not Carter Hart. penalty shot awarded to Conor Sheary. “We lose that game 5-0 if Hartsy doesn’t stand on his head,” Kevin “I was at the end of a shift. I was going to dump the puck, but when I got Hayes admitted. “We’re just not playing anywhere near good enough.” into the zone, I saw (Hart) leaning because the defenseman had, I think, a bad gap. I just put it on net. I don’t know if he saw it good off my stick. I While it’s not panic time in the Flyers’ dressing room quite yet, the usual don’t care. laughs and jokes have been replaced with quiet conversation and a steely sense of resolve. Game 6 may not technically be a must-win, but “It counts.” as an exhausted Giroux noted after the Game 5 loss, they’re treating it as if they can’t afford to let this series get back to Pittsburgh. It counts as revenge for the Penguins, who famously lost a lengthy playoff game in Pittsburgh to the Flyers in 2000. That postseason, the “We’re the same team that played close to perfect hockey in Games 1 Penguins won Games 1 and 2 in Philadelphia before dropping the next and 2,” Vigneault pointed out. “We just need to get back to what we did four games — including Games 3 and 4 at home, each in overtime. right then, and we’ll be fine.”

They were once down, 3-0, in this series. And things were not looking — Charlie O’Connor good. Game 6 But after a dominant, power-play fueled blowout victory in Game 4, in which Crosby and Evgeni Malkin combined for 12 points, the Penguins Don’t expect Vigneault to sit on his hands from a lineup change were consistently frustrated by Hart’s brilliance. He turned aside 46 shots standpoint after this loss, as he mostly did in the wake of the 12-4 in regulation and was perfect until the final minute of the fourth overtime. blowout. With the team in desperate need of an infusion of offense, Then, after a swarming shift by the Penguins’ third line had hemmed in Shayne Gostisbehere skated on a pair with Justin Braun in practice, and the Flyers for almost a full minute, Hart tried to ice the puck. he’ll see his first action of the playoffs in place of Robert Hagg. Travis Konecny and Jakub Voracek also switched spots on their respective The timing was right, as the Penguins had changed out their forwards. lines, as Vigneault reunited the high-flying Giroux-Couturier-Konecny trio. In addition, expect the Flyers to lean heavily on their star players in But an astute read by goalie Tristan Jarry, an excellent stickhandler, to Game 6, despite the marathon game two nights earlier. direct defenseman Brian Dumoulin to knock down Hart’s lofting clear attempt, might be remembered for years if the Penguins rally to win this “All year, we’ve been practicing with pace and rolling four lines, with the series. goal of becoming the best-conditioned team we can possibly be,” Vigneault explained. “It’s been our identity since Day 1 of camp. Now, it’s After batting the puck down just beyond center ice, Dumoulin quickly time for all of that hard work to pay off.” moved the puck to Jarry, who ripped a pass to Letang. The Flyers had been able to changer their forwards, but not their defense pairing. Letang — Charlie O’Connor carried into the offensive zone, pulled up, then took three strides to his left and softly placed the puck toward the cage. Hart, who had to peek As is tradition in this series (and 99 percent of playoff games) the winning around his own reaching teammate, whiffed when reaching for the shot. team will stick with the same lineup.

Letang briefly put his arm in the air, then looked back to the referee to After Philadelphia wins three straight, Pittsburgh follows suit to make sure the goal was good. The Flyers challenged, but Letang was shockingly tie the series. onside and the goal counted. Talking to a goalie before he takes the ice for a game is not something Again, Malkin would not argue that point. At last the first one. Mike Sullivan does. So, nobody was more surprised than Tristan Jarry when Sullivan pulled him aside before Game 6 between the Penguins “Only matters is Game 7 next,” Malkin said. “But, like, I think we should and Flyers. win. I ask coach what he thinks. He can see future, like, you see with Jarry.” “He just told me that if we get behind, don’t do anything different — just play,” Jarry said, cracking a smile after the Penguins’ 5-3 win. — Rob Rossi

“Maybe you should ask him what he knew.” Ten years ago, the Philadelphia Flyers stormed back from a 3-0 series deficit against the Boston Bruins to pull one of the most stunning Did Sullivan know his Penguins would give up three goals in four minutes comebacks in NHL history. to start a second period they arrived at with a 1-0 lead? Now, Claude Giroux and James van Riemsdyk — the lone holdovers Did he know Jarry, who replaced Matt Murray as the starter after Game from that 2009-10 Flyers club — are getting an up-close look at how the 2, would kick one puck into his own net or flat miss a shot from center ice Bruins must have felt as they slowly and painfully watched a series slip by Shayne Gostisbehere, whose goal stakes the Flyers a 3-1 lead that through their hands. Unsurprisingly, they haven’t cared for the role threatened to bring down Wells Fargo Center? reversal.

Did he know the Penguins would take four penalties over the next 10 “Looking back, the confidence we had in that locker room back in 2010 minutes? was crazy, even though we were down (in the series),” Giroux noted. “It hurts to think that they might be feeling the same way right now. But we “All I knew is that these games are always about your response,” Sullivan only have ourselves to blame.” said. “We won big in Game 4, won close in Game 5, and Tristan hasn’t played a lot of playoff games — so I wanted him to know that at some Yet this series is still far from over, and momentum is a fickle thing. Even point we were due for things to not go our way, and I felt it was good for in that classic 2010 series, the Bruins shook off three straight losses to Tristan to hear from me that I had his back if that happened.” race out to a 3-0 lead in Game 7. Of course, Boston ultimately blew that lead too, cementing their utter collapse and their place in the annals of Sullivan wasn’t along in having the back of Jarry. NHL history. But it also showed that even a team seemingly on the ropes And when the Penguins scored twice in the first minute of the third period can reel off a few haymakers when their opponent least expects it. — shots-through-traffic from John Marino after clean faceoff wins by “I’m not saying we thought Game 7 was going to be easy, because we Evgeni Malkin — it became clear that Jarry was going to get a chance to didn’t,” van Riemsdyk explained. “But you’d think that a team coming off atone for his gaffes. three straight losses would have been demoralized … they weren’t, at He did. least to start that game. We need that kind of fast start tomorrow, except we’ll hold it for the full 60 minutes.” “Give their guy credit; the third period was our best since Game 3, but he was up to the task,” Flyers captain Claude Giroux said of Jarry’s 21 third- Vigneault pointed out that Pittsburgh’s resurgence came in the wake of a period saves. Game 3 loss that was by far the team’s best showing to that point. Game 6, in his mind, could serve the same purpose for the Flyers. “If we play like that the next game, we’ll be fine.” “For about 15 straight minutes in the third period, we dominated,” he Malkin would not argue that point. noted. “And aside from a few breakdowns, I thought we controlled play in the game for the most part. Our guys are frustrated, sure, but that was a “We not play right way after Marino goals,” Malkin said, noting a 14- reminder that we’re fully capable of beating this team.” minute stretch without a shot on goal Marino’s second marker. “Jarry save us. We play Game 7 because of Jarry.” As for major adjustments, don’t expect many. Sean Couturier (24:54 in Game 6) and Claude Giroux (22:02) are likely to get even heavier loads, Fittingly, the Penguins reached Game 7 thanks to the first game in and don’t be surprised to see Russian machine Ivan Provorov play half franchise history to feature goals from four defensemen. Kris Letang’s the game. But no major line shakeups or personnel changes for late power-play goal provided insurance after Marcus Pettersson broke Vigneault. He’s trusting in the formula that got them this far in the first the 3-3 tie late in regulation. place. Pettersson’s goal came after another clean faceoff win by Malkin, who “I’ve learned so much about this group over the course of this season — finished with three assists and 13 wins in the circle. their work ethic, their passion for the game, their closeness as a group,” A visibly frustrated Sean Couturier slammed his stick off the crossbar Vigneault said. “Tomorrow, I’m going to learn a little bit more about them. behind Hart after Pettersson’s goal. Flyers defenseman Matt Niskanen I’m excited to see what they’re going to show me.” had a similar reaction late in the first period, when a kick-save by Hart He can only hope that what they show him isn’t what the Bruins showed rebounded onto Chad Ruhwedel’s stick to open the scoring. Claude Julien back in 2010. “I’m the last guy expecting to have the puck,” Ruhwedel. “I ripped it — Charlie O’Connor because there was so much traffic, I just wanted to give (Patrick) Marleau or Sid a chance to get a stick on my shot. Game 7

“I just assumed one of them had. I didn’t know the goal was mine until Insanity. The Penguins pull off the comeback. Sid told me during the celly,” Crosby, who assisted on that goal and Letang’s, said he never would have predicted the Penguins would get Sidney Crosby tried. He really did. Like, he really, really tried to cover his five goals from defensemen. face by burying into his gloves.

“No, but nothing has been what I would have predicted,” Crosby said. Nope. “I’m just glad we have another game to play. If you would have said after He was laughing. Hard. Guffawing, actually. His face as red as the goal Game 3 we would have a Game 7, I think everybody in the room would light he had lit four times. have signed up. And as the final minute passed on Game 7 for the ages — and a series “It’s been a strange series. I thought 2012 was strange. But this is for history — Crosby didn’t want anybody to see just how much he was stranger. I mean, what hasn’t happened?” enjoying the sight of Evgeni Malkin standing at the end of the Penguins Well, one of these teams hasn’t been eliminated. That’s coming, though. bench and playfully conducting fans at PPG Paints Arena through a “Go Home Flyers” singalong. And either the Penguins will win a series they trailed 3-0, thus making up for blowing 3-0 lead against the Islanders in 1975. Or, the Flyers will “After G’s last four games, he can do whatever he wants,” Crosby said. prevent the Penguins doing what Philadelphia did to the Bruins in 2010, The Penguins’ 4-2 victory in Game 7 will be remembered for a lot of rally to win after a 3-0 series deficit. reasons:

“None of that history matters,” Niskanen said. “We’re going to Pittsburgh, Crosby outscoring the Flyers by himself and we have to win.” Crosby scoring four goals five ways (power play, penalty shot, even- “But I’ve been around long enough to know sometimes a coach can strength and a shorthander into an empty net) screw up a good thing. And I think 24 points in four games is good enough to think about sticking with this experiment.” Crosby captaining the Penguins to a successful rally from a 3-0 series deficit With the score tied 2-2, Crosby won the faceoff, and Marleau moved possession backward to defenseman Justin Schultz. Still, one of the truly sensational elimination-game performances in NHL history was a subplot to the story of this series. And that would be the A bad hop allowed the puck to end up in the far corner. Schultz fell when combined dominance of Crosby and Malkin, who had combined for only that happened, and by that point the Flyers appeared ready to pounce. three goals and four points in Games 1-3. However, Sean Couturier couldn’t control a rolling puck, and a fiercely “I’m thinking the last four are what we’ll remember,” Patric Hornqvist said. back-checking Sheary knocked it behind the net. “One day, I’ll bring my kids back to Pittsburgh, show them the statues of Sid and G, and I’ll say, ‘You don’t remember it, but those two had a Goalie Tristan Jarry expertly skated behind the net to stop the puck. hundred points for us when we came back against the Flyers that one Instead of shielding it or moving it to the nearest Penguin, Jarry lofted it year.’” out of the zone.

Not quite. When the puck landed, only Crosby and Flyers defenseman Matt Niskanen were near it. Crosby corralled it and raced ahead, with a But Malkin (5-6-11) and Crosby (6-7-13) sure looked like they were doing desperate Niskanen trailing and losing ground. the impossible while spearheading an improbable comeback in Games 4- 7. Niskanen thew his stick at Crosby.

“Our job’s to score,” Malkin said. “Not just score, but lead team. It’s Sid’s A penalty shot was awarded. team. He’s best player. Of course, it’s his team. But I’m great player, too. Crosby froze Carter with a leg kick and perfectly placed a wrist shot in Like I tell you (last) summer, I’m top 10 player. Still. We have, you know, the left corner. me and Sid, and if we do job — it’s, like, ‘Go Home Flyers.’” “When he pumps, he wants to go backhand,” Carter said. “He froze me Malkin won 57 percent of his faceoffs and took only a minor penalty for because that backhand is probably the best backhand you’ll ever see. tripping in the series. It was a performance, as coach Mike Sullivan said, You have to respect it. that cemented a Hall of Fame future. “I wasn’t going to get beat backhand.” “If you ask me, Geno’s been our best player all season, and he’s probably the most underappreciated all-time player in our sport,” Sullivan Crosby didn’t divulge his plan for the penalty shot. He also didn’t feel said. “I honestly believe people take him for granted. And I understand good about his chances. how that could happen. Geno plays with Sid, and like I’ve said so many “Hart’s been the best goalie in hockey for a few months now,” Crosby times, I think Sid is the most complete player in our game. I think if you said. “He doesn’t give you anything. I saw the corner, and to be honest I look at this series, Sid is still the best player in our game.” don’t think it was the right decision. It’s a low-percentage shot in that Or … situation. Last thing you want to do is miss. Like, make the goalie stop a shot. “Ever,” Flyers captain Claude Giroux said from inside a dressing room that emptied out quickly after Philadelphia again blew a lead headed into “It was G who told me to go for the corner. I was at the bench. You can the third period. see he says something to me.”

“I know everybody wants me to say something else, to keep the feud What did Malkin say exactly? fresh or whatever; but Crosby is the best player right now, like he has “Like, Sid, you shoot corner,” Malkin said. “I promise goalie.” been for a long time, and he might be the best player ever. He beat us himself tonight. We had the matchup we wanted every time. He was just The Flyers pulled Carter with a bit more than two minutes remaining and better than what we had. Kris Letang serving a minor penalty for slashing. But Crosby killed the bulk of that power play, playing 1:27 of the two minutes. He scored into “I’m disappointed. I can’t say I’m upset. We played well for a lot of this an empty net with 13 seconds remaining on that penalty kill, and then series. People will say we choked. I’ll say we ran into the greatest player never took another shift. of at least this generation and probably the best second center a team has had, at least offensively. The level Crosby and Malkin were at those “My skate actually broke on that last shift,” Crosby said. “Thank god I final four games — don’t tell me we choked. scored, because it was the only way I could get off the ice.”

“If we did, they strangled us.” Told after the game that Crosby scored his fourth goal while playing on a broken skate, Flyers coach Alain Vigneault has no choice but to laugh. The Flyers were ahead 1-0 when Malkin fed a cross-ice pass to Crosby He recalled an exchange with Flyers assistant Michel Therrien, who was for a one-timer on the power play. But that was all the scoring until Crosby’s coach for three seasons. Giroux scored his second goal of Game 7 in the final three minutes of the second period. “Michel said Crosby should have to play every game on one leg, so it’s fair,” Vigneault said. Not much was said in the Penguins’ room. Instead, Malkin walked to the whiteboard and wrote “4-2 final” in blue marker. “But I don’t know if that would make it fair. If you play the Penguins and Crosby and Malkin catch fire, it’s not fair. It’s not fun.” Why blue? — Rob Rossi “Other one was orange,” Malkin said of the available markers. “No, no!” Somewhere in the cosmos, maybe there is an alternate timeline, where A bad change — one of many that cost these Flyers in Games 4-7 — the 2020 NHL playoffs are never held and the 2019-20 hockey season is allowed Guentzel and Crosby to go 2-on-1 early in the third. Flyers goalie never granted anything remotely resembling a satisfying conclusion. Carter Hart valiantly dove toward Guentzel, who patiently held possession until he slid a crossing feed to Crosby for a backhanded tap- And as frustrating and crushing as such a scenario would have been for in. Flyers players and fans — to never know how such a promising season would have played out in the end — somehow, it might have been less Crosby stayed on the ice for a shift with wingers Patrick Marleau and painful than the harsh reality of blowing a 3-0 series lead to their biggest Conor Sheary. Either Crosby or Malkin had been the center for those rival. Less crushing than watching the hated Sidney Crosby tear out their wingers since Game 4. hearts in Game 7. Less demoralizing than knowing that one of the most “I didn’t dress seven on defense to help our defense,” Sullivan said. “I did fun Flyers seasons in recent history will now be remembered solely for it force myself into riding our two best players more. It worked. I’d like to the collapse that was its final four games. go back to something more traditional because Sid and Geno played a lot of hard minutes. “Frankly, it still hasn’t fully sunk in yet,” Carter Hart admitted on locker clean out day. “You keep thinking you’re going to wake up and it’s game day, and we’re going to have one more chance to get that fourth win.”

Hart has little reason to be ashamed in his first taste of playoff action. While he was chased in the score-fest that was Game 4, Hart’s 70-save masterpiece in the four-OT classic that was Game 5 really should have ended the series in Philadelphia’s favor, and his full-series .916 save percentage was more than good enough.

In fact, looking at the final stats for the series, it’s shocking how few Flyers look like underachievers by the numbers. Claude Giroux finished with five goals and 12 points in seven games; Sean Couturier racked up four and nine; Jakub Voracek had eight assists. Youngsters Joel Farabee and Nicolas Aube-Kubel had moments of brilliance. Ivan Provorov drove play to the tune of a 56.2 percent Corsi For at 5-on-5, and took on a whopping 30:27 minutes in Game 7.

So what went wrong?

It’s easy to say that there was just too much Crosby and Evgeni Malkin, but that’s only because it’s so obviously what happened. Pittsburgh’s top power play unit gashed the Flyers’ supposedly improved PK for seven goals in the final four games of the series. Crosby started getting the better of Selke favorite Couturier at even strength, and absolutely feasted on his extra shifts versus the Philadelphia bottom six. The pair of Travis Sanheim and Philippe Myers became tougher and tougher to trust against the Penguins’ dynamic duo as the series progressed, forcing Vigneault to ride Provorov far too hard in the final two games.

The 2019-20 Flyers were always a team constructed at two extremes — the fresh wave of young, still-developing talent destined to carry the team through the 2020s, and the longtime veteran core that knew on some level they only had so many more opportunities to win while still operating at their own peak powers.

For the kids, this series obviously hurts, but can serve as a valuable teaching moment. Now, Hart has gotten more than a taste of NHL playoff intensity. Sanheim and Myers have experienced playoff-hockey first hand, and the stylistic adjustments that must be made to survive it. Provorov has now faced a do-or-die Game 7 in a “play half the game” role. There’s now nothing that can happen in future playoffs that could possibly surprise even the youngest Flyers players.

It’s the vets — Giroux and Voracek in particular — who have every right to take this the hardest. 2019-20 in many ways felt like a much-deserved reward for them, a prize for dragging the thin Flyers teams of the 2010s to mediocrity and receiving little but scorn from the loud contingent of fans that blames the best players and not glaring roster flaws below them when a team isn’t very good. The hockey gods had granted them recompense in the form of a blast of a season, only to pull the rug out from under them in the most agonizing way possible.

“This team felt special,” Giroux acknowledged. “That’s what makes this so tough to swallow.”

Perhaps Giroux and Voracek still have tons of great years ahead of them; both showed little signs of slippage during the season and even the playoffs. And the Flyers can always look to their predecessors — the 2010 Bruins — as the model for how to respond to such a devastating, embarrassing defeat — with a division crown and then ultimately, sweet redemption in the form of a Stanley Cup championship the following year. The Flyers have a balanced roster, a stacked farm system, the right head coach, and a general manager willing to be aggressive to improve the NHL team. The future remains extremely bright.

In the here and now, however, all is dark as the lights go out on yet another Flyers season. Perhaps some outcomes are indeed more painful than no hockey at all.

The Athletic LOADED: 04.20.2020 1183189 Pittsburgh Penguins

Penguins on pause: Will Patrick Marleau get another shot at a Cup run?

Mike DeFabo:

The NHL has “paused” its season due to the COVID-19 pandemic. It is unclear if it will resume. So, with one eye still on the future, the Post- Gazette’s Matt Vensel and Mike DeFabo are looking back at what each Penguins player did in 2019-20. We started with the captain, No. 87, and will count down by jersey number.

Two Olympic gold medals. One of the NHL’s longest Iron Man streaks. More than 1,700 games played and enough goals to crack the top 25 all- time list.

Patrick Marleau really has done it all during his 22-year NHL career. Well, everything except hoist the Stanley Cup.

On the NHL’s deadline day, the Penguins acquired Marleau from San Jose in exchange for a conditional 2021 third-round pick, giving the veteran one of his last chances to join a Stanley Cup contender. The pick becomes a second-round draft choice if the Penguins win the Stanley Cup, something all parties involved are rooting for.

At 40-years-old, Marleau isn’t necessarily the same player who scored 44 goals during the 2009-10 season. He’s been in the league about as long as 22-year-old rookie defenseman John Marino has been on Earth. Yet, despite his age and the wear on his tires, the Penguins still believe Marleau has the wheels to play in Mike Sullivan’s speed-oriented system.

Marleau was still settling into the Penguins’ system when the season was paused on March 12. He had recorded one goal and an assist in eight games. For the most part, Marleau played in the top-six alongside Evgeni Malkin. He also earned some time on the second power-play unit.

With the Penguins getting healthier, Marleau’s presence should add quality depth to the lineup, no matter where he ultimately plays. Now, only time will tell if or when Marleau will get a shot to capture the Cup that’s eluded him.

DEFINING MOMENT: During the first period of a 6-2 loss to the Carolina Hurricanes, Conor Sheary found Marleau just as he was crossing the offensive blue line. Marleau skated through three Canes and backhanded the puck past goalie Alex Nedeljkovic, showing the speed and skill that made the Penguins confident in the rental.

STAT THAT STANDS OUT: Marleau has played in 854 consecutive games, the fifth-longest streak in NHL history. He trails only Keith Yandle (866), Steve Larmer (884), Gary Unger (914) and Doug Jarvis (964).

Should the NHL choose to go directly into the postseason or cancel the rest of this season entirely, Marleau will have missed out on the opportunity to add 13 more regular season games to a streak that dates back to April 9, 2009.

IF THE SEASON RESUMES: The Penguins are getting healthier. Jake Guentzel’s return, in particular, could bump Marleau out of a top-six role. But no matter where Marleau ultimately settles, he’ll add quality depth and veteran experience.

If the season doesn’t resume, the situation is more interesting. The Penguins gave up a draft choice with the expectation that Marleau would be here for a playoff run. The NHL might have to work out some type of compensation system for teams that gave up assets for rentals that they never got to use.

LONG-TERM OUTLOOK: Marleau, who counts just $700,000 against the cap, will be an unrestricted free agent at the end of this season. Despite his age, Marleau said he “definitely” would like to play another season. But where?

Marleau said he believes the “door is open” for another return to the Sharks, which makes San Jose the most likely option. However, if Marleau again agrees to a $700,000 deal, the Penguins won’t find too many players of Marleau’s caliber for that price tag. And Marleau won’t find many places with a better chance to finally win a Cup.

Post Gazette LOADED: 04.20.2020 1183190 Pittsburgh Penguins fans). And as the players are scrapping on the ice, somehow Gritty himself sneaks into the arena and KOs Penguins mascot Iceburgh in the inevitable conclusion to their long-standing Twitter beef, and ends up spending the night in jail, costume and all. In the dressing room after the Simulating the 2020 NHL playoffs: Penguins vs. Flyers win, Kevin Hayes reaffirms his willingness to pay all of Gritty’s legal fees, an offer that the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette deems “classless.” The

Philadelphia Daily News gleefully slaps a “Free Gritty!” headline on their By Rob Rossi, Charlie O'Connor and Dom Luszczyszyn back page in response.

Apr 19, 2020 In other words, just your average Game 1 between the Flyers and Penguins.

— Charlie O’Connor The NHL isn’t back yet, but we’re going to pretend it is. Over the last month, we’ve run a simulation of how the NHL’s regular season might Game 2 have played out if the league hadn’t been suspended on March 12. Now, Mike Sullivan prioritized balance to begin this series. His lineup reflected the standings have been set and we’re carrying that forward through the that for Game 1. But the Penguins need a victory, so he isn’t messing playoffs. This time around, one of our beat writers from each team will be around for Game 2. Captain Sidney Crosby gets two new wingers — in charge of every lineup decision, the narrative for every playoff game Jason Zucker, with whom he produced well over the regular season’s and they’ll get to decide what “happened” in each game. Join us as we final weeks, and Patric Hornqvist, a veteran who knows how to play with make our way through the simulated postseason to crown a virtual Crosby and score big playoff goals. Those moves, along with moving Stanley Cup champion. Patrick Marleau to Evgeni Malkin’s line, will likely weaken the third line. One of the greatest, strangest, craziest series of all-time was played in But the insertion of Sam Laffety, will bolster the speed of a third line that 2012 between these two teams, a battle of Pennsylvania like no other. now also features Conor Sheary. And Sullivan is hoping that speed helps Each game was a spectacle, as if the laws of hockey no longer applied to open shooting lanes for Jared McCann. Look for the top six to earn more either team. There were unexpected blowouts, 1980s-like goaltending, minutes this game. shocking upsets and utter ridiculousness all around. On the scale of — Rob Rossi batshit craziness, it will probably never be topped. No changes for Philadelphia. Coming into this series, both teams were pretty hot. Pittsburgh was the stronger of the two to earn home ice, going 10-2-1 down the stretch while Another decisive victory for Philadelphia in Game 2 has already given Philadelphia went a respectable 7-4-2. While the two are reasonably this series some serious 2012 vibes. close in talent, the Penguins do have a decent edge over the Flyers on paper. Their chances of winning this series are 56 percent, so this should Game 1 was chock-full of drama and intriguing storylines despite the be tight. blowout nature of the Flyers’ victory; Game 2 was just a thrashing, plain and simple, as Philadelphia cruised to a 6-2 victory and a 2-0 lead in the In terms of sheer star power, the edge is unsurprisingly Pittsburgh’s, with series. Sidney Crosby, Evgeni Malkin and Kris Letang playing elite-level hockey into their 30s. There’s also Bryan Rust, who’s emerged as a force to be After letting depth forwards carry the load in Game 1, Philadelphia’s big reckoned with this year after finding chemistry with Malkin. guns were out in full force this time. Sean Couturier’s natural hat trick in the second period that made quick work of a 1-1 tie earned the most In Philadelphia, Sean Couturier has blossomed into an elite two-way star, headlines, but Claude Giroux was good for two goals and two assists of but it’s hard to still have Claude Giroux or Jakub Voracek at that level. his own, while Jakub Voracek chipped in with four helpers. Those two, along with Travis Konecny and James van Riemsdyk give Philadelphia a strong collection of top line talent, but it’s still a step “Our best players were the best players on the ice, and that’s why we behind what Pittsburgh can offer. Ivan Provorov is no Letang, either. won this game,” Alain Vigneault pointed out, in a nod to Crosby and Malkin combining for just one goal over the series’ first two contests. Both teams look equally deep aside from star players, but where Philadelphia bridges the gap is in net where Carter Hart is looking like a In Game 1, Pittsburgh looked the part of a frustrated club, but two nights legitimate No. 1 goalie and Matt Murray’s status has fallen from grace a later, they simply appeared lethargic and disengaged after putting forth a bit. Goaltending’s big come playoff time and that might be the edge the passable first period. Matt Murray was pulled for the second straight Flyers need to get the win here. game after allowing five goals on 22 shots, but Mike Sullivan’s decision to yank him felt less a critique of his goalie, and more a desperate The hype for any battle between Pittsburgh and Philadelphia is very hard attempt to wake up his sleeping club. There was no response. to live up to. The 2017-18 series between the two paled in comparison to such a degree that in a post earlier this year I genuinely forgot it ever “Heading back home up 2-0, sure, we feel confident,” Jakub Voracek happened. The gods of chance will decide where the latest iteration of said after the win. “But like I said, that’s a great team over there. They’ll this series goes, but the hope as always when these two meet is that be a lot better in Philly.” chaos reigns supreme. — Charlie O’Connor Game 1 Game 3 The Flyers take Game 1 in decisive fashion. Mike Sullivan took the unusual measure of closing practice to the public The Flyers win Game 1 by a 6-1 score on a night that somehow exceeds after the Penguins’ loss in Game 2. He then revealed that Tristan Jarry the craziest moments of the classic 2012 series between the clubs. An would start in Game 3 — breaking from his traditional “lineups are game- early Sidney Crosby goal sends the PPG Paints Arena into a frenzy, but time decisions” mantra. Seemed strange. the party comes to a screeching halt when Matt Murray wanders out of Seemed a blatant attempt to change the dynamic for a squad that his crease to retrieve a dump-in and tosses the puck right at a appeared lethargic in Game 2. forechecking Joel Farabee, who slips it into a wide-open net. That opens the floodgates – by the midway point of the second period, Philly is up 5- Seemed to make sense, though, when before a matinee in Philadelphia, 1 and Murray is out of the game, mercifully pulled after a performance winger Jake Guentzel joined the Penguins for warmups. Perhaps that reminds every Penguins fan of Marc-Andre Fleury circa 2012 Sullivan had orchestrated the goalie announcement to quiet chatter that playoffs. Guentzel could return as the series shifted to Philadelphia.

With the game out of reach, the third period devolves into sheer That has been the informed speculation, as Guentzel’s recovery from a madness. When Brandon Tanev blasts just-back-from-injury James van shoulder surgery was said to have gone better than for which anybody Riemsdyk after the whistle, the series’ first line brawl ensues, highlighted could have hoped. He was diagnosed with a 4-6 month recovery, and at by an instant classic bout between Tanev and Scott Laughton. Nicolas the time of his injury, the Penguins privately had all but ruled out a return Aube-Kubel is tossed for a blindside hit that sends Bryan Rust to the before, say, the conference or Stanley Cup final. However, general quiet room, though Rust ultimately returns (which spares Aube-Kubel manager Jim Rutherford cryptically alluded to Guentzel being “as good a from supplemental discipline but not from the eternal ire of Pittsburgh healer as he is a goal scorer” late in the regular season before walking goals. But in 2020, there is a sense the Flyers are just better suited for a the comment back to The Athletic’s Josh Yohe. best-of-seven than these Penguins, who lack as many elite scorers as they did in 2012 and haven’t appeared to be blowing it as much as they Still, nobody really thought Guentzel could play in the opening round. Did are being blown out. they? — Rob Rossi “Nobody outside our room,” a player said, speaking on the condition of anonymity. “But Jake has been skating on his own for two weeks. So we Game 4 knew something was up.” The Penguins are on the brink, so it’s time to throw the kitchen sink at it. Well, Guentzel is back for Game 3. Something is decidedly up. They’ve decided to go with an 11/7 split for forwards and defensemen, trying to find more ice time for both Crosby and Malkin who will split — Rob Rossi double shifting duties with a skilled fourth line featuring Patrick Marleau Juuso Riikola also slots in for Jack Johnson. No changes for and Conor Sheary. Chad Ruhwedel will be the seventh defensemen, Philadelphia. though it doesn’t appear that anyone outside the top four will see much ice anyways. Shades of 2012! Philadelphia takes a commanding 3-0 series lead, spoiling Guentzel’s surprise return. The Flyers are sticking with what works.

Finally, Flyers-Penguins delivers the type of back-and-forth, tightly The Penguins aren’t done yet, putting up a decisive victory to send this contested playoff-style game that everyone expected. It’s not without its series back to the Steel City. sideshow charms – before puck drop, a newly bailed out Gritty swings On the off day between Game 3 and 4, Evgeni Malkin made a prediction: down from the Wells Fargo Center rafters in full prison garb to raucous “We win next game, and who knows?” cheers from the Philadelphia faithful. But on the ice, it’s all business. OK, so it wasn’t exactly Mark Messier-stuff. But, as did Messier in the It’s immediately clear that the Penguins came to play this time – three 1994 conference final for the Rangers, Malkin said his piece and then minutes in, Crosby and surprise returnee Jake Guentzel work a 2-on-1 to delivered in a must-win game for the Penguins. His first-period hat trick perfection to give Pittsburgh the early lead. But the Flyers don’t back chased Carter Hart before 15 minutes in the Penguins’ 12-4 win in down. Kevin Hayes pots his first shorthanded goal of the series, and an Philadelphia. Ivan Provorov power play blast allows Philly to keep pace at 2-2 after Evgeni Malkin storms through the Flyers’ young second pair of Travis “I think it was finally good luck for us,” Malkin said after his first five-goal Sanheim and Philippe Myers on the rush for his first goal of the playoffs. game at any level of hockey. “Maybe, you know, we see good Penguins rest of way?” But it’s the third period that will long be remembered in Philadelphia and Pittsburgh. With 10 minutes remaining in regulation and intensity at a Malkin’s five goals tied Mario Lemieux’s franchise record for a playoff fever pitch, surprise series villain (at least in the Steel City) Nicolas Aube- game. It was Sidney Crosby, however, who nearly made Lemieux’s Kubel crushes Conor Sheary face-first into the boards, forcing the record for most points by a Penguins player in a playoff game his own Penguins forward to leave the game with an apparent shoulder injury. record. Crosby’s two goals and five assists — including three on power- But the officials controversially deem the hit legal, holding that Sheary play snipes by Malkin — gave him seven points. Lemieux’s added three turned toward the boards at the last second. assists to his five goals in the Penguins’ Game 5 win at home against the Flyers in the 1989 Patrick Division final. The Penguins’ bench is livid, and their anger reaches epic proportions when with three minutes remaining, it’s none other than Aube-Kubel The Penguins, of course, lost that series. himself who breaks the tie with a top-corner snipe to make it 3-2. Mike Sullivan keeps his emotions in check until Giroux clinches the game for They remain likely to lose this series, too. But the dominance of Crosby the Flyers with an empty-netter, at which point the Pens head coach lets and Malkin, each of whom split time centering a fourth line as coach Mike loose an epic tirade directed at the officials and earns his third ejection of Sullivan opted to dress seven defensemen, showed how dangerous his NHL coaching career, leaving the bench to unanimous stick taps from these Penguins can be when they get hot. his players. “It’s one game, and we have to remember that it’s only one game,” Hart “He didn’t look too happy, did he?” Vigneault remarks after the game with said, after stopping only four shots and allowing six goals before he was a barely concealed smile, reveling in his team’s 3-0 series lead. pulled. “It’s a good reminder of how well we have to play against that team. If not, you can see what they’ll do if you give them any life.” — Charlie O’Connor The Penguins had felt good about their performance in Game 3, despite At first glance, the Penguins would appear to be repeating history. Not the loss. Their full practice the day after was loose, as if they had nothing the kind they would prefer, either. A deep, talented and — here’s the to lose going forward. They looked free and easy in the first minute. important part: favored — Penguins squad is down, 3-0, to the Flyers. And they’re coming into a Game 4 absolutely incensed after the series Make that the first 37 seconds. Crosby, then Malkin, each scored on shifted to Philadelphia and turned nasty. breakaways to silence Flyers fans and force Alain Vigneault into an early time out. But unlike a memorable (for all those goals allowed) opening round in 2012, this postseason edition of the Commonwealth Cold War is less A pause didn’t punish the Penguins, though. about the Penguins blowing up and more about the Flyers seeming to be Patrick Marleau scored just before the three-minute mark, tapping in his better built for the playoffs. And that has to call into questions some first of the playoffs after a masterful individual effort from Crosby, who moves made by general manager Jim Rutherford on the day of the NHL weaved through a maze of three Flyers before faking a backhand, trade deadline. spinning and firing a hard pass to an open Marleau.

Rutherford added three new forwards at the deadline. He also added one On the next shift, Brandon Tanev ate a high stick and bled. That gave the a few weeks prior. That’s four new players joining a squad that, as Penguins a five-minute power play, and on it perhaps this series shifted. Rutherford had said, was winning in spite of injuries in part because of its chemistry. But that chemistry was altered by the new additions, and the After not registering a shot for the first two-plus minutes of the power Penguins have not looked cohesive when going against the same play, the Penguins made a statement in the third minute of the opponent every other day. advantage. Crosby set up two Malkin for two one-timer goals that chased Hart. In 2012, the Penguins were appreciably deeper and more skilled than almost any other NHL team. Rutherford appeared to enhance the depth “Not his fault,” Vigneault said. “We were so bad defensively, I didn’t want of these Penguins, but what’s it say that one of the forwards he acquired to keep him in.” hasn’t dressed in this series — or that the defense, which he left alone, Justin Schultz, who hadn’t scored a power-play goal in two seasons, has been exposed, especially the third pairing. fluttered a shot to cap the Penguins’ power-play scoring. In 2012, there was a feeling that one of either the Penguins or Flyers had At that point, ahead by a score of 6-0, the Penguins tried to take a to win a series in which neither team tried to deny the other from scoring defensive approach. However, the Flyers kept taking penalties, and Mike Sullivan’s squad ended up adding two more power-play goals to finish Letang briefly put his arm in the air, then looked back to the referee to with five. make sure the goal was good. The Flyers challenged, but Letang was onside and the goal counted. “I don’t think you ever expect to have 11 power plays in a playoff game,” Sullivan said. “I don’t know if you expect that many in a series. We took Hart was not available for comment. The Flyers said he was being advantage of a unique situation, but it’s not something I would expect to treated for dehydration. have again. “He’s been our best player,” Flyers coach Alain Vigneault said. “We need “Obviously, our best players set the tone for us, especially on the power to be better for him. Pittsburgh had too many great chances again in this play, and I’m happier about that than how the goals were scored.” game. If that happens again in Philadelphia, we’ll be back here for Game 7. Added Crosby: “One game, a strange game, one where everything went our way. We’ll take it. But that’s a good team, and we know they are “We don’t want to be back here again.” going to be a lot better in Pittsburgh. So, we better be ready for their best.” Jarry, who needed to make only 49 saves, including just 11 through parts of four overtime periods, said he sympathized with his Flyers counterpart. — Rob Rossi “It was really hot on the ice, and we made him work a lot,” Jarry said. “I Game 5 remember between the first and second overtime, Matt (Murray) told me to be especially careful at the end of periods because you’re dying to get “I’ve coached a lot of games, but I don’t think I’ve ever been a part of a to the room, and it only takes one bad read to end the game.” more ‘burn the tape’ game than that one,” Alain Vigneault said with a sheepish grin at practice the day after the 12-4 shellacking. Flyers captain Claude Giroux tipped his cap to the Penguins. He said their decision to play with seven defensemen has changed the series. Still, there’s no major changes for the Flyers despite the embarrassing defeat, aside from Nicolas Aube-Kubel — a thorn in Pittsburgh’s side all “It’s not the extra D,” Giroux said. “It’s having Crosby or Malkin on that series — getting a minor promotion to Line 3 and pushing Tyler Pitlick to fourth line. Those guys are great players. It’s hard enough when they’re the fourth line. Vigneault also hints that he might rely a bit more heavily not double-shifting. When they are, it’s almost impossible. on his top pair of Provorov and Niskanen, and pull back on the Hagg- Braun duo, which was gashed repeatedly at both even strength and on “We need to make an adjustment. We need to win the next game. It’s our the PK in Game 4. Game 7.”

— Charlie O’Connor — Rob Rossi

Pittsburgh claws back to make it a 3-2 series What a difference a few days can make in the NHL playoffs. After winning Game 3 in dramatic fashion, the Flyers looked poised to cruise Well, it’s official: This series between the Penguins and Flyers has now into Round 2. Now, after dropping Game 4 in blowout form and coming offered hockey fans a little bit of everything. out on the short end of an instant Flyers-Penguins classic in Game 5, an epic collapse suddenly seems legitimately possible. Kris Letang’s goal near the end of a fourth overtime won Game 5 in Pittsburgh. His seeing-eye wrist shot somehow eluded Flyers goalie “They’ve been the better team for the last 10 periods of hockey,” Matt Carter Hart, who was a hard-luck loser despite allowing only that goal on Niskanen bluntly stated after the Flyers breezed through an extremely 71 shots faced. light skate late in the afternoon back in Philadelphia. “They’re straight up outplaying us.” “Their goalie stopped how many breakaways?” Letang said, referring to Hart’s regulation-time denials of Sidney Crosby, Jake Guentzel and Despite the fluky nature of the game-winner in Game 5, the Flyers Jason Zucker on full breakaways, not to mention a second-overtime players to a man made it clear that the skaters were the ones to blame penalty shot awarded to Conor Sheary. for the heartbreaking defeat, not Carter Hart.

“I was at the end of a shift. I was going to dump the puck, but when I got “We lose that game 5-0 if Hartsy doesn’t stand on his head,” Kevin into the zone, I saw (Hart) leaning because the defenseman had, I think, Hayes admitted. “We’re just not playing anywhere near good enough.” a bad gap. I just put it on net. I don’t know if he saw it good off my stick. I don’t care. While it’s not panic time in the Flyers’ dressing room quite yet, the usual laughs and jokes have been replaced with quiet conversation and a “It counts.” steely sense of resolve. Game 6 may not technically be a must-win, but as an exhausted Giroux noted after the Game 5 loss, they’re treating it as It counts as revenge for the Penguins, who famously lost a lengthy if they can’t afford to let this series get back to Pittsburgh. playoff game in Pittsburgh to the Flyers in 2000. That postseason, the Penguins won Games 1 and 2 in Philadelphia before dropping the next “We’re the same team that played close to perfect hockey in Games 1 four games — including Games 3 and 4 at home, each in overtime. and 2,” Vigneault pointed out. “We just need to get back to what we did right then, and we’ll be fine.” They were once down, 3-0, in this series. And things were not looking good. — Charlie O’Connor

But after a dominant, power-play fueled blowout victory in Game 4, in Game 6 which Crosby and Evgeni Malkin combined for 12 points, the Penguins were consistently frustrated by Hart’s brilliance. He turned aside 46 shots Don’t expect Vigneault to sit on his hands from a lineup change in regulation and was perfect until the final minute of the fourth overtime. standpoint after this loss, as he mostly did in the wake of the 12-4 Then, after a swarming shift by the Penguins’ third line had hemmed in blowout. With the team in desperate need of an infusion of offense, the Flyers for almost a full minute, Hart tried to ice the puck. Shayne Gostisbehere skated on a pair with Justin Braun in practice, and he’ll see his first action of the playoffs in place of Robert Hagg. Travis The timing was right, as the Penguins had changed out their forwards. Konecny and Jakub Voracek also switched spots on their respective lines, as Vigneault reunited the high-flying Giroux-Couturier-Konecny trio. But an astute read by goalie Tristan Jarry, an excellent stickhandler, to In addition, expect the Flyers to lean heavily on their star players in direct defenseman Brian Dumoulin to knock down Hart’s lofting clear Game 6, despite the marathon game two nights earlier. attempt, might be remembered for years if the Penguins rally to win this series. “All year, we’ve been practicing with pace and rolling four lines, with the goal of becoming the best-conditioned team we can possibly be,” After batting the puck down just beyond center ice, Dumoulin quickly Vigneault explained. “It’s been our identity since Day 1 of camp. Now, it’s moved the puck to Jarry, who ripped a pass to Letang. The Flyers had time for all of that hard work to pay off.” been able to changer their forwards, but not their defense pairing. Letang carried into the offensive zone, pulled up, then took three strides to his — Charlie O’Connor left and softly placed the puck toward the cage. Hart, who had to peek around his own reaching teammate, whiffed when reaching for the shot. As is tradition in this series (and 99 percent of playoff games) the winning team will stick with the same lineup. After Philadelphia wins three straight, Pittsburgh follows suit to “None of that history matters,” Niskanen said. “We’re going to Pittsburgh, shockingly tie the series. and we have to win.”

Talking to a goalie before he takes the ice for a game is not something Again, Malkin would not argue that point. At last the first one. Mike Sullivan does. So, nobody was more surprised than Tristan Jarry when Sullivan pulled him aside before Game 6 between the Penguins “Only matters is Game 7 next,” Malkin said. “But, like, I think we should and Flyers. win. I ask coach what he thinks. He can see future, like, you see with Jarry.” “He just told me that if we get behind, don’t do anything different — just play,” Jarry said, cracking a smile after the Penguins’ 5-3 win. — Rob Rossi

“Maybe you should ask him what he knew.” Ten years ago, the Philadelphia Flyers stormed back from a 3-0 series deficit against the Boston Bruins to pull one of the most stunning Did Sullivan know his Penguins would give up three goals in four minutes comebacks in NHL history. to start a second period they arrived at with a 1-0 lead? Now, Claude Giroux and James van Riemsdyk — the lone holdovers Did he know Jarry, who replaced Matt Murray as the starter after Game from that 2009-10 Flyers club — are getting an up-close look at how the 2, would kick one puck into his own net or flat miss a shot from center ice Bruins must have felt as they slowly and painfully watched a series slip by Shayne Gostisbehere, whose goal stakes the Flyers a 3-1 lead that through their hands. Unsurprisingly, they haven’t cared for the role threatened to bring down Wells Fargo Center? reversal.

Did he know the Penguins would take four penalties over the next 10 “Looking back, the confidence we had in that locker room back in 2010 minutes? was crazy, even though we were down (in the series),” Giroux noted. “It hurts to think that they might be feeling the same way right now. But we “All I knew is that these games are always about your response,” Sullivan only have ourselves to blame.” said. “We won big in Game 4, won close in Game 5, and Tristan hasn’t played a lot of playoff games — so I wanted him to know that at some Yet this series is still far from over, and momentum is a fickle thing. Even point we were due for things to not go our way, and I felt it was good for in that classic 2010 series, the Bruins shook off three straight losses to Tristan to hear from me that I had his back if that happened.” race out to a 3-0 lead in Game 7. Of course, Boston ultimately blew that lead too, cementing their utter collapse and their place in the annals of Sullivan wasn’t along in having the back of Jarry. NHL history. But it also showed that even a team seemingly on the ropes And when the Penguins scored twice in the first minute of the third period can reel off a few haymakers when their opponent least expects it. — shots-through-traffic from John Marino after clean faceoff wins by “I’m not saying we thought Game 7 was going to be easy, because we Evgeni Malkin — it became clear that Jarry was going to get a chance to didn’t,” van Riemsdyk explained. “But you’d think that a team coming off atone for his gaffes. three straight losses would have been demoralized … they weren’t, at He did. least to start that game. We need that kind of fast start tomorrow, except we’ll hold it for the full 60 minutes.” “Give their guy credit; the third period was our best since Game 3, but he was up to the task,” Flyers captain Claude Giroux said of Jarry’s 21 third- Vigneault pointed out that Pittsburgh’s resurgence came in the wake of a period saves. Game 3 loss that was by far the team’s best showing to that point. Game 6, in his mind, could serve the same purpose for the Flyers. “If we play like that the next game, we’ll be fine.” “For about 15 straight minutes in the third period, we dominated,” he Malkin would not argue that point. noted. “And aside from a few breakdowns, I thought we controlled play in the game for the most part. Our guys are frustrated, sure, but that was a “We not play right way after Marino goals,” Malkin said, noting a 14- reminder that we’re fully capable of beating this team.” minute stretch without a shot on goal Marino’s second marker. “Jarry save us. We play Game 7 because of Jarry.” As for major adjustments, don’t expect many. Sean Couturier (24:54 in Game 6) and Claude Giroux (22:02) are likely to get even heavier loads, Fittingly, the Penguins reached Game 7 thanks to the first game in and don’t be surprised to see Russian machine Ivan Provorov play half franchise history to feature goals from four defensemen. Kris Letang’s the game. But no major line shakeups or personnel changes for late power-play goal provided insurance after Marcus Pettersson broke Vigneault. He’s trusting in the formula that got them this far in the first the 3-3 tie late in regulation. place. Pettersson’s goal came after another clean faceoff win by Malkin, who “I’ve learned so much about this group over the course of this season — finished with three assists and 13 wins in the circle. their work ethic, their passion for the game, their closeness as a group,” A visibly frustrated Sean Couturier slammed his stick off the crossbar Vigneault said. “Tomorrow, I’m going to learn a little bit more about them. behind Hart after Pettersson’s goal. Flyers defenseman Matt Niskanen I’m excited to see what they’re going to show me.” had a similar reaction late in the first period, when a kick-save by Hart He can only hope that what they show him isn’t what the Bruins showed rebounded onto Chad Ruhwedel’s stick to open the scoring. Claude Julien back in 2010. “I’m the last guy expecting to have the puck,” Ruhwedel. “I ripped it — Charlie O’Connor because there was so much traffic, I just wanted to give (Patrick) Marleau or Sid a chance to get a stick on my shot. Game 7

“I just assumed one of them had. I didn’t know the goal was mine until Insanity. The Penguins pull off the comeback. Sid told me during the celly,” Crosby, who assisted on that goal and Letang’s, said he never would have predicted the Penguins would get Sidney Crosby tried. He really did. Like, he really, really tried to cover his five goals from defensemen. face by burying into his gloves.

“No, but nothing has been what I would have predicted,” Crosby said. Nope. “I’m just glad we have another game to play. If you would have said after He was laughing. Hard. Guffawing, actually. His face as red as the goal Game 3 we would have a Game 7, I think everybody in the room would light he had lit four times. have signed up. And as the final minute passed on Game 7 for the ages — and a series “It’s been a strange series. I thought 2012 was strange. But this is for history — Crosby didn’t want anybody to see just how much he was stranger. I mean, what hasn’t happened?” enjoying the sight of Evgeni Malkin standing at the end of the Penguins Well, one of these teams hasn’t been eliminated. That’s coming, though. bench and playfully conducting fans at PPG Paints Arena through a “Go Home Flyers” singalong. And either the Penguins will win a series they trailed 3-0, thus making up for blowing 3-0 lead against the Islanders in 1975. Or, the Flyers will “After G’s last four games, he can do whatever he wants,” Crosby said. prevent the Penguins doing what Philadelphia did to the Bruins in 2010, rally to win after a 3-0 series deficit. The Penguins’ 4-2 victory in Game 7 will be remembered for a lot of “I didn’t dress seven on defense to help our defense,” Sullivan said. “I did reasons: it force myself into riding our two best players more. It worked. I’d like to go back to something more traditional because Sid and Geno played a Crosby outscoring the Flyers by himself lot of hard minutes.

Crosby scoring four goals five ways (power play, penalty shot, even- “But I’ve been around long enough to know sometimes a coach can strength and a shorthander into an empty net) screw up a good thing. And I think 24 points in four games is good Crosby captaining the Penguins to a successful rally from a 3-0 series enough to think about sticking with this experiment.” deficit With the score tied 2-2, Crosby won the faceoff, and Marleau moved Still, one of the truly sensational elimination-game performances in NHL possession backward to defenseman Justin Schultz. history was a subplot to the story of this series. And that would be the A bad hop allowed the puck to end up in the far corner. Schultz fell when combined dominance of Crosby and Malkin, who had combined for only that happened, and by that point the Flyers appeared ready to pounce. three goals and four points in Games 1-3. However, Sean Couturier couldn’t control a rolling puck, and a fiercely “I’m thinking the last four are what we’ll remember,” Patric Hornqvist said. back-checking Sheary knocked it behind the net. “One day, I’ll bring my kids back to Pittsburgh, show them the statues of Sid and G, and I’ll say, ‘You don’t remember it, but those two had a Goalie Tristan Jarry expertly skated behind the net to stop the puck. hundred points for us when we came back against the Flyers that one Instead of shielding it or moving it to the nearest Penguin, Jarry lofted it year.’” out of the zone.

Not quite. When the puck landed, only Crosby and Flyers defenseman Matt Niskanen were near it. Crosby corralled it and raced ahead, with a But Malkin (5-6-11) and Crosby (6-7-13) sure looked like they were doing desperate Niskanen trailing and losing ground. the impossible while spearheading an improbable comeback in Games 4- 7. Niskanen thew his stick at Crosby.

“Our job’s to score,” Malkin said. “Not just score, but lead team. It’s Sid’s A penalty shot was awarded. team. He’s best player. Of course, it’s his team. But I’m great player, too. Like I tell you (last) summer, I’m top 10 player. Still. We have, you know, Crosby froze Carter with a leg kick and perfectly placed a wrist shot in me and Sid, and if we do job — it’s, like, ‘Go Home Flyers.’” the left corner.

Malkin won 57 percent of his faceoffs and took only a minor penalty for “When he pumps, he wants to go backhand,” Carter said. “He froze me tripping in the series. It was a performance, as coach Mike Sullivan said, because that backhand is probably the best backhand you’ll ever see. that cemented a Hall of Fame future. You have to respect it.

“If you ask me, Geno’s been our best player all season, and he’s “I wasn’t going to get beat backhand.” probably the most underappreciated all-time player in our sport,” Sullivan Crosby didn’t divulge his plan for the penalty shot. He also didn’t feel said. “I honestly believe people take him for granted. And I understand good about his chances. how that could happen. Geno plays with Sid, and like I’ve said so many times, I think Sid is the most complete player in our game. I think if you “Hart’s been the best goalie in hockey for a few months now,” Crosby look at this series, Sid is still the best player in our game.” said. “He doesn’t give you anything. I saw the corner, and to be honest I don’t think it was the right decision. It’s a low-percentage shot in that Or … situation. Last thing you want to do is miss. Like, make the goalie stop a “Ever,” Flyers captain Claude Giroux said from inside a dressing room shot. that emptied out quickly after Philadelphia again blew a lead headed into “It was G who told me to go for the corner. I was at the bench. You can the third period. see he says something to me.”

“I know everybody wants me to say something else, to keep the feud What did Malkin say exactly? fresh or whatever; but Crosby is the best player right now, like he has been for a long time, and he might be the best player ever. He beat us “Like, Sid, you shoot corner,” Malkin said. “I promise goalie.” himself tonight. We had the matchup we wanted every time. He was just The Flyers pulled Carter with a bit more than two minutes remaining and better than what we had. Kris Letang serving a minor penalty for slashing. But Crosby killed the “I’m disappointed. I can’t say I’m upset. We played well for a lot of this bulk of that power play, playing 1:27 of the two minutes. He scored into series. People will say we choked. I’ll say we ran into the greatest player an empty net with 13 seconds remaining on that penalty kill, and then of at least this generation and probably the best second center a team never took another shift. has had, at least offensively. The level Crosby and Malkin were at those “My skate actually broke on that last shift,” Crosby said. “Thank god I final four games — don’t tell me we choked. scored, because it was the only way I could get off the ice.” “If we did, they strangled us.” Told after the game that Crosby scored his fourth goal while playing on a The Flyers were ahead 1-0 when Malkin fed a cross-ice pass to Crosby broken skate, Flyers coach Alain Vigneault has no choice but to laugh. for a one-timer on the power play. But that was all the scoring until He recalled an exchange with Flyers assistant Michel Therrien, who was Giroux scored his second goal of Game 7 in the final three minutes of the Crosby’s coach for three seasons. second period. “Michel said Crosby should have to play every game on one leg, so it’s Not much was said in the Penguins’ room. Instead, Malkin walked to the fair,” Vigneault said. whiteboard and wrote “4-2 final” in blue marker. “But I don’t know if that would make it fair. If you play the Penguins and Why blue? Crosby and Malkin catch fire, it’s not fair. It’s not fun.”

“Other one was orange,” Malkin said of the available markers. “No, no!” — Rob Rossi

A bad change — one of many that cost these Flyers in Games 4-7 — Somewhere in the cosmos, maybe there is an alternate timeline, where allowed Guentzel and Crosby to go 2-on-1 early in the third. Flyers goalie the 2020 NHL playoffs are never held and the 2019-20 hockey season is Carter Hart valiantly dove toward Guentzel, who patiently held never granted anything remotely resembling a satisfying conclusion. possession until he slid a crossing feed to Crosby for a backhanded tap- And as frustrating and crushing as such a scenario would have been for in. Flyers players and fans — to never know how such a promising season Crosby stayed on the ice for a shift with wingers Patrick Marleau and would have played out in the end — somehow, it might have been less Conor Sheary. Either Crosby or Malkin had been the center for those painful than the harsh reality of blowing a 3-0 series lead to their biggest wingers since Game 4. rival. Less crushing than watching the hated Sidney Crosby tear out their hearts in Game 7. Less demoralizing than knowing that one of the most fun Flyers seasons in recent history will now be remembered solely for the collapse that was its final four games.

“Frankly, it still hasn’t fully sunk in yet,” Carter Hart admitted on locker clean out day. “You keep thinking you’re going to wake up and it’s game day, and we’re going to have one more chance to get that fourth win.”

Hart has little reason to be ashamed in his first taste of playoff action. While he was chased in the score-fest that was Game 4, Hart’s 70-save masterpiece in the four-OT classic that was Game 5 really should have ended the series in Philadelphia’s favor, and his full-series .916 save percentage was more than good enough.

In fact, looking at the final stats for the series, it’s shocking how few Flyers look like underachievers by the numbers. Claude Giroux finished with five goals and 12 points in seven games; Sean Couturier racked up four and nine; Jakub Voracek had eight assists. Youngsters Joel Farabee and Nicolas Aube-Kubel had moments of brilliance. Ivan Provorov drove play to the tune of a 56.2 percent Corsi For at 5-on-5, and took on a whopping 30:27 minutes in Game 7.

So what went wrong?

It’s easy to say that there was just too much Crosby and Evgeni Malkin, but that’s only because it’s so obviously what happened. Pittsburgh’s top power play unit gashed the Flyers’ supposedly improved PK for seven goals in the final four games of the series. Crosby started getting the better of Selke favorite Couturier at even strength, and absolutely feasted on his extra shifts versus the Philadelphia bottom six. The pair of Travis Sanheim and Philippe Myers became tougher and tougher to trust against the Penguins’ dynamic duo as the series progressed, forcing Vigneault to ride Provorov far too hard in the final two games.

The 2019-20 Flyers were always a team constructed at two extremes — the fresh wave of young, still-developing talent destined to carry the team through the 2020s, and the longtime veteran core that knew on some level they only had so many more opportunities to win while still operating at their own peak powers.

For the kids, this series obviously hurts, but can serve as a valuable teaching moment. Now, Hart has gotten more than a taste of NHL playoff intensity. Sanheim and Myers have experienced playoff-hockey first hand, and the stylistic adjustments that must be made to survive it. Provorov has now faced a do-or-die Game 7 in a “play half the game” role. There’s now nothing that can happen in future playoffs that could possibly surprise even the youngest Flyers players.

It’s the vets — Giroux and Voracek in particular — who have every right to take this the hardest. 2019-20 in many ways felt like a much-deserved reward for them, a prize for dragging the thin Flyers teams of the 2010s to mediocrity and receiving little but scorn from the loud contingent of fans that blames the best players and not glaring roster flaws below them when a team isn’t very good. The hockey gods had granted them recompense in the form of a blast of a season, only to pull the rug out from under them in the most agonizing way possible.

“This team felt special,” Giroux acknowledged. “That’s what makes this so tough to swallow.”

Perhaps Giroux and Voracek still have tons of great years ahead of them; both showed little signs of slippage during the season and even the playoffs. And the Flyers can always look to their predecessors — the 2010 Bruins — as the model for how to respond to such a devastating, embarrassing defeat — with a division crown and then ultimately, sweet redemption in the form of a Stanley Cup championship the following year. The Flyers have a balanced roster, a stacked farm system, the right head coach, and a general manager willing to be aggressive to improve the NHL team. The future remains extremely bright.

In the here and now, however, all is dark as the lights go out on yet another Flyers season. Perhaps some outcomes are indeed more painful than no hockey at all.

The Athletic LOADED: 04.20.2020 1183191 San Jose Sharks “If I’m a parent and there’s a green light, am I taking a family to the stadium with 50,000 people? The answer is no.”

Projecting from this point, with the Bay Area hunkering down and ‘No pandemic playbook’: Sports grapples with how to return standing apart, the spectating experience feels more risk than reward.

Papa recalled broadcasting a Warriors game from Boston Garden the night the first Gulf War began. Satellite transmission was prohibited, so By JON WILNER | PUBLISHED: April 19, 2020 at 8:05 a.m. | UPDATED: he used a telephone to call the play-by-play. April 19, 2020 at 2:57 p.m. “It was weird and eerie and quiet in the Garden,’’ he said, “and I thought, ‘Why are we even playing this game?’”

The Oakland Raiders’ first game following the Sept. 11 terror attacks was If the gates open before there is a coronavirus vaccine, the teams will in Miami, two weeks after the Twin Towers collapsed. Greg Papa, the face a public relations challenge — to say nothing of the epidemiological voice of the Raiders, remembers boarding his flight, sleeping in a hotel hurdles — of the highest order. And yet each league seems to be and heading to the stadium — all without hesitation, as he had done so barreling down its own path, plotting its own schedule. many times before. Dolich, who created the ‘Billy Ball’ marketing campaign for the A’s in the “If there was going to be another terrorist attack, I wasn’t worried,’’ Papa early 1980s, sees the diffused messaging and wonders about the lack of said. “I figured, if they bomb the stadium, I die. I’m not harming someone unification. else. I was never fearful. “It seems like they are developing their own plans and their own timelines “But this is different. I could be going outside with a disease. I could infect when, in reality, they are all the same industry,’’ he said. somebody. I could be an accomplice to murder.” “How did the Kentucky Derby pick Sept. 5 to race? Baseball is talking The coronavirus pandemic has brought both closure and uncertainty to about June. How did they get there? I see them thinking of themselves the sports world: Everything is shuttered, yet nobody knows when the as independent businesses. doors will reopen or what the experience will look like on the other side. Will the Warriors hand out 19,000 masks for every home game at Chase “From A to Z, they should be communicating on a daily basis. They Center? Will the 49ers have enough sanitizer for 140,000 hands? should proactively be trying to get ahead, be unified and use all their resources and creative capabilities. “The question,’’ Papa said, “is when do people come out of their homes again? How do you do that without a vaccine? “The fans are going to have to trust that it’s a safe environment.”

“If you’re the NFL, how do you have a season?” When the fans are allowed inside, that is.

President Donald Trump said recently that he hoped the NFL would start Dr. Anthony Fauci, head of the National Institute for Allergy and on time in September. The comment received immediate pushback from Infectious Diseases, suggested recently that sports could return California Gov. Gavin Newsom, who said he wasn’t “anticipating that sometime this summer — but without spectators. All the restart models happening in this state.” under consideration by the NBA and MLB feature competitive settings that are closed to the public. Major League Baseball reportedly has discussed a plan to quarantine every team in Arizona and play games at spring training ballparks with no Of all the leagues, the NFL is best positioned to play in front of empty fans. seats.

Another idea under consideration, according to USA Today, is to stage Each franchise receives about $255 million annually in television revenue games in Arizona and Florida, with revamped divisions based on each and spends approximately $200 million on player payroll, according to team’s spring training home. In that arrangement, the Giants and A’s figures provided by Navigate Research, a sports and entertainment would be grouped together — with the Cubs — in the Cactus League’s analytics firm whose clients include the NFL, NASCAR, ESPN and Northeast division. Comcast.

The NBA is mulling whether to move its playoffs to Las Vegas this That’s $55 million in positive contribution margin for each of the 32 summer, possibly with makeshift courts constructed in casino ballrooms, teams, excluding salaries for staff. according to ESPN. Commissioner Adam Silver, on a conference call But MLB franchises lack a comparable path to profitability in a world with Trump, emphasized the major sports leagues’ desire to lead society without ticket, beer and peanut sales. They collect about $100 million in back to life. But Silver acknowledged this weekend that the NBA “is not in TV revenue but have $100 million in payroll, according to Navigate. a position to make any decisions” at the moment. “The NFL can play with no fans, with no ticket sales,’’ said AJ Maestas, Nor does Silver know when decision time will arrive. Navigate’s founder and CEO. “Whatever shape or form it takes,” said Tim Roye, the Warriors’ play-by- “They would still get money for licensing, ad sales and TV. The teams play announcer, “sports will be as important, or more important, than can pay the players and be profitable. So why in the world would a before. When we get back to playing games, get back to our normal lives conservative league risk (putting fans in the stands)? — and it might be a new normal – sports will help with the healing process.” “Baseball is the most dependent on ticketing. It’s the most at-risk of the pro leagues. The NBA completed most of its regular season, so its It has in the past. haircut won’t be that painful.” For the first World Series game after the 1989 Loma Prieta earthquake, Maestas believes professional sports will return this summer, even if it 62,038 fans jammed Candlestick Park to watch the Giants and A’s. means playing games in empty stadiums. A crowd of 67,536 was in Candlestick to watch the 49ers’ first game after “The ecosystem is such that nobody gets paid if they don’t play: the 9/11 attacks. Comcast, ESPN, the players, the owners,’’ he said. “The incentive But coronavirus is neither a singular nor regional event. structure is aligned so that there’s no money for anybody.”

How many will stroll into Levi’s Stadium when the gates finally open? He’s less confident that college football will return this fall.

How many will walk through the Chase Center’s doors? Teams typically begin training camp in early August. Unless the campuses themselves reopen for business — unless the classrooms are “If we get to the point when the green light is punched, how are they deemed safe for lectures — it’s unlikely that university presidents will getting people back to the venues, from the Little League fields to the allow athletes to congregate. Super Bowl?” said Andy Dolich, the Bay Area sports-marketing expert who served as an executive with the 49ers, Warriors and A’s. “The collegiate world is completely different,’’ Maestas said. “It is by far the most at-risk in this.” When the arena doors and stadium gates eventually open across the sports world, how many fans will cross the threshold?

Will they spend four hours on a Sunday afternoon in cozy confines with 60,000 strangers?

What if the person in the next seat sneezes?

What if the person behind you in line coughs?

“It’s not going to be like at the end of World War II, when you come out and kiss the girl in the street,’’ Papa said. “It’s going to change our lives.”

Teams could place hand-sanitizing stations 10 feet apart throughout the concourse level.

They could require temperature checks at the security gates.

They could sell tickets to every other seat, or every third seat, in order to maintain social distancing.

But unless there’s a vaccine, those measures might feel insufficient compared to the potential for contagion.

“Sports is a celebration in the town square, however you want to define it — a stadium, a ballpark,” Dolich said. “Right now, the town square is closed.

“The system has suffered a serious injury. What’s the recovery? I don’t think anybody can say that.

“Think of all the playbooks everybody has, but nobody has a pandemic playbook.”

San Jose Mercury News: LOADED: 04.20.2020 1183192 San Jose Sharks

Sharks interim coach Bob Boughner discusses offseason roster improvements

By Alex Didion April 19, 2020 4:17 PM

Anyone within the Sharks organization would tell you that last season didn’t go exactly as planned.

After a run to the Western Conference Final in 2018-19, San Jose stumbled out of the gate, leading to the eventual sacking of coach Peter DeBoer.

Interim coach Bob Boughner took over on Dec. 11, and while the team wasn’t able to climb back near the top of the standings, there were plenty of positive signs from Boughner’s group prior to the coronavirus stoppage.

Looking ahead to next season -- whenever that can happen -- the coach has some ideas for how the roster could improve.

“We’d love to probably add another top-6 forward or another depth defenseman,” Boughner told NBC Sports California’s Brodie Brazil. “You lose guys like Goodrow and Marleau and (Brenden Dillon) on the back end things like that, those guys aren’t easily replaced.

“More than anything though, I really like the parts we have here. And, I really think that we need to get back to playing responsible, there’s gotta be an emphasis on accountability.”

Goodrow was traded in February to the Tampa Bay Lightning, while Marleau was about to wrap up his 22nd NHL season with the Pittsburgh Penguins after a deadline deal. Dillon, even after an emotional press conference on the idea of being moved, was sent to the Capitals on Feb. 18.

San Jose was at the bottom of the Pacific Division standings when the season stopped with 63 points, just one behind the Los Angeles Kings.

Comcast SportsNet.com LOADED: 04.20.2020 1183193 St Louis Blues tell story after story about a kid who didn’t know how to skate to a kid who never had been part of a team. It’s extraordinary.

And, of course, there’s the great story of Ron Tetreault, known as “The Started by Sansone Jr., Blues Special Hockey gives St. Louisans on-ice Hugger.” opportunities “We get penalty shots in a tournament,” Sansone recalled. “It’s a big deal. And it gets intense, parents are still parents. We do the alternating shots. And it comes down to our stud. And here he comes, rambling 5 hrs ago 0 down the ice. He goes short side, shoots, scores! Light goes on. What does he do? Goes back to the goalie and squeezes the goalie with a Benjamin Hochman bear hug. He goes: ‘Coach, I felt bad — he was crying.’”

So many volunteers and contributors have touched the program, starting Tony Sansone Jr. kept seeing the same kid. with Sansone, Chase and Hermann, to Diane Marquart and Al Garard, all the way to Randy Girsch and Tim and Debbie Deimeke today. All their It was at an outdoor rink in Kirkwood. It was really early in the mornings. work also pays homage to those involved who have since passed, such It was really cold. as Sansone’s wife, Peggy.

“I think his lips were stuck to the Plexiglas, he would not take his eyes off “And unfortunately we’ve had some deaths of players,” Sansone said. “Of the goalie, he was just fascinated,” Sansone recalled. “I go, ‘Hey there, the deaths, half of them were dressed in their Gateway Locomotive what are you doing?’ And he says, ‘Watching my brother play hockey.’ I sweaters. That’s how they’re laid to rest.” go, ‘Why aren’t you out there playing?’ He goes, ‘Oh, they won’t let me play.’ In 2020, the sports world has stopped. In time, there will be signs of normalcy. And one will be that first day the Blues Special Hockey players “That’s all he said, and it hit me. He’s got to play. Someway, somehow.” put on their sweaters for practices and games.

And on Jan. 31, 1994, Sansone let the kid play. And dozens of others. “I love the responses that you see on the ice, just watching these kids The number soon grew to hundreds of young people. And then, even score goals,” Hermann said. “The first thing they do is they look up in the hundreds more. With the help of then-Blues player and stands to see if mom and dad are watching. Then they go into their goal- others in the sports and business communities, Sansone started an on- scoring celebrations, just like you see on TV when a Blues player scores program for St. Louisans with developmental disabilities. a goal. It’s just seeing that response, seeing that excitement and the smiles on their faces. That’s what really endears you to them. They have “The biggest group of players have autism, somewhere on the spectrum no prejudices, no biases. They just love life. They want be treated like from Asperger’s (syndrome) and very communicative to even non- every other child is treated. And that’s what we try to do.” communicative,” said Jim Hermann, who’s been involved with the program since that first day. “And then the second group would be the St Louis Post Dispatch LOADED: 04.20.2020 Down syndrome players. And then we also have players who for whatever reason had developmentally delayed issues or severe A.D.D. issues. . . .

“There’s a very wide range of hockey skill levels, from those who can just barely skate to those who can skate quite well. The overall goal was to put them in a situation where they were going to be successful. By doing that, we build their self confidence, we build their self esteem.”

The year 2020 is one of celebration for the program, originally called Gateway Locomotives. It now is, under the umbrella of the St. Louis Blues, called Blues Special Hockey. This August, Sansone will be inducted in the St. Louis Amateur . But also in 2020, there have been celebrations ceased. Blues Special Hockey was scheduled to send three teams to Pittsburgh for the Disabled Hockey Festival, a beautiful experience for players involved with special hockey, blind hockey, sled hockey, standing/amputee hockey, warrior hockey and deaf/hard of hearing hockey. This 12-day event was canceled because of the coronavirus pandemic.

It’s an emotional setback, but hopefully temporary for these other St. Louisans wearing the blue note who want to see their dreams through.

Back in 1994, in the beginning, Chase and his Blues teammates helped the Locomotives, a team nickname cooked up by Sansone’s son, who honored the book: “The Little Engine That Could.”

“Man, there were no egos,” Sansone said. “They were just there and it was the most-remarkable thing. (Blues players) Curtis Joseph, Basil McRae, Brendan Shanahan, they all did their part. The most humble, kindest guys you’d ever want to meet. And not only were they on the ice — and I get emotional when I think about it — but they helped dress these kids in hockey uniforms, they tied their skates, they cleaned their skates.”

Blues players and management have been involved in different capacities over the decades, everything from David Backes donating $40,000 for equipment to Alex Pietrangelo hosting the players to Bobby Plager, unannounced, showing up to the banquets to meet the Locomotives players. And at last year’s banquet, Hermann said, the Blues’ organization announced a 10-year financial commitment to Blues Special Hockey.

Some of the original participants, such as Dan Haynes and Donald Ringling, are playing in the program today. And so many others have grown to play hockey. Grown because of hockey. Sansone and Hermann 1183194 St Louis Blues We see numbers — more than 700,000 cases and 34,000 deaths in the U.S. — and lines on graphs.

They see faces, families. Health care heroes deserve first round of applause when sports crowds Every day, they encounter moments that threaten to break them, return followed by moments that remind them why they would never do anything else, and then they go back to work the next day and do it all over again. 17 hrs ago Griffin is in charge of scheduling and supporting a group of 100-plus Ben Frederickson nurses across two emergency rooms. She makes sure the nurses under her supervision are doing everything possible to protect themselves while

protecting others. She sometimes has to be the conduit between sick Iwould not normally write about one of my wife’s co-workers. patients and panicked families who must keep their distance due to the contagiousness of the virus. She has been working 13-hour days while That would tend to be a conflict of interest. missing her four daughters, but she can’t always see them when she’s off, because she wants to minimize the chances of exposing them to the But things aren’t exactly normal, are they? virus. Grandma has been helping out a lot. It’s hard. So, I’m breaking the rules to tell you about Breanne Griffin, and about “They don’t understand,” Griffin said. “They don’t want me to get sick.” what it’s like when your family is full of health care heroes like her during a global pandemic. Anyone with a loved one on the inside can relate. Selfishly, we wish they would just stay home. And yet we know they won’t. I’m making one request, too. Griffin can share highs that make your hair stand on end, like the joy of We don’t know when sports events in front of crowds will return, but I watching a reunion between a wife who spent nights on a ventilator and a know what should happen when they do. husband who spent nights waiting by a phone, hoping he had not hugged When the crowds come back, we should send our nurses and doctors his love for the last time. and first responders out to the Busch Stadium baselines and let cheers She can share lows that make you cry the tears she does not have time rain down upon them. for, because another life is on the line. We should welcome them onto the Enterprise Center ice, invite them When asked what keeps her going, Griffin shared a story. onto Faurot Field with a Marching Mizzou accompaniment, parade them around World Wide Technology Raceway before the green flag. A young nurse Griffin works with reported for a shift on Easter Sunday. She was assigned to help look after an elderly woman who was losing Let’s use sports to thank our health care heroes. Again and again and her fight with coronavirus. The patient’s family members made the again. decision to stop the use of a ventilator and maximize comfort, but they We should dedicate games to doctors who are fighting coronavirus in were not going to be able to travel from out of state in time to say rural exam rooms and overwhelmed nursing homes. goodbye in person. So, the young nurse stayed in the room to hold a hand until the end. The young nurse returned for her next shift, and the We should dedicate games to nurses who are pinning pictures of their next. It’s what they do. faces to their gowns so scared patients know there’s a smile behind that N95 mask. “We are not saving everyone,” Griffin said. “But we are there when they need us.” We should dedicate games to paramedics who every day rush toward situations the rest of us pray to avoid. Griffin and her teammates have started celebrating when a patient beats coronavirus, lining the hospital halls to cheer triumphant exits. We should dedicate a game to Breanne Griffin. Let’s borrow that idea for when sports can draw crowds again. “I’ve been a nurse for 16 years,” said the network nurse manager for emergency services at St. Luke’s Hospital. “It is ingrained in you to care Let’s stand and let our health care heroes hear our gratitude. for people, to save people, or if it’s the end of someone’s life, to be there Again and again and again. for them.” St Louis Post Dispatch LOADED: 04.20.2020 I heard about Griffin’s heroics from my wife, Cassandra, who works in the St. Luke’s marketing department.

I would not normally write about one of my wife’s co-workers.

I would not normally write about my own family.

But things aren’t exactly normal, and it doesn’t feel right to always stick to sports when so many of my loved ones are up there with Griffin on the front lines of this fight.

My dad, a doctor, recently sent me a photo of himself in a mask and face shield. I was both proud and terrified. I could tell he was smiling.

My mother-in-law, a nurse, didn’t think twice about accepting shifts in the intensive care unit.

My father-in-law, a doctor, and his wife, a nurse practitioner, report to work at the same emergency room.

Both of my brothers-in-law have sisters who are nurses. One has tested positive for coronavirus.

I tell them they are amazing. They say they are just doing their jobs.

I have talked to these family members enough to realize there are things those of us on the outside looking in cannot know.

Most of us can’t really understand the joy of helping someone beat this thing. Most of us can’t really comprehend the pain of the alternative. 1183195 Tampa Bay Lightning discount on curbside orders, and all wines are 30 percent off, according to their website.

During his self-quarantine, Lightning center Anthony Cirelli has tried to A guide to the Tampa Bay dining (and takeout) scene, courtesy of the improve his cooking skills. His parents had sent him to Tampa with “The Lightning Taste of Home Cookbook,” published by the magazine “Taste of Home.” His mother, Maria, also sends frozen batches of her red sauce.

Cirelli has some go-to meals he makes, like salmon and rice (“ask By Joe Smith Apr 19, 2020 Brayden Point about it”) and chicken parmesan. But when Cirelli orders in or goes out, he listed Bavaro’s as one of his favorite spots (along with

Bella’s). TAMPA, Fla. — When Lightning defenseman Braydon Coburn and his “It sucks (not to be able to visit those restaurants),” Cirelli said. “But I’m wife, Nadine, were looking for a takeout option for dinner recently, they learning some cooking skills, which I think will help me out later in life.” went with one of their go-to spots. Bavaro’s is closed Sunday and Monday but is open from 11 a.m-3 p.m. Forbici. and 5-9 p.m. for takeout/curbside. There’s a modified menu on their It’s an Italian restaurant in Hyde Park that they frequent. Their kids, 8- website. There’s also a St. Pete location that is still open (945 Central; year-old daughter Rory and 6-year-old son Blair, love their pizzas. And 727-258-7517). during a coronavirus quarantine, it’s nice to have something that makes American Social you remember the normal times. But Coburn said they got a surprise on this delivery. 601 South Harbor Island Blvd., Tampa (813-285-7757)

“It was so funny,” Coburn said. “We got our food and opened it, and with This is a pretty fun spot, a little more upscale, but high energy, with a all the containers, they had a roll of toilet paper in there. I thought it was a sports bar and music. There’s takeout and delivery from 11:30 a.m. to 9 great touch. I’m a big fan of Forbici.” p.m. daily, and the restaurant says to check out Uber Eats or Door Dash for deliveries. There are daily specials on Instagram I reached out to a collection of current Lightning, former players and (Americansocial_Tampa), too. media members, and many graciously agreed to share their favorite establishments in the area. I also tried to find updated information on American Social is where BriseBois and the scouting staff went a few each place’s hours and takeout and delivery options. Some seem to be times when they were in Tampa for the annual scouting meetings in surviving on a week-to-week, or even day-to-day basis. If you can January. support any of these places through takeout or delivery, every meal helps. Buying gift cards to use once we are allowed to dine in again is “They have a great Cobb salad and excellent BBQ pork belly,” BriseBois also a great idea. said.

Captain Steven Stamkos has four favorite places in Tampa. General This is one of the two main places Stamkos goes out to dinner. “I get the manager Julien BriseBois has found one, too. There’s a place where tomahawk ribeye and crab-fried rice,” he said. longtime play-by-play broadcaster always goes for special It’s a great steakhouse with quality seafood, too. It’s a little more on the celebrations. fancy side. Here’s their guide to Tampa Bay dining! Right now, they have a takeout menu that includes a “family dinner for Forbici four” option and hand-carved steaks you can grill yourself. They’ve also helped sponsor meals for first-responders, where they’ll pay for half. 1633 W. Snow Ave., Tampa (813-251-8001) They’ve sponsored a weekly local firehouse, too.

The toilet paper touch has been a regular feature at Forbici’s, at least for On Swann orders of $40 or more. 1501 W. Swann Ave., Tampa (813-251-0110) Jason Brunetti, one of the restaurant’s partners, said they started it a few weeks ago when there was more of a scarcity. “Nobody else was doing A really good date spot in South Tampa, On Swann features it,” he said. “So we surprised our guests.” contemporary American cuisine with really good cocktails and a fun vibe. They’re doing a curbside takeout menu from Tuesday-Saturday from 11 The restaurant is still doing to-go orders, which you can make by phone a.m.-8 p.m. That menu features everything from shrimp and grits to or online, from 11:30 a.m.-9 p.m. on Sunday, Monday and Tuesday, and pasta, Portuguese chicken and beef ribeye. There are family-style meals, 11:30 a.m.-10 p.m. the rest of the week. There’s a streamlined menu, too, and cheeseboards available. which is cut down a bit, but the heart of their Italian favorites are still there. Stamkos said it’s one of his favorite spots for dinner. His entree of choice is either the chicken sandwich or ribeye. They’ve done a lot of catering for charities, donating money to the front- liners at hospitals and public-service workers. There’s a weekly donation Parkshore Grill for underprivileged kids, a whole meal plan, called “Starting Right Now,” 300 Beach Drive Northeast, St. Petersburg (727-896-9463) according to Brunetti. They had to have furloughs, too, going from 90 active employees to around 30. As someone who lives in St. Pete, let’s not forget the other side of the bay. Parkshore is one of many great restaurants on Beach Drive by the But the restaurant is a favorite of many athletes, including Coburn and waterfront — along with a great Italian spot called BellaBrava. fellow Lightning defenseman Luke Schenn. “My favorite thing from there is meatballs and calamari,” Schenn said. Parkshore is one of the top spots for Lightning color analyst , a two-time Stanley Cup champion. His girlfriend, Laurie, loves “(Bucs tight end) Cameron Brate comes in,” Brunetti said. “Coburn the carpaccio. “Their lobster pasta is to die for!” he said. “Their lobster comes in, Stamkos comes in. Sometimes, Bucs players come in after the toast is awesome.” games on Sunday. A big group of them.” They’re only offering curbside service at the moment, from 5-7:30 p.m. Whenever I have a meal with Lightning founder Phil Esposito, Bella’s is Monday-Thursday and 5-8 p.m. on Friday and Saturday. They are closed one of his first suggestions. on Sunday. Their menu is on their website. Stamkos said it’s one place he frequents for lunch (along with Another place I’ve grown to love is Beau & Mo’s (2924 5th Ave. N, St. Timpano’s), when he usually gets chicken and a caesar salad. It’s a Pete, 727-771-3690), a Chicago-style steakhouse that is serving takeout smaller, charming Italian spot with tasty entrees and bread, as well as a from 5-8 p.m. My wife surprised me with dinner from here for my birthday bar. They’ve changed their hours during this shutdown, doing takeout a few weeks ago, and their ribeye was fantastic (charred on the outside and curbside from 4-9:45 p.m. They’re offering the same updated menu but so favorable). all week, including cocktails, wine and beer. There’s a 10-percent Peckham and his wife, Vicki, live up in Wesley Chapel, and they usually go to Grillsmith, but their celebratory spot is Bern’s Steakhouse, which is still doing carry-out, though you’ll have to bring your wallet and appetite for that one.

Lightning coach Jon Cooper, who has a home in Anna Maria Island where his family is quarantining, suggested a few spots there. He likes breakfast at Minnie’s (“Amazing waffles and sand-dollar breakfast.”), lunch at Duffy’s Tavern (“An old car-service station turned into a bar/restaurant. Awesome place for a burger and a beer or two.”) and dinner at Sandbar (casual) or Beach Bistro (“Awesome food and view. Definitely a special-occasion place.”).

“There are a few restaurants I make a point of trying to get takeout from, just so you can try to help do your part,” Cooper said. “It’s more just the atmosphere and experience that my wife (Jess) and I miss. You’re used to traveling a lot during the season and eating out so much that you can’t wait for home-cooked meals. Now during this, it’s been the opposite. You’re begging to go to the restaurant and not having one of us cook the meals.”

The Athletic LOADED: 04.20.2020 1183196 “Canada is in much better shape than many of the states,” McEwan said. “Some are better than others.”

While Yankee Stadium is projected to be at an infectious rate 0.02 per Canada Day time to celebrate for sports fans? One Vegas oddsmaker cent by July 1, stadiums in Minnesota, Philadelphia and Washington calls it ‘very reasonable’ would be at more than two per cent, Miami more than 13 per cent.

Teams based in what could still be pandemic hotspots in the summer, such as Florida and Washington, might not be able to hold any home By Kevin McGran games.

Fri., April 17, 2020 “At a high level, July 1 seems safe for most,” said McEwan, “but a couple of places will present a problem.”

Toronto Star LOADED: 04.20.2020 Given the odds of contracting the coronavirus in a packed , or even a half-full Rogers Centre, professional sports shouldn’t rush what it hopes will be a return to normal.

Sports Betting Dime, a Las Vegas-based oddsmaker, has used mathematical wizardry usually reserved for over/unders or point spreads to look at how infectious COVID-19 could be in a stadium setting. July 1 might be the earliest safe date for Canadians to attend games, while some jurisdictions in the United States may need to wait even later.

“The message is: hold off,” said Matt McEwan, editor in chief of Sports Betting Dime’s website and the mathematician behind the projections. “Give it time. It doesn’t need that much more time ... Based on everything we’re doing right now, the social distancing and quarantining and self- isolation, if we continue doing this and we continue doing what the medical professionals are saying, July 1 looks very reasonable.

“So it’s: Hold off, because if we started early and the cases ramp back up again, we’d potentially cause a second peak and the seasons would be done, and then potentially the 2020-21 seasons are in jeopardy, too.”

A multitude of factors will go into restarting pro sports. Leagues could go with no fans in the stands, or at neutral sites that are relatively free of COVID-19. The border would have to reopen.

McEwan, based in Kingston, Ont., wanted to reach out to his betting- based audience to explain how a pandemic works, using odds to explain why it’s better to wait before fans start repacking stadiums.

“I wanted to settle people down ... who want to go to events now, and also give people a little bit of hope here,” McEwan said. “For September, things are looking good. That can change. (The NFL) season still looks like a go as of right now.”

He ran the numbers for the Maple Leafs, Blue Jays, Raptors, Canadiens and Canucks using: average attendance; the coronavirus reproduction factor of 2.5; current provincial estimates about the peaks in Toronto, Vancouver and Montreal; and some proprietary logic. He factored in that baseball fans can spread out a bit in larger stadiums and go to concession stands at a different rate than hockey or basketball fans, who are more likely to go during an intermission or at halftime.

Here’s a look at some of the numbers:

If the Jays drew 21,606 fans (last season’s average) to the 49,282-seat Rogers Centre on June 1, McEwan’s data suggests 453 people would be infected, putting the chances of catching COVID-19 at 2.11 per cent. By June 15, those numbers drop to 113 fans or 0.53 per cent. On July 1, it’s 51 people or 0.24 per cent.

A Leafs game on June 1 is projected to infect 405 fans (2.12 per cent) with 19,301 in attendance — their average this season. It drops to 101 (0.53 per cent) on June 15, and 46 (0.24 per cent) on July 1. The Raptors’ numbers are almost identical.

The Toronto projections are better than those in Vancouver and Montreal because Toronto is expected to hit its COVID-19 peak earlier.

Montreal, with 21,273 fans, would have a 23.04 per cent infectious rate on June 1 (4,470 infections), dropping to 2.14 per cent (447) by July 1. Vancouver, with 18,910 fans, would go from 13.82 per cent (2,452) to 0.53 per cent (98).

“You look at that June 1 date and a lot of cities are looking at a 20-per- cent-plus chance of getting infected,” McEwan said. “That’s far too high. That’s one game. If you’re having a full season, and 20 per cent are leaving newly infected each time, you’ll wind up with the whole stadium infected.”

The numbers in the U.S. aren’t as promising. 1183197 Toronto Maple Leafs who weren’t picked in the top 50 in their draft year? How many goalies? How many non-Stanley Cup winners? How many players taken from 2010 on?

Crosby? Ovechkin? Our all-time NHL redraft dream team starts with Some of this is based on factual accomplishment, some on subjective Super Mario — let the debate begin opinion. It’s nice to be able to say I saw every one of these players play, and most of them live at least once. But I certainly still have my biases, and comparing players who starred in the 1970s — with the equipment available to them then — with players of today isn’t easy. Would Mike By Damien Cox Bossy have scored the same number of goals with one of today’s sticks Sun., April 19, 2020 against the overinflated Michelin Man netminders of the past 20 years? Who knows?

So here’s my top 31. Remember, players never drafted aren’t eligible. We live in a sports world without a present these days. Either we’re reviewing the past, such as old Masters tournaments and Michael You’ll still find plenty to disagree with. Jordan’s career, or we’re imagining some unusual future, such as NHL After Lemieux, for me it’s Mark Messier, and Nicklas isolation games in North Dakota or how we’ll feel one day standing closer Lidstrom, then Sidney Crosby. Imagine that. The city of Pittsburgh was than six feet behind some Bubba who’s coughing up a storm as he waits blessed with two of the top five players ever drafted. to buy a hot dog. Alexander Ovechkin, the greatest goal scorer of the modern era, comes There is no now. No today. No anticipating the big game later on this in at No. 9, after both Bossy and Guy Lafleur. evening. It’s about what happened before, or what may happen one day. Originally, I had Connor McDavid much higher, and if we do this list again There’s no way around it at the moment. So, might as well join in. in 10 years my guess is he’ll be in the top five. Looking back at NHL drafts has always been a personal hobby: the what Two of the most difficult choices came at Nos. 29 and 31, when I went ifs and if onlys of the decisions made by teams that did or did not work with Gilbert Perreault and Marcel Dionne. Perreault, first overall in the out in their favour. You know, like what happens if the Habs take Denis 1970 draft, is my most subjective pick. He didn’t win many awards or any Savard or Paul Coffey instead of Doug Wickenheiser in 1980. Or how if Stanley Cups, but I remember what a dominant, elegant player he was. you did the entire 2010 draft over again, the No. 16 pick (Vladimir And Dionne, the second pick in ’71? The numbers are just too Tarasenko) might well have gone first overall. outstanding to ignore. Living in Toronto, one could spend an entire day imagining the different It was tempting to pick , because he’s going to be that paths the Maple Leafs might have taken if they’d selected Bobby Clarke good, and difficult to leave off Jonathan Toews. Zdeno Chara, too. in 1969. Or any one of , Rod Brind’Amour and Teemu Selanne instead of Scott Pearson in ’88. It comes down to tough choices, and your list will undoubtedly be different. Let the discussion begin. What I had never contemplated, however, until being awarded all this extra time, was the entirety of the draft over the years. In other words, Toronto Star LOADED: 04.20.2020 imagine throwing all the draft-eligible players in the history of the NHL into one big bucket, then picking them one at a time.

The project evokes one of the many great lines from the golf movie classic “Tin Cup.”

Roy McAvoy: Hey, you ever shoot par with a seven iron?

David Simms: Hell, Roy, it never occurred to me to try.

Point taken. Then again, seeing as how those of us not battling this terrible virus on the front lines — and God bless those brave folks — or suddenly forced to home school a nine-year-old might have a little extra time on our hands to stare into space and consider all sorts of unusual things, let’s give it a go.

For starters, the rules.

Before 1970, there was no true universal draft. Even in 1968 and 1969, Montreal was given picks before every else as the league phased out the old junior sponsorship system. So this all-time NHL draft begins with 1970 and, for the purposes of this exercise, ends with 2016. Players in the most recent three drafts just have hadn’t the opportunity to full demonstrate their capabilities yet.

That’s 47 drafts to pick from. The other consideration concerns all the players who became prominent NHLers or even superstars in the ’70s or later who were never drafted in the universal system. That list includes Wayne Gretzky, Bobby Orr, Peter Stastny, Brad Park, Ken Dryden, Frank Mahovlich, Jacques Lemaire, Serge Savard, Guy Lapointe, Phil Esposito, Borje Salming and Adam Oates. Plus the aforementioned Clarke from Flin Flon, Man.

So those players aren’t eligible for our draft, either. Don’t worry, it’s still going to be plenty tough.

We’re going to have a first round of 31 picks, the number in the current draft.

Those rules, however, pretty much guarantee Mario Lemieux the No. 1 slot. Hard to argue that one. No. 66 did it all, even with his career interrupted by illness and injuries.

There are lots of intriguing questions to ask even before you start to put together a list. How many first overall picks make it? How many players 1183198 Washington Capitals

Travis Boyd shows off his incredible new painting and his quarantine hair

By J.J. Regan April 19, 2020 4:10 PM

There are a lot of things that stink about being stuck at home because of the coronavirus, including what it is doing to our hair.

Without being able to go to the barbershop, many people, myself included, are losing control of what's going on up top. Maybe you were lucky and got it cut just before everything was shut down, but the longer this goes on, the crazier our hair is going to get. Just ask Capitals forward Travis Boyd.

Most Caps fans have by now heard of Taylor Kampa Olson. Even if you haven't, you've probably seen her work. She is the extremely talented artist and Caps fan who is best known by Washington sports fans for her paintings of the Caps winning the Stanley Cup. Her latest masterpiece is a painting of Boyd hoisting the Cup, which was a gift to him from his long- time girlfriend, Kelsey DeGonda.

This coronavirus must be stopped, not just for the health and safety of our loved ones, but also for the sake of our hair!

Comcast SportsNet.com LOADED: 04.20.2020 1183199 Websites the one after), gave great insight into the other kinds of stakes that can be at play when a team isn’t fighting for the division, conference or league’s top spots. There may not be relegation in the NHL, but there are ice time and contracts and jobs and reputations and relationships and The Athletic / Bourne: NHL is built for a season-long docu-series like heavily invested fans that make every season interesting for every team, ‘Sunderland ’Til I Die’ if you know enough about what’s really going on. (The fan thing is worth noting, as it was a super-intriguing part of the Sunderland doc. Could a

camera crew select a few hardcore season-ticket holders to be a part of By Justin Bourne Apr 19, 2020 a season-long NHL show?)

It also doesn’t seem unlikely to me that there’d be interest in making a season-long doc about an NHL franchise. There’s a uniqueness to Sports fans are getting desperate. Slowly but surely, the games we loved hockey that brings curiosity from outsiders, and those who are already got cancelled at exactly the climax of the sporting calendar, shoving us fans would salivate at the chance for something more in-depth. I also directly into the time of year most of us loathe: the sports dead zone. think that although “24/7” demonstrated where hockey can be tribal, with That’s usually late July, early August, when the NHL’s calendar is in its fans focusing heavily on just their own team, well-produced looks at other deepest state of hibernation, the NFL isn’t back yet, the NBA is long gone clubs can be deemed worthwhile for all fans. There’s little doubt in my and just as long from returning and baseball isn’t yet into playoffs. mind there’d be an audience for this.

Only it’s been far worse than the usual dead zone, for obvious reasons As plain as I can be, then: An NHL team should sign up to be followed for we don’t need to get into. an entire season as part of a docu-series that wouldn’t run in numerous parts until after the season ended. So as I said off the top, we’ve gotten desperate. Gamblers are literally betting on simulated games. While I share that passion, I’ve chosen to Let’s address the two biggest questions you’d likely have: aim it differently: I’ve been watching sports documentaries, and more recently, sports “docu-series.” It’s not exactly the real stuff, but it’s doing 1. Why would an NHL team agree to do that? The thing is, an “NHL more than just staving off withdrawals. It’s actually been pretty team” doesn’t need to decide to do this. Just one team owner or fascinating. ownership group does. The league would almost certainly agree provided it had some sway over how it looks in the end (which I’ll get to next), so it My sporting interests are pretty heavily North American, but I had a friend would just come down to an owner wanting to do it. And I think a lot of with common interests tell me the Netflix series “F1: Drive to Survive” owners would or at least should. was a must-watch, and I’m here, in turn, telling you the exact thing. It was riveting. It was one of those shows that when it ended, I had that “well, For one, there’s money involved. You don’t agree to be the subject of a what do I do with my life now?” moments that happen when all great documentary as an unpaid volunteer. (It was leaked that Amazon paid series ends — books, movies or otherwise. I spent some time looking Man City about $12.5 million USD for the access. Two years later, it’s not into and getting excited about when “F1” comes back, then immediately impossible to see someone paying $5 million or more to an NHL team, is searching for my next docu-fix. it?)

I’ll steer clear of this becoming a review of random sports docs, but I But the biggest thing is that getting fans familiar with the people behind should note that two of them — specifically the also-excellent the visors (and those in the front office) is the key to forming the deeper “Sunderland ’Til I Die” from Netflix but also “All or Nothing” on connections that make fans diehards, that keep fans engaged even when Manchester City from Amazon — had me thinking about how things aren’t going well, that guarantee they’ll want to be a part of underserved hockey fans are when it comes to season-long whatever event you dream up when things are going well. (And it doesn’t documentaries. Over that period of time, numerous questions can be hurt the bottom line, either.) asked and answered, and you’re able to focus on what really ends up Yes, there would be some stuff that wouldn’t look great for the team; mattering, rather than day-to-day overreactions. Big-picture thinking has that’s inevitable. There are daily decisions to be made in hockey that time to play out. Breaking down full seasons into a digestible length (call even Cup-winning teams get wrong. But I think that only serves to it an hour a month?) is a concept perfectly suited to capturing the ups humanize the whole process and brings an understanding of thought and downs of a single team’s NHL season. processes, furthering the deeper connection with fans. (I also think it Both of those aforementioned soccer documentaries follow the clubs highlights how many daily and weekly decisions get made, which should from the beginning of the season through the conclusion, taking you excuse a few given the sheer quantity.) behind the scenes to catch the emotion of how people felt in The 2. How do you keep it from being edited into an all-bubblegum NHL Moments, rather than how they feel reflecting on The Moments. I think commercial? Assuming the NHL would want some say in what the final that’s an important difference that eliminates potential revisionist history. I product would look like, how do you keep them from putting out some recognize that in almost every case, the team or the league has to at sort of state-approved propaganda series? The exact answer of the how, least somewhat vet what gets shown, so you don’t get all the good stuff, I freely acknowledge not knowing. That’s up to those on the legal side in but even with that, you’d get a better sense for the internal hurdles a terms of how they negotiate the agreement. But there are enough docu- team had to overcome (and that applies most specifically to how the series that don’t polish things up too much that we should be hopeful it personalities involved handled the cards they were dealt). can be done (Sunderland actually agreed to a second season, despite That’s one of the areas the NHL and its fans have long identified as the debacles of the first). There has to be some sliding scale in terms of lacking: the exposure of the players’ personalities. In a game so fast, with what a documentary producer would be willing to pay versus who has the visors on, in a culture that frowns on overt shows of individuality, the final say on what. Dollars equal access and editorial control, and some of players often come off as interesting as oatmeal, if you get any taste at these producers (like Netflix) have thrown scads of money at bigger all for what they’re really like. Creating that personal investment in the projects like what we’re talking about here. players is something teams should value. And I promise you, there are That detail is huge in terms of the quality of the finished product. That big personalities underneath all that gear and those “pucks in deep” Manchester City documentary is steps behind the Sunderland one quotes. Not with everyone, obviously, but a daily behind-the-scenes look because it feels a little too polished and perfect. (I recognize the would at least give a clearer picture of who’s actually oatmeal and who differences in team success and organizational … well, everything, has a little of that fajita sizzle. contribute to that, but there’s no doubt the Sunderland doc lets you in Many years ago, the NHL hit an absolute home run with “24/7: Road to more.) the Winter Classic,” but ultimately, with each additional Classic (and the As I’ve been saying: The exposure of some negative details doesn’t addition of so many other outdoor games with less-marquee teams) the mean negative big-picture outcomes for a club. It can help people realize stakes of the game started to diminish, the payoff of the series did the how hard it is along the way and appreciate the positive outcomes even same, and the show lost its lustre. In a season-long affair, the lustre more. As in our own relationships, some of our strongest bonds come comes from the different stakes at the different spots on the calendar, with those we accept as imperfect. from making the team to the trade deadline to the playoff push and more. Then there’s one more question that seems relevant while I’m trying to I think, in particular, the documentary on Sunderland FC, which followed wish this into existence: the team in its first season after relegation from the Premier League (and 3. Which team is best suited for such a thing? No hedge from me there: The answer is Carolina.

These sorts of things generate new fans all over the world (for example, I absolutely find myself rooting for Sunderland now, despite what it has become), something that should appeal to a smaller-market team. The Carolina organization has shown that it’s willing to do things a little differently, as it was an early adopter of analytics, and the Hurricanes have an owner who’s been willing to march to the beat of his own drum. I also think they’d welcome the extra dough (who wouldn’t?).

It’s a younger team that would likely be more comfortable with such a concept than a bunch of old vets. Age dictates that Hurricanes players are more familiar with social media and more accepting of cameras everywhere (and that so much more of their lives is shared than in generations past). They’re also very good, fairly Cup contenders I’d say, and at least good enough that the odds of going through a miserable lottery-pick type of season are extremely unlikely. They just seem like the perfect fit to me.

Of course, it would be great for any team. It just makes the most sense for a team like the Canes.

NHL teams have recognized the need for something like this before and have produced their own soft-focus versions of behind-the-scenes shows. And even in team hands, a few of those have had interesting moments (there are a number of fans who will tell you they love the behind-the-scenes stuff their teams have put together). But that’s not at all the same as the what-could-be potential of a well-made season-long version that contains some new angles and explains some old thinking.

“24/7” showed hockey fans have a massive appetite for something like this. So hopefully this can at least put the seed in some documentary producer’s head out there (and if it does, give me a call, I’d love to help make it happen!). I know times are lean right now, but even when everything comes back, I have no doubt there’s a year-long hockey doc to be made that would be a massive success.

The Athletic LOADED: 04.20.2020 1183200 Websites

Sportsnet.ca / The best team in Vancouver Canucks history, Part I – Sportsnet

by Iain MacIntyre

RICK BOWNESS (Assistant coach, 2006–2013) I do remember almost breaking up a practice fight with Kevin and Kesler. They were fooling around the ice and then it got a little too serious. Someone yelled, ‘Bones, you can’t leave the ice, they’re going to have a fight!’ I looked back and sure enough, they were just about ready to go at it. By the time we got them in the locker room, it was forgotten. That’s how competitive they were.

KELLY We were on the bench once before practice. Trevor Linden was there. I can’t remember exactly how it all happened, but right around then, 8 Mile was a big movie. Kesler was saying something, and Bieksa replied, “Okay, 4 Mile.” I thought Trevor and I were going to fall off the bench.

BURROWS I remember Kevin cutting the sleeves off one of my favourite sweaters. After practice I got dressed and the sleeves were cut off. Obviously he’s saying it’s not him, and then Kesler is saying it’s not him, and you don’t really know who did it. I think that’s the angriest I got. We went to Columbus and in one of these restaurants, there was a vending machine where you could scoop up a lobster and bring it back home and cook it yourself. We took it back and threw it in Ryan’s bed. He wasn’t too happy having a lobster in his bed.

We interrupt all of this craziness to remind you these three could really play. Kesler, taken 23rd overall in the 2003 NHL Draft, won the Selke Trophy in 2011. He is seventh all-time among Canucks in shorthanded goals, 10th in game-winners.

KELLY You could tell he was going to be an NHL guy. There was no doubt. It was just a matter of time.

SMYL I remember him early on [with the Moose], his first leg was always over the boards. Like, “I want this, I want this.” And it’s kind of, “Take your time. You’re going to get your time.”

CRAWFORD I remember him struggling with offence that first year he spent in the American League. But he played a very mature game for a young player, defensively. My brother [Marc], who was coaching in Vancouver at the time, liked and respected how he played. We were a little concerned that offence was going to be problematic for him if he didn’t follow the proper steps. But he proved us wrong. Peter Sarno was our highest-scoring player [in 2004-05], and he was kind of our half-wall guy on the power play, but Kesler was a very dominant two-way power forward. And he scored 30 that year.

NEWELL BROWN (Assistant coach, 2010–2013, 2017–present) Kesler in front of the net on the power play was fantastic. A lot of guys don’t want to do that job, because they want to play on the half-wall, which is more of a prestigious role. But Kes just really bought into that. He ended up scoring 41 goals and 15 power-play goals [in 2010–11].

HIGGINS I played on a line with Kesler pretty much my entire time in Vancouver. We felt we matched up well against the other team’s best players. We would talk before the game and say, “We’re going to win this matchup.” And we would tell the rest of the team, “We’re winning this matchup, so if you guys win your matchups, we’ll win the game.”

JEFF TAMBELLINI (LW, 2010–2011) He played at Ohio State. I played at Michigan. So, coming up, the first time I met him, it was in such a heated NCAA rivalry that of course we didn’t like each other. Once I got into the room with him, I had more respect for the way this guy played. He played it so hard.

Sportsnet.ca LOADED: 04.20.2020 1183201 Websites Howe, Bobby Orr, Mike Bossy, Guy Lafleur — those guys, they changed the game.

“I can remember five years ago people saying to me, ‘Do you think Alex Sportsnet.ca / What Gretzky and Ovechkin respect most about each Ovechkin should be two minutes on the power play’ and I remember other as players saying, ‘Of course! He should be out there the whole power play every power play.’ That’s what he does. He generates offence and he generates plays for each and every one of his teammates. I said this to my son the other day: they know exactly where he’s gonna be, they know Sportsnet Staff | April 19, 2020, 10:41 AM exactly what he’s gonna do and he still scores 60 goals a year.

“That’s special. I admire him. I love watching him play and I think he’s Wayne Gretzky and Alex Ovechkin sat down with for an been a huge impact on our game to the positive.” interview that covered a wide variety of topics. “Hockey at Home: Gretzky When Gretzky was asked how his game would have changed if he had and Ovi” will air in its entirety Monday, April 20 at 5 p.m. ET on Sportsnet. shared a line with Ovechkin in his prime, No. 99 said his approach Alex Ovechkin and Wayne Gretzky figure to be tied together in hockey wouldn’t have changed but “I’d have a lot more assists.” history forever. Scary thought, given Gretzky already has more assists than any other One is the all-time leading goal scorer, and the other is closing in on that player has ever produced points. mark. While Gretzky has 894 goals in retirement, Ovechkin crossed the The conversation with the two players ventured into all sorts of places, 700-goal mark this season, is by far the best goal scorer of his including: generation, and now sits 188 behind Gretzky. • What advice Gretzky gave Ovechkin in his pursuit of Goal No. 700 That’s still a tall number, sure, but Ovechkin will be 35 years old at the start of next season and is showing no signs of slowing. Before the NHL • What they talked about the first time they met over dinner a few years had to pause its season, Ovechkin was on track for his second ago consecutive 50-goal campaign. He’s got a legitimate shot to get there in a few years and Gretzky, for one, hopes he does it. • What it’s like being a father at different stages

Each is tied to the other and both hold a special place in hockey history, • What it was like lifting the Stanley Cup for the first time even as Ovechkin continues to write his story. But what do the two • Which two players, past or present, they would like to sit beside in a respect most about each other as players? dressing room “I think his vision of the game. I think how he controlled the game,” Whenever The Great One and The Great Eight get together, it’s wise to Ovechkin said about what he admired most about watching Gretzky in pay attention. And lucky for hockey fans that two all-time greats have two his heyday. “How he gets different players better around him. That’s a dates together this coming week. special talent. I think the guys who played with him are lucky because they get lots of points, lots of Cups, and to be with him on one team is a On top of this interview airing on Monday, Gretzky and Ovechkin will face great story when you retire. off against one another in a best-of-3 series on EA Sports’ NHL 20 Wednesday night. That will be shown on the Capitals’ Twitch stream on “You’re going to tell your grandkid, ‘You know what? I played with Wayne April 22 at 8 p.m. ET and fans will be encouraged to make a charitable Gretzky and he passed me the puck.’ It’s tremendous.” donation for COVID-19 relief. Of course, while Ovechkin is chasing one of Gretzky’s records, No. 99 Sportsnet.ca LOADED: 04.20.2020 will still hold plenty of others when it comes time for Ovechkin to retire. No one, for instance, is touching the all-time points or assists record any time soon, and it’s hard to envision even Ovechkin scoring 50 goals in 39 games.

The two are very different types of players coming from entirely different eras. While Ovechkin’s strength is in his goal scoring and how he can engage opponents physically with his massive 6-foot-3, 236-pound frame, Gretzky played during a higher scoring period of NHL history and relied on his creativity and vision.

“I think his style of the game, he was not that physical but he was smart on the ice,” Ovechkin said. “You can see his highlights. Every time he had the puck, something was gonna happen. It’s tremendous to watch. It’s fun to watch.”

Gretzky, of course, is still keenly watching Ovechkin play. He’s seen a ton of change in the way the game is played since retiring in 1999, not only because of new rules, but also because of how much bigger, faster and more fit players in the league are today.

And sometimes an 82-game NHL season can be a grind, but at the root of what Gretzky respects most about Ovechkin is how he wears his passion for hockey on his sleeve.

“His love for the game, you can’t hide that,” Gretzky said. “I compare that to Gordie Howe, Mark Messier. Just a pure joy and love. Every time he gets on the ice you can see him smiling.”

Further to that, Gretzky sees in Ovechkin something you can only get from truly special players. He’s different in how he accomplishes his greatness. No one can do what Ovechkin does and, after 15 years in the NHL, the impact he’s had on the league is undeniable.

Gretzky had a few examples of how Ovechkin fits into this unique group.

“It’s really difficult for a winger to have an impact in an entire team and an entire league,” Gretzky said. “It’s a little bit tougher than being a centreman. And there’s only a few guys in hockey history — Gordie 1183202 Websites But the pizza business always came first. Super Bowl Sunday is one of the biggest days of the year and even with the Steelers making eight appearances in the spectacle since Vesuvio’s opened, the priorities were always clear. Sportsnet.ca / Remembering Vesuvio's pizza and its connection to Toronto sports “I would always work,” says Ettore. “For the Super Bowl it was always all hands on deck. Everybody would work, you would just watch the game sparingly.”

Michael Grange | April 19, 2020, 3:25 PM And while the Leafs might drive business, Pugliese says his hockey heart was always with the Boston Bruins, a divorce from local tradition that

stemmed from former Leafs boss Punch Imlach showing preferences by Sports and pizza, pizza and sports. They go together like hands and not drafting players of Italian heritage in the 1960s and early 1970s. gloves, ebony and ivory, beer and… pizza. “The Bruins had Phil Esposito and then Bobby Orr came along and it was If you don’t happen to live or have lived in the west end of Toronto, you beautiful,” says Ettore. might not know about Vesuvio Pizza and Spaghetti House. But if you’ve But that didn’t stop some well-known Leafs from pledging allegiance to been lucky in life, you’ve experienced something like it: Vesuvio’s. A simple local restaurant where the food was good, the service friendly, Tie Domi lived on Ryding Avenue growing up – the railway tracks in his the prices modest and the memories priceless. backyard, George Bell Arena across the street and Vesuvio’s around the A place where you visited or ordered takeout from that would make corner and forever in his heart. everyone happy and end all the arguments. “We had birthdays, anniversaries, engagements there, it was part of our You’d go there after the game to celebrate or forget, or order from there family tradition,” says Domi, whose father would stop there when he on the way home from a practice when you were too tired to think about wasn’t having coffee and playing cards at the Albanian social club down making something to eat. the street. “We grew up in that place.

Big Leafs game? Raptors game? Jays game? “I used to play shinny with my cousins and then order pizza. My cousins — Jack and Errol – were telling me about the time I ate a whole pizza by For me and my family that’s Vesuvio’s, an institution in the west end of myself, I was nine years old. We would eat Vesuvio’s three times a Toronto since the four Pugliese brothers opened their doors in 1957. week.”

Ettore Pugliese is the only brother left now that Dominic, Corrado and Domi wasn’t the most prominent Junction tough guy to enjoy a meal at Attilio have passed. Vesuvio’s, though.

And on Monday, Vesuvio’s will be gone too, a victim of time and a One of the most memorable evenings from nearly 23,000 nights at the pandemic, closing after 63 years. With no one to take over the business, office for Ettore came in the early days of April 1966, when Canadian retirement was in the offing — but COVID-19 took the timing of the heavyweight champion George Chuvalo came for dinner with his young decision out of their hands. family for their first night out after Chuvalo went 15 rounds with Muhammed Ali at Maple Leaf Gardens in a bid for the world heavyweight “It was the final a nail on the coffin,” said Ettore, 81, who has been self- title. Chuvalo never hit the canvas in his career, even in two fights isolating with his wife of 46 years, Pierra, in their Etobicoke home. “You against the legendary heavyweight. never know what’s gonna happen. Incredible.” “George and his wife and the family came in a couple of days later, after Vesuvio’s wasn’t a sports bar by any stretch. There was a little TV in the Ali fight and his face was like an eggplant,” says Ettore. corner of the takeout section and another couple over the bar in the dining room next door. “He told me: ‘It doesn’t matter how many times he hit me, I would go back’ — those are nice things to remember.” But it was a sports place, the rhythms of the business tied to the sports calendar like the tide to the moon. The feeling is mutual.

Saturdays and Wednesdays nights? “Vesuvio’s was the prominent business in the Junction for so long. Even the sign itself, it was iconic. George loved it,” says Mitch Chuvalo, Hockey nights. George’s son. Sundays? Football. A veteran of 93 professional fights over 22 years, George Chuvalo retired Best times of the year? in 1978 as a five-time Canadian champion, having fought for the world title three times. His parents lived in the neighbourhood long after their Playoffs. famous son moved on, and George would visit Vesuvio’s regularly.

The Raptors’ playoff run last season gave Vesuvio’s two months of He’s 82 now and in declining health, but a glimpse of his favourite pizza steady business. Leafs playoff games were always a boon, even if the spot can still bring a smile. intensity was short-lived. “I still live near there,” says Mitch. “I’ll (bring) George through the The Pugliese’s sporting allegiances ran a little counter to local tradition. Junction and we would stop in for sure. It would stir memories; it was When they first emigrated from their home near Naples, Italy — good for him and people in the neighbourhood would say, ‘Hi’. He loved Vesuvio’s was a tribute to Mount Vesuvius, which loomed over their to feel the connection.” hometown — it wasn’t to Toronto but to Aliquippa, PA., a steel town That connection is one Vesuvio’s has made with its customers over the about 50 k.m. outside of Pittsburgh that was a magnet for immigrants in years, and spans decades. the boom following World War II. Toronto Raptors analyst Leo Rautins grew up on Keele Street, just south The brothers knew only soccer at the time, but as Aliquippa shut down on of the Dundas West strip. He has been in self-isolation at his home in Friday nights every fall, they came to fall in love with the American Florida since COVID-19 put much of North America on lockdown. version of football, following the fortunes of local NFL legends Mike Ditka and later Tony Dorsett. Just down the highway was Beaver Falls, home Not being able to get back to Vesuvio’s before it closes is a regret. to Joe Namath, and not much further was East Brady, home to Buffalo “I grew up in an old European family, where my dad would be, ‘Why go Bills Hall-of-Famer Jim Kelly. out to eat when the food is better at home?’” says Rautins, the first Logically Ettore became a Pittsburgh Steelers fan – “ah, the Steel Canadian taken in the first round of the NBA Draft. “And we didn’t have a Curtain,” he says – and until recently took an annual trip to Pittsburgh to lot of money to be wining and dining. take in a game. “An extravagance was getting takeout from Vesuvio’s. For me growing up, that was my only exposure to getting something to eat that my mom or my grandma didn’t make…Vesuvio’s Pizza was a big deal.”

After playing professionally in Europe and then living in the United States for several post-retirement years before moving back to downtown Toronto, Rautins was reunited with the restaurant that figured so prominently in his childhood after his father died.

“When my dad passed away five years ago now, the funeral home was in the west end and I was driving around aimlessly, going through the old ‘hood, and I see Vesuvio’s. I’m like, ‘Are you (expletive) me?’” says Rautins.

“I couldn’t believe it was still there.

“Sammy [his youngest son] was at [school] and I sent him a picture and a message and said, ‘We’re going to dinner here.’ I couldn’t wait to pick him up after school.

“It was crazy. I’m sitting there looking at these people who were there when I was kid, and I fell in love with the place again.

“I would take the boys there all the time. Sometimes you get disappointed when you come back to something after a long time, but it was amazing.”

Richard Deitsch and Donnovan Bennett host a podcast about how COVID-19 is impacting sports around the world. They talk to experts, athletes and personalities, offering a window into the lives of people we normally root for in entirely different ways.

Even at home in isolation with his wife, Ettore can feel the emotion 63 years in business can evoke. The calls and messages haven’t stopped. There are thousands of testimonials on the restaurant’s Facebook page, recalling family dinners, first dates, engagements and celebrations.

The dining room closed when the pandemic hit, but once Vesuvio’s announced they were closing early last week, it’s as if eight decades of customers have been trying to get one last fix.

The lineup for takeout – with everyone at a respectful six-foot distance – has extended all the way down Dundas and around the block, with customers waiting nearly four hours.

The city had to put up traffic pylons so physical distance guidelines could be followed and pedestrians could still pass the line safely.

Overwhelmed by demand, Vesuvio’s shut down its delivery and phone service – in-person only – and cut down its hours while limiting customers to two pies per order.

Sports fans and pizza fans — and sports fans who love their pizza — are a dedicated lot.

Vesuvio’s brought out the best in both, and in return delivered a piping hot pie, and generations of warm memories.

Sportsnet.ca LOADED: 04.20.2020

1183203 World Leagues News

Novak Djokovic's opposition to vaccination may stop his return to tennis

Novak Djokovic says his opposition to vaccinations may get in the way of his return to competitive tennis.

“Personally I am opposed to vaccination and I wouldn’t want to be forced by someone to take a vaccine in order to be able to travel,” the world No 1 said in a live Facebook chat with several fellow Serbian athletes on Sunday. “But if it becomes compulsory, what will happen? I will have to make a decision. I have my own thoughts about the matter and whether those thoughts will change at some point, I don’t know.

“Hypothetically, if the season was to resume in July, August or September, though unlikely, I understand that a vaccine will become a requirement straight after we are out of strict quarantine and there is no vaccine yet.”

Last month, former world No1 Amelie Mauresmo said the rest of the 2020 tennis season may be wiped out. She added that action should not resume until a vaccine is available for Covid-19, something that most scientists believe is at least a year away.

“International circuit = players of all nationalities plus management, spectators and people from the 4 corners of the world who bring these events to life. No vaccine = no tennis,” the two-time grand slam winner said in a widely shared tweet.

AmelieMauresmo

(@AmeMauresmo)

Je crois qu’on va devoir tirer un trait sur la saison 2020 de tennis. Circuit international = des joueurs et joueuses de toutes nationalités plus les encadrements, spectateurs et les personnes venant des 4 coins du monde qui font vivre ces événements.

Pas de vaccin=pas de tennis

March 31, 2020

This year’s Wimbledon championships have been cancelled for the first time since the second world war, while the French Open, originally due to start on 24 May, was rescheduled for the end of September, shortly after the end of the US Open.

Djokovic made a flying start to the 2020 season, winning the Australian Open in January for his 17th grand slam title and stretched his winning run to 18 matches before the pandemic brought sports events across the world to a halt.

Sign up to The Recap, our weekly email of editors’ picks.

So far the governing bodies of tennis have suspended all tournaments until 13 July. In addition, the women’s Rogers Cup in Montreal, which had been due to be held in August, will not take place this year.

LOADED: 04.20.2020 1183204 World Leagues News “So, you asked me if I’m desperate for sports to come back. Part of me is, ‘Hell no, they’re a bunch of whining babies,’” Mr. Painter, 58, said. “Part of me is, ‘Hell yeah, I miss sports.’ Part of me is, ‘What about my The Coronavirus Doesn’t Care When Sports Come Back $3,500?’”

David Stanley, 59, of Santa Monica, Calif., said he wanted to see the Los Angeles Rams in person again, but not before the outbreak had passed. By Joe Drape, Ken Belson and Billy Witz “It will be very strange with no crowds at the games,” he said of joining a potential TV-only audience for the N.F.L. team he has loved since the April 19, 2020 1980s. “But these are weird times, so what’s normal anymore?”

During the global recession a decade ago, the challenge for sports teams A Major League Baseball season to be played entirely in the Arizona was the limited ability of fans and businesses to spend on tickets and desert without fans, and with teams isolating themselves from the outside advertising, said Marc Ganis, a consultant who advises N.F.L., N.B.A. world. and M.L.B. teams. “This time is completely different because it involves whether fans will feel comfortable sitting among strangers,” he said. “It’s The N.B.A. taking over a hotel on the Las Vegas Strip so its stars can not just a financial challenge, it’s a health problem.” dine and dunk in their own bubble — but only after the league gets access to instant coronavirus tests. Leaders of the sports leagues have been speaking with Mr. Trump, and some are part of a task force on restarting the economy. Mixed-martial-arts fights live on TV from a private island … somewhere. Televised baseball games with no one in the stands may be good for the More than a month into the coronavirus shutdown, the American sports American soul, but it will hurt Major League Baseball’s bottom line, even industrial complex is getting creative, or perhaps desperate, searching for at a time when the sport’s finances have become increasingly tied to a moonshot that might bring professional athletics back to a nation television coverage. In 2019, M.L.B. revenue grew to $10.7 billion, yet largely cooped up at home and suffering from collective cabin fever. the game again struggled to draw fans to stadiums. In the absence of ticket sales, players would be under pressure to take pay cuts while Fans are clamoring for something, anything, to distract from the risking their health and perhaps that of their families. pandemic and restore sports to the rhythm of American life; even Dr. Anthony S. Fauci, the presidential adviser on infectious diseases, After the season was postponed, the league and the players’ association recently mused about seeing the Washington Nationals defend their reached an agreement for teams to advance $170 million of the year’s $4 World Series title. billion in total salaries through May 24. The players agreed to give up the remainder of their salaries if the season were lost, while still receiving full Meanwhile, owners, executives and athletes — and all the related service-time credit that would help them earn more money in future businesses and workers who depend on them — are increasingly worried seasons. Going forward with a plan to play in empty stadiums would about the economic damage from this prolonged, inescapable off- require another negotiation. season. M.L.B. officials say Arizona, where half of the league holds its spring But the hurdles to any return are numerous, and they start with securing training, has enough hotel rooms and baseball diamonds to put on some access to tests for the virus and persuading players and officials to agree version of The Show. They estimate that some 3,000 people probably to strict confinement, among other conditions. would need to be tested regularly — players, club staff members, Over the past two decades, the business of sports in the United States umpires and the broadcast contingent. has ballooned into a chunk of the economy that generates well over $71 “What are you going to do with family members?” asked Mike Trout, the billion annually and employs tens of thousands of people, from superstar sport’s biggest star, whose salary breaks down to $222,222 per game. athletes to hot dog vendors. But all of that has ground to an abrupt halt. The financial losses climb every day, as games go unplayed and are “My wife is pregnant, what am I going to do when she goes into labor? absent from television, and entire seasons could be canceled. Am I going to have to quarantine for two weeks after I come back? Because obviously I can’t miss that birth of our first child. So, there’s a lot So used to calling their shots, leagues now are at the mercy of public of red flags, there’s a lot of questions,” Mr. Trout said in an interview on health experts and elected officials who are treading cautiously as they NBC Sports Network. “Obviously, we would have to agree on it as weigh the needs of a popular industry that depends on physical proximity players. But I think the mentality is we want to get back as soon as we against the risk of events that could enable the virus to spread. can, but obviously it’s got to be realistic.” “I don’t think we are going to see huge arenas full of people for a long The N.B.A. has been ascendant on social media platforms, but even time,” Mayor Eric Garcetti of Los Angeles said in a telephone interview. “I before the virus prompted a shutdown, the league was considering ways do think you can have games without audiences. We watch much of our to address declining television ratings, such as changing the length and sports through television. I think you can create some bubbles. We are timing of the season as well as adding an in-season tournament. hungry for it. It’s a necessary step to build our confidence.” The league had already lost hundreds of millions because of its rift with While several leaders, including President Trump, have embraced the China last October, and it doubled its credit line to $1.2 billion in idea of games broadcast live from a quarantined environment, most anticipation of an extended shutdown. One team owner, Tilman Fertitta concede that even that would pose large challenges. And the prospect of of the Houston Rockets, reportedly sought a $250 million loan to keep his fans actually going to a game — an activity Americans spend $19 billion restaurant and casino empire afloat after furloughing 45,000 workers. on per year, according to the professional services network PwC — is far off in the future, perhaps even 2021. On Friday, the N.B.A. said it had agreed with its players union to gradually reduce player salaries if the 2019-20 season is lost. And after a The outlook for leisure spending is already bleak as jobs are lost at a meeting with team owners, Commissioner Adam Silver said the league pace unseen since the Great Depression — 22 million people have filed did not know when it could even talk about restarting. unemployment claims in the past month. And a recent Seton Hall University poll showed that Americans, a majority of whom follow sports “Our revenue, in essence, has dropped to zero,” Mr. Silver told reporters closely, are not eager to risk their health to attend games. Of the Friday night. He added: “There is a strong recognition that there are respondents, 72 percent said they would not go to arenas or stadiums if thousands of jobs impacted by the N.B.A. Not just the ones that fans see, leagues resumed play before the development of a coronavirus vaccine meaning players and the basketball staff, but when you include the day- — something scientists say is at least a year away. of-game arena workers, the N.B.A. is responsible for roughly 55,000 jobs.” Rick Painter, an Air Force veteran who lives in Viera, Fla., said he had spent $3,500 on two tickets for an April 5 game between the Milwaukee Ideas for a basketball comeback have largely centered on whether a Bucks and Boston Celtics, with plans to buy a jersey of the Bucks star “bubble” could be created in a place like Las Vegas, which hosts Giannis Antetokounmpo and to sit behind the team’s bench. Now, numerous college basketball tournaments, the N.B.A. summer league Ticketmaster has his money and is not giving refunds, because the and a showcase for its developmental G League each year, using giant games have been postponed but not technically canceled. hotels with arena and convention space. The Ultimate Fighting Championship has a facility in Las Vegas that it could use for mixed-martial-arts bouts. But state regulators in Nevada suspended all fights there, prompting the U.F.C. president, Dana White, to search for other options, including a private island.

By the luck of the calendar, the N.F.L. has not suffered the same losses as the other major professional leagues. The league has a sizable reserve of cash and access to credit, and teams do not have to pay players’ salaries until the regular season begins. All N.F.L. teams are profitable but they too would be in trouble if the shutdown extends into the fall and disrupts television contracts and ticket sales.

Some owners are also under financial constraints because their businesses outside football are struggling. The owner of the Miami Dolphins, for instance, is active in real estate and has stakes in other businesses, like fitness centers, that have been affected by the downturn.

For college sports teams — which generated $14 billion in 2018 — and their universities, the outbreak has been costly. When the N.C.A.A. canceled the Division I men’s basketball tournament, which generated more than $1 billion last year, it quickly reduced its payouts to member schools by two-thirds.

Since then, the signs of financial strain have become an almost daily drip: Old Dominion dropped wrestling, Cincinnati dropped men’s soccer, and Louisville’s athletic director cut his own salary 10 percent while beseeching coaches to follow suit.

The stoppage of highly lucrative sports programs has been part of a broader fallout for colleges, which have taken hits to tuition, room and board, and even federal research funding. A higher education trade group predicted a 15 percent drop in university enrollment nationwide, meaning a $23 billion revenue loss.

For university athletic departments that might be counting on negotiating a new apparel deal, like the 10-year, $119 million pact that Washington began last year with Adidas, there has been more bad news: The sportswear giant has been so damaged that it needed a $3.3 billion loan from the German government.

For university presidents and athletic directors, there are no moonshots on the drawing board.

“We’re different than professional athletics,” said Bob Bowlsby, the commissioner of the Big 12 Conference. “Our teams are populated by students. If universities aren’t in session, there won’t be any college sports.”

New York Times LOADED: 04.20.2020 1183205 World Leagues News issued to a soldier that required a householder to provide lodging. Dial back the militarism and ratchet up the care, and USHL players receive a new surrogate family and a brick-and-mortar school if they opt not to take With NHL Draft on Hold, USHL Prospects Prepare in Waiting classes online.

After a dominant regular season, Chicago Steel players are left at home “I loved them and my billet brother, Benny. He was one of the biggest preparing for the NHL draft—date TBD—instead of the Clark Cup beauties I've ever met at his age and he could hold a conversation with playoffs. anyone older,” says Brisson, who FaceTimed with his billet family for the dad’s birthday last weekend. “That was really fun, to see how [Benny] grew up even how long I was there for.”

Dan Falkenheim Against this backdrop Larry Robbins, a billionaire hedge fund manager with philanthropic ties to education, acquired the Steel in 2015. Within

five seasons the franchise retooled, twice, prioritizing development. Chicago Steel winger Sam Colangelo doesn’t have a pristine in-home Behind head coach Dan Muse, who is now an assistant with the gym or a trainer’s makeshift garage-turned-fitness-center. Cross off any Predators, the Steel won the Clark Cup in 2017 after missing the playoffs hope for an indoor ice rink, like the one enjoyed by Marek Hejduk, son of in eight straight seasons. The following year, the Steel agreed to a multi- 14-year NHL veteran Milan, too. But, he does have his parents year partnership with performance coach Darryl Belfry, who has worked restaurant, Local 438 Grille & Sport, less than 10 minutes away from his with Sidney Crosby, Patrick Kane and , and helps craft Stoneham, Mass., home. individual development plans for each player.

“Some of the food boxes are super heavy,” the 18-year-old Colangelo “From top to bottom, every day you're learning something new,” De St. says. “I think it was boxes of steak meat —I was doing farmer carries and Phalle says, “We're allowed to play with so much creativity. There's so shoulder shrugs with them. It was kind of funny. Then out back, I have many resources, whether it’s video, the weight room or developing on-ice some rocks and I was putting them in this backpack and using it as a skills. The atmosphere that they set for us is unbelievable and the best weight vest.” I’ve been around.”

Rather than working out with rocks and boxes of steak, Colangelo and Ahead of the 2018–19 season, Robbins brought in Ryan Hardy, then an the Steel, who owned a USHL-best 41-7-1 record, should have been amateur scout with the Bruins, as general manager and hired Greg preparing for the Clark Cup playoffs, which would have begun on Moore and Brock Sheahan to man the bench. The Steel were pegged to Monday. The top U.S. junior hockey league postponed its season five finish near the cellar with a roster largely composed of newcomers. weeks ago amid coronavirus concerns, sending most of its 550-plus Instead, the team reached its second Clark Cup in three seasons and players back home before outright canceling on March 18. Instead, over Hardy was named the USHL’s General Manager of the Year for his 1,000 miles east from the Steel’s Geneva (Ill.) facility, Colangelo is roster-building wizardry. training for a 2020 NHL draft with a date and location to be named later. The Steel returned with a roster stocked with talent—⁠ Hardy traded for And he’s not the only one of his teammates doing so: The Steel have Brisson after he notched 101 points with Shattuck St. Mary’s and drafted four players ranked among Central Scouting’s top-85 North American Farrell first overall in the league’s Phase II draft—and were aware of how skaters and a handful of over-agers who could also be selected at the good the team looked on paper when they met for their summer draft. development camp.

“It's something you look forward to your whole life,” , a Brisson, Colangelo, Farrell and Reid competed for Team USA at the potential first-round selection and son of NHL super agent Pat Brisson, 2019 World Junior A Challenge, taking bronze, before returning in late says of the draft, which was scheduled to take place in Montreal. “With December to continue the team’s 13-game winning streak. Along the my dad's side being from Montreal and spending time there in the way, they had spent eight-plus-hour days together, eating together after summer, I was looking forward to going. However they do it, it’s still going practice and taking night-time excursions. Brisson, with roommate to be an honor to hear my name called.” Mackie Samoskevich, went to a few Blackhawks games and met with Kane, Jonathan Toews and . (The same Brisson who, as a Even with uncertainty looming over the next few months, Brisson and boy, watched Tavares make protein shakes at his house and witnessed Colangelo, as well as winger Sean Farrell, defenseman Luke Reid and Nathan MacKinnon shoot pucks in his backyard.) forward Mathieu De St. Phalle, have tackled the limbo period in their own way. Brisson and Farrell have worked out, separately, with trainers. Reid By the time the team got out to a 15-4-1 start, Sheahan assumed has utilized his home gym. Most have taken to running, and Farrell has coaching duties after the AHL’s Toronto Marlies plucked Moore to played some tennis. One shared thought: Peloton bikes are tougher than replace Sheldon Keefe. Off-ice chemistry paired with on-ice talent led the expected (“It’s pretty hard,” says Brisson, while Colangelo adds, “It’s Steel to become Clark Cup favorites, solidifying a season that was more beating me up.”) than a stepping stone in the players’ hockey careers.

No draft hopefuls can earn a larger spotlight through their play because, *** well, no one is playing. Junior hockey leagues have shuttered across the In early March, the Steel were buzzing. De St. Phalle’s hat trick helped world. Sweden’s J20 SuperElit and Finland's Jr. A SM- ended their Chicago trounce the Dubuque Fighting Saints, the second-best team in seasons on March 13. The QMJHL canceled on March 17, with the OHL the league, 7–2 in their own building. One day later the Steel returned and WHL following suit a day later. Russia’s MHL has held out hope and home to Fox Valley Ice Arena and beat Dubuque, again, 6–5 in overtime paused all competition through at least April 30, even as the KHL with six different players scoring goals and more than half the team scrapped the rest of the season. Varying degrees of training resources recording at least one point. With the two-game rout, Chicago extended aside, any on-ice tape has been recorded, filed and will eventually be its winning streak to 13 games. consumed by scouts in their work-from-home setups. There’s finality, but without closure. That was the second 13-game winning streak of the season. Before this year the Steel had never won that many in a row, or done anything close “Going from playing hockey every day and doing what you love to not to what it has achieved. The team’s 4.94 goals per game and 0.847 win being able to get any ice and not being able to see the boys, it’s like percentage ranked best in USHL history, adding accolades onto a jumping in an ice bath,” Reid says. “It’s totally different from what you’re franchise-record 41 wins with 13 games remaining. De St. Phalle, used to. You learn to live with it. I still don't think I've fully processed it Brisson and Colangelo topped the league in points with 60, 59 and 58, yet.” respectively. Seventeen-year-old defenseman Owen Power had more *** points (40) than any USHL blueliner.

Courtesy: USHL “I don't even think we were going to lose another game for the rest of the year,” says Brisson. “Then, it's done like that in a snap.” The USHL operates in its own unique space among American youth sports. For nine months out of the year, 16-to-20-year-olds leave their In February, before Rudy Gobert’s positive coronavirus test and the parents to stay with billet families, who house and feed the players. The resulting shockwave that brought sports to a halt, Steel team president term “billet” originates from the late 16th century, when a note would be Dan Lehv was on a call with USHL commissioner Tom Garrity. The league began to prepare for all possibilities, including the suspension and cancellation of its season, as the virus started to spread in Europe and guys that are going to play a lot of pro hockey on our roster. Our guys reported cases in America lagged behind. The league office remained in took advantage of every day they spent with the Chicago Steel.” contact with the NHL and distributed a safe practices memo to each of the USHL’s 16 teams, and the season rolled on without interruption. LOADED: 04.20.2020

Until March 11. When the NBA suspended its season, Lehv and other executive committee members were on a call and decided that night that they needed to convene with the Board of Governors the next day. The team arrived Thursday for practice and completed its usual morning skills session.

“At the time I was in school, so my phone was blowing up,” says Farrell, who attended local Geneva High. “Then I got to the rink.”

“It's lunch time, before we had our 1 o'clock meeting, all the staff went for a meeting and we're like 'Oh boy, this is going down,’” says Reid.

The USHL announced the Board of Directors’ unanimous decision to suspend the season. Lehv met with the team to communicate next steps, with the hope that play would resume at some point. Practice ended, and the Steel’s quest to win the Clark Cup fell secondary to keeping the players safe.

After, De St. Phalle and his teammates tossed a football, taking in 56°F temperatures and crisp Chicago air. Later in the day, Brisson, Colangelo and a few others gathered at one of the host family’s homes, where they spent time watching 21 Jump Street, playing mini hockey with one of the billet brothers and shooting hoops. Most of the players’ families booked them return flights home for the next day.

“I said bye to as many people as I could,” Colangelo says. “But you didn't want to say goodbye forever because you wanted to be optimistic that the season was going to come back.”

The Steel flew home, with some of their gear and clothes left behind. The team recommended that players not take equipment back to avoid contamination. Brisson went west to California. Reid returned to Saskatchewan, where snowfall blanketed the region a week earlier. Colangelo and teammate Liam Devlin traveled back together to Massachusetts around sunrise, and continued to shoot pucks and play video games before social distancing guidelines stiffened.

They settled in, at first, taking advantage of their first time back home since Christmas. Six days after sending its players to their families the USHL officially canceled the season on March 18. Coaches conducted exit interviews over Zoom, filled with emotion and tears. The league awarded the Steel its first Anderson Cup, given to the team with the best regular-season point total, but the realization that the team’s run was over had already set in.

In the weeks since, the team keeps in touch over group chat and FaceTime (“I don't think there's a day gone by over this whole thing where I haven't talked with at least five guys on the team,” says Brisson.) Teammates celebrated Dawson Pasternak’s 17th birthday on Zoom. Brisson has done a podcast with defenseman John Spetz, talking about hockey and how coronavirus is affecting the world. Colangelo, Brisson and Devlin have been playing Fortnite and Call of Duty: Warzone—⁠ Brisson is probably the best, notes Colangelo—⁠ along with Gunnarwolfe Fontaine and Matt Coronato.

“As time has gone on, I've been pretty bored in my house, not really doing anything,” says Colangelo. “That makes me miss it more and more.”

Coach Sheahan and the rest of the team are pinning their hopes on a summer reunion in Chicago. Proper goodbyes are on hold, for now.

Even if the 2019–20 Steel never have the chance to share the ice again, they will see each other in NCAA rinks across the country. Over 95% of USHL players go on to play Division I hockey, according to the league. A scant glance at the Steel’s roster confirms as much. Brisson and Power will be teammates next year at Michigan. Devlin and Reid will skate for New Hampshire. Colangelo and Fontaine will join together at Northeastern, also in the ECAC. Farrell will suit up for Beanpot rival Harvard while De St. Phalle is committed to Wisconsin.

And last June, 52 active USHL players were selected in the 2019 draft, the most ever in the league’s 41-year modern history.

“Whether you get drafted or not, it's the beginning,” says Sheahan. “These guys have a long path [...] it's not an endpoint. A lot of players that play Junior, they can't wait to get that next step. We have a lot of 1183206 World Leagues News Constant testing and monitoring would be a must. Even once they began, Duszynski said, sports could be forced into intermittent stoppages again later because of positive cases within individual leagues.

When coronavirus pandemic is over, sports will be changed forever Germany hopes to start playing soccer again next month. England is aiming for June. In Taiwan, they’re playing baseball and basketball under controlled conditions. In America, Major League Baseball is reportedly By Zach Osterman The Indianapolis Star 11 hrs ago exploring drastic measures to fit in some sort of season beginning later this year.

“This country needs sports right now. We need something to get behind,” BLOOMINGTON — Earlier this week, Kentucky coach John Calipari and Cuban said on Calipari’s show. “The NBA, I feel, has a moral obligation, IU alum Mark Cuban got into a playful debate about the future of the if the science is there and we can keep our players safe, to play the rivalry between their schools. games in front of no fans and just on TV if necessary, but to get back out Cuban invited Calipari to renew the rivalry on the campuses, to flip a coin there and give people a chance to root for something.” to see who could host and offer to begin the next college basketball Leagues will want to tailor what is already an increasingly TV-driven season — whenever that might start — with a game that hasn’t been product to the in-home experience. They’ll seek new revenue streams to played in the regular season in nine years. compensate for the lost old ones. Schedules will change. Rules might Some of it was playful banter. But the conversation during a webisode of change. The basic delivery of sports from teams to fans will shift entirely “Coffee With Cal,” also strayed into a discussion of much more open- to a virtual space. ended issues facing sports during the coronavirus pandemic. “There is going to be a ton of innovation around the in-home viewing “This is the time to try some stuff,” Calipari said generally. “Let’s try some experience,” Pierce said. “Whatever this runway is, to get back to more of stuff. If it does not work, we don’t have to do it again.” a normal, sports should come out the other side of that with a better product.” Lost in the discussion of when sports can return, and whether they should, is what they might look like when they will. More specifically, how For years now, administrators and executives have fretted over declining they will change. attendance in sports. Fans still show up for the big events — the title- deciders, the ranked match-ups, the playoffs — but across-the-board Sports went away like society did, seemingly all at once, screeching to a attendance is falling, particularly with younger fans. The escalating cost halt. And it appears likely to come back like wider society will — of the gameday experience, juxtaposed against the home-viewing cautiously, at a trickle, not without false starts and hiccups. experience, has changed the nature of in-person sports consumption.

As they do, we should be prepared to ask a basic question with no basic Already, some college administrators fear this could be the tipping point answers: What do we want from sports? that takes sports away from an in-person model as the priority in putting on games. A study conducted earlier this year by Seton Hall’s Stillman Make no mistake, the face of sports in America (and realistically, across School of Business found 72% of respondents would not return to the world) is about to change forever. sporting events until the development of a COVID-19 vaccine. It’s hard to know how. But history tells us major world events like this will Technology will play a massive role. be reflected in our pastimes as well. Pierce suggested augmented (virtual) reality — hailed once as the future World War II helped spark a serious discussion of race relations in of media consumption but largely cast aside as a frivolity — could American society. By the start of the Korean War less than a decade become a delivery mechanism for sports now. Leagues hungry for a way later, the American military was integrated, but in the intervening time, to make up for lost gameday revenues will embrace whatever mode baseball and football both integrated. The war helped reshape attitudes available to them to differentiate their product. toward segregationist ideas. Sports are having noticeable success reaching fans via historical content, This is not an antiquated notion. which several leagues and broadcast partners are making available en The fall of the Berlin Wall altered the face of international sports forever. masse right now. The Sept. 11 terrorist attacks changed the way we approach and E-sports already enjoy an entrenched position in the marketplace that manage public safety. Do you think twice about walking through a metal only stands to grow the longer the real-world layoff continues. detector to attend a football game anymore? About clear-bag policies? “E-sports was perfectly positioned for a time such as this,” Pierce said. Generational, life-altering events change our sports and how we interact with them, both in ways we understand and ways we can’t immediately If any part of the virtual experience becomes satisfying enough, does it comprehend. History tells us this pandemic will be no different. change our behavior around sports for good?

“With all this stuff, there’s just no context to draw on,” said David Pierce, There are longer-term implications too. The NCAA is revising its director of the Sport Innovation Institute at IUPUI. “Everyone’s using old recruiting calendar because of all this. Contracts will have to account for models of thinking.” changes to individual sports’ schedules. The coming financial crunch could force departments to begin cutting sports entirely, narrowing the The likely first thing to change will be the delivery of sports as content. overall scope of college athletics for good. Since the coronavirus pandemic shut sports down, administrators and And what of youth sports? We could see wholesale revolution in the leagues around the world have toiled over how to start them back up development of a generation of athletes. again. Could. Should. Might. There are no perfect answers. There are ethical questions — waiting to be sure local health systems aren’t overwhelmed, that officials can be confident the virus is contained Ultimately, sports will always be first and foremost about fans, because within specific communities, and so on. fans are consumers. Be it civic pride, parochial interest, communal engagement or just sheer distraction, sports will find a way to provide “Sports will return. There’s no question about that,” said Thomas fans what they want. Duszynski, an expert in epidemiology and lecturer at IUPUI. “What we don’t want to do is jump the gun too early.” “Maybe by trying these new things,” Cuban said during his chat with Calipari. “We’ll learn, and it’ll be a better way of doing it than how we’ve Sports like golf, Duszynski said, might be more realistic first, because of always done it.” the limited interaction between athletes. On Thursday, the PGA announced it was aiming to resume play June 11 with no fans. More It will be up to us to decide if that way is better. But while we discuss intensive measures would likely be required for other sports, like the whether sports should return, how they can and when they will, we team-wide, in-season quarantines being floated for soccer and baseball. should take a moment to acknowledge the aftershock: They will change because of this, probably profoundly, and it will be up to us to decide what we want from them as they do. The Indianapolis Star LOADED: 04.20.2020 1183207 World Leagues News business, in sports. I really see in the next couple months something good happening.”

— Hockey Writer Stephen Whyno reporting. The Latest: 500 fans watch as soccer resumes in Turkmenistan ___

Players and coaches at Roma have waived their salary for four months to By ASSOCIATED PRESS | help the Italian club get through a crisis sparked by the coronavirus PUBLISHED: April 19, 2020 at 1:04 p.m. | UPDATED: April 19, 2020 at outbreak. 1:04 p.m. With Roma having not played a competitive match since March 1 because of the pandemic, the players and coaching staff will forgo salaries due to them for March, April, May and June. Soccer has resumed in Turkmenistan with spectators as the Central Asian nation lifted a suspension of its national league. Roma says “if the current season resumes and is completed, the club and the players, coach (Paulo Fonseca) and his staff have agreed an Around 500 people attended Sunday’s game between Altyn Asyr and incentive plan to be paid subject to the achievement of certain sporting Kopetdag in a 20,000-capacity stadium in the capital, Ashgabat. It was objectives.” the first fixture played in the Yokary Liga since March 20. The players will reportedly get back three of the missed months’ wages in The crowd size was broadly in line with typical domestic league games in the next fiscal year. Turkmenistan and, as usual, attendance was free. The game ended 1-1. Roma added that players and coaches also have agreed to top up the The eight-team league was suspended on March 24 amid the wages of Roma employees who have been placed on the Italian coronavirus pandemic. government’s social safety-net scheme, ensuring they will still receive their full regular salaries. Turkmenistan is one of the few countries in the world which have not reported any cases of the new coronavirus. Roma chief executive Guido Fienga said the gesture has “proved that we really are in this together.” Professional soccer is being played in only a small number of countries, too. The ex-Soviet nations of Belarus and Tajikistan are among the ___ holdouts, along with Taiwan and Nicaragua. Those leagues have attracted extra attention from foreign fans craving games to watch. The stadium of English Premier League club Brighton has been converted into the south coast’s biggest drive-in coronavirus testing ___ center.

Charles Leclerc has won his second straight F1 Virtual Grand Prix after The appointment-only center has been put in place at the American taking the checkered flag on the Shanghai track. Express Community Stadium as part of the drive to increase testing for National Health Service (NHS) staff and other key workers. The Ferrari driver started the Chinese GP in pole position and finished ahead of Red Bull’s Alex Albon and Guanyu Zhou, who races for UNI- “The Amex will be the biggest testing site anywhere on the south coast, Virtuosi Racing in Formula 2. and will be used for self-testing and assisted testing,” Brighton chief executive Paul Barber said. The 22-year-old Leclerc, who has won two F1 races, only started playing the video game at the start of the month. “The center was scheduled to see more than 50 NHS frontline workers on Saturday afternoon, and they will have the results of their tests within “Charles got the better of me and I am disappointed, back to the drawing 48 hours. Within a few days, the site should reach its capacity of up to board for round three,” Albon said. “It’s not the real thing but to keep time 1,000 tests a day.” ticking over it’s been really good.” ___ The actual Chinese GP, originally scheduled for April 19, was postponed in February. British horse racing’s most successful flat trainer of all time is recovering after contracting the coronavirus. With the F1 season halted by the coronavirus pandemic, the sport launched a virtual series to keep fans entertained. Mark Johnston has been isolating since having the symptoms confirmed and his family says he is making good progress. Golfer Ian Poulter came 18th while Lazio striker Ciro Immobile was 17th. His son, Angus, told Racing TV “he had a couple of days in bed, but was ___ back up yesterday and is starting to move around.” Wayne Gretzky is optimistic the NHL will be able to resume at some point Angus added that his father is “eager to get back to work — mum is this summer. having to put the brakes on him.” “The Great One” told The Associated Press on Sunday he’s hopeful In 2018, Johnston celebrated his 4,194th winner, the most of any trainer hockey and other sports will be able to come back from the coronavirus in British flat racing. He has had winners in the 1,000 and 2,000 Guineas pandemic and serve as a positive sign that conditions are improving. — two of the British “classics” — as well as the Gold Cup at Ascot on “I really believe somehow, someway, that the leadership in this country three occasions. and in Canada, that we’re going to figure this out,” Gretzky said. “And I All racing in Britain is suspended amid the pandemic and no return date really believe that we’ll see hockey and some sort of other sports in June, has been set. July and August, albeit in a different way, but I really see it coming to fruition. I think it’s going to happen.” LOADED: 04.20.2020 Gretzky, who holds the all-time records for goals, assists and points, is self-quarantining in California and trying to help the NHL with content during its pause for the pandemic. He and Alex Ovechkin recently taped their first joint interview to air Monday, and they’ll play the NHL20 video game against each other Wednesday.

The league is considering several options on trying to resume this season, including going directly to the playoffs at several neutral sites. Gretzky believes the NHL will find a way.

“Maybe I’m wrong,” he said. “Maybe I’m too optimistic. I think I’m not. I hope that that’s a good sign for everyone that we’re moving on in life, in 1183208 World Leagues News

Report: MLB to Allow Teams to Furlough, Reduce Pay of Club Employees

Ben Pickman

MLB commissioner Rob Manfred will inform teams on Monday that he will suspend Uniform Employees Contracts, allowing clubs to furlough or reduce the pay of team employees amid the coronavirus pandemic, according to The Athletic's Ken Rosenthal.

The decision will give teams greater flexibility in handling non-playing personnel. Clubs will not be required to take such measures, which are expected to go into effect May 1, but it would allow teams to get more financial relief during the global health crisis. The provision Manfred is suspending allows MLB to withhold pay in the event of an emergency.

Mangers and coaches at the major- and minor-league levels as well as front-office staffers and scouts are among those who could be most impacted by the suspension, per Rosenthal.

Earlier this week, ESPN reported that MLB alerted its senior staff that they will be undergoing pay cuts during the pandemic. MLB, however, is guaranteeing paychecks to its full-time employees in its central office through May. A number of teams, including the Phillies, Braves and Giants have made similar guarantees.

"As part of our effort to protect the organization, my senior staff and I have decided to reduce our compensation by an average of 35% for 2020 to help the organization weather this terrible storm,'' Manfred wrote in the memo, according to ESPN.

MLB's regular season was initially scheduled to begin on March 26, but it was forced to suspend its season indefinitely due to COVID-19. As the league looks to begin the season, it is considering a number of proposals to resume play. Among others specifically discussed by MLB, the league is reportedly eyeing a potential plan that would put all 30 teams in the Phoenix area and include playing games in empty ballparks.

However, Sports Illustrated's Stephanie Apstein recently noted, that "according to the experts—medical experts, not the money-making experts in league offices—we will not have sports any time soon."

"We will not have sporting events with fans until we have a vaccine," Zach Binney, a PhD in epidemiology who wrote his dissertation on injuries in the NFL and now teaches at Emory, told Sports Illustrated.

MLB players and team employees are participating in a large-scale COVID-19 study run by Stanford University, USC and the Sports Medicine Research and Testing Laboratory that will test up to 10,000 people for coronavirus antibodies and could potentially offer researchers more information regarding the spread of the disease.

The study, doctors note, is not expected to impact the timeline of the sport's potential return.

As of Sunday afternoon, there are more than 2.3 million cases of the coronavirus, causing at least 159,000 deaths. There are nearly 750,000 confirmed cases of COVID-19 in the United States.

SPORTS ILLUSTRATED LOADED: 04.20.2020 1183209 World Leagues News In other words, this global pandemic could be just the thing that youth sports needs to make things even worse.

CBS LOADED: 04.20.2020 Youth sports are feeling the financial brunt of the COVID-19 pandemic, report says

A $25 billion industry is under duress

by Gabriel Fernandez Apr 18, 2020 at 6:28 pm ET • 3 min read

If there's a sports industry that is familiar with the negative effects of an event that hurts the local or national economy, it's that of youth sports. It's an easy-to-understand logical trail: a parent that loses their income will likely not be putting whatever limited funds they have into a league for their child to participate in. This happened during the financial crisis in 2008 and is happening now, with the coronavirus pandemic leading to millions filing for unemployment over the last two weeks alone.

In a report from the Associated Press, some of the biggest organizations in youth sports are fretting about the financial losses that will soon be experienced -- if they're not being experienced already -- as a result of COVID-19. President of the the Amateur Athletic Union (AAU), Roger Goudy, is currently banking on a late June girls volleyball tournament to help cushion some of the losses, but the uncertainty that this pandemic has brought has left that saving grace up in the air.

"If we don't crank up, I'd say, by the first of May, we're going to see some tremendous losses simply because we're not going to have time for those events that have qualifiers," Goudy told the AP. "But by the same token, you don't want to put them into an environment where their health or their family's health or the coaches or the volunteers' health are at risk. So that's a tightrope that we're walking right now."

US Youth Soccer CEO Skip Gilbert also spoke of the anxiety this situation has brought. His organization oversees an estimated 3 million players and every one of those players' respective seasons is naturally dealing with a question mark looming overhead.

"I think it's one of those that, when you're looking at the ceiling at 2 in the morning going, you know, playing the 'what if' scenarios, you're worried," Gilbert said to the AP. "But when I put on my hat every day and I'm talking to staff and talking to parents, you want to be as hopeful as possible."

It truly says something about the precarious nature of things as they stand when two top executives in a $25 billion industry are speaking with such concern. Sure, these statements should be taken with a little grain of salt given that any C-suite individual will fret over losing lots of money - - that's part of their job -- but the precedent for this kind of drop-off is rather grim.

The AP notes in its report that participation in team sports dropped from 45 percent in 2008 to 38 percent in 2014 as a result of the recession. Though the economy recovered eventually, that 2014 participation number remained stagnant, per the Aspen Institute Sports and Society Program. Just as it was then, the problem now is that once sports become out of reach of a family's budget, there's no telling whether they'll return to the fray. As Carrie Langford, COO for the North Texas Celtic Futbol Club -- a 65-team portion of the lucrative select soccer business in North Texas -- puts it, "The question is, we don't know who's coming back and who can afford it."

The second part of Langford's comment has been an ongoing issue for youth sports. As the Aspen Institute itself has found, rising costs have turned many elite -- and even some middling -- youth sports groups into pay-to-play models, which drive parents who can't afford such luxuries away from the ability of allowing their kids to play. So, in actuality, an explanation for the heavy concern from every person quoted in the AP story could be that the coronavirus pandemic will exacerbate an already existing issue within the industry.

Yet, while it could be seen as a more equitable thing that an industry that has only continued to alienate families outside of a certain tax bracket is starting to break apart, allowing the whole system to collapse unto itself is not exactly a satisfactory achievement. As Dev Pathik, founder and CEO of Sports Facilities Advisory -- a Florida-based company that works with municipalities on youth sports and recreation venues -- puts it, "Eagles turn to vultures in times like these." 1183210 World Leagues News

Los Angeles mayor says coronavirus will likely halt sporting events with crowds until 2021

BY JUSTIN WISE - 04/15/20 06:36 PM EDT

Los Angeles Mayor Eric Garcetti (D) said Wednesday that mass gathering such as sporting events and concerts will likely remain canceled for the rest of the year due to the coronavirus outbreak.

Speaking on CNN, Garcetti confirmed an earlier report that he was considering barring such gatherings for at least one year. The mayor said it's "difficult to imaging us getting together in the thousands anytime soon" and the city should prepare for an extended ban on such crowded events.

"I think we should be prepared for that this year," Garcetti said. "I think we all never wanted science to work so quickly. But until there’s a vaccine, some sort of pharmaceutical intervention or herd immunity, the science is the science, and public health officials have been very clear. We’ve got many miles to walk before we’re going to be back in those environments."

Garcetti suggested that sporting events and concerts without crowds could be a possibility in the months ahead. But he emphasized that it would be "very difficult to see" packing thousands of people into a stadium before 2021.

"Nothing I’ve heard would indicate that we’ll been in large thousands of people gatherings anytime soon and probably not for the rest of this year," he added.

The U.S. has reported more than 630,000 confirmed COVID-19 cases and roughly 27,900 deaths caused by it as of Wednesday evening, according to Johns Hopkins University data.

The outbreak led major sporting leagues last month to cancel their seasons and a broad range of musicians to postpone tours.

President Trump late last week began more aggressively pushing for reopening portions of the economy, as signs show some areas are passing the peak of the outbreak.

Still, health officials have insisted that more comprehensive testing and contact-tracing must be in place before states and cities lift social distancing requirements.

Anthony Fauci, the U.S. government's top infectious disease expert and a leading member of the White House coronavirus task force, said Tuesday that pro sports could return this summer as long as fans were restricted from attending.

"There's a way of doing that," Fauci said in an interview with Snapchat's Peter Hamby. "Nobody comes to the stadium. Put [the players] in big hotels, wherever you want to play, keep them very well surveilled. ... Have them tested every single week and make sure they don't wind up infecting each other or their family, and just let them play the season out."

THE HILL LOADED: 04.20.2020 1183211 World Leagues News Let’s hope it doesn’t come to that. There’s a lot to criticize about the NCAA, but college sports are better when UMBC upsets Virginia in the NCAA basketball tournament or Appalachian State stuns Michigan in Some sports may not survive the coronavirus football. It also needs gymnasts and swimmers and softball players.

Most of all, it needs a future. And like everything else at the moment, it’s uncertain. BY STEVE DeSHAZO THE FREE LANCE–STAR Apr 18, 2020 LTHE FREE LANCE–STAR OADED: 04.20.2020

WE’RE BY nature an optimistic people, and we’re all looking forward to the day when our lives return to some sort of normalcy (although we may vehemently disagree on the timetable). For most of us—Dr. Anthony Fauci included—that includes sports.

And most of our favorite pastimes will return, even if it’s not as soon as we’d hope.

Let’s be clear: Sports are a minor concern when compared with human life and death. Giving up games cold turkey for a few months is an inconvenience for most of us. Professional leagues (and their athletes) and colleges are taking a sizable financial hit, but one they can survive better than the parking attendants and concessionaires whose livelihoods depend on the games.

And barring a second wave of the coronavirus, there will be baseball played somewhere before Halloween. The NBA and NHL will resume their interrupted seasons, probably going directly to playoff games with no spectators in attendance and weekly testing of quarantined players. Golf, tennis, NASCAR, the Tour de France—all will find ways to resume and salvage some much-needed TV revenue from a nation that needs a sports fix.

Football, as we’ve discussed before, is the tricky one.

The NFL and college presidents have more time to plan for a 2020 season that may be abbreviated or, in the prediction of some, may not even start until next spring. Those games will resume. But like the public at large, not every sport will survive the coronavirus intact.

Last month, Old Dominion University announced it will discontinue its perennially successful wrestling program. Louisville recently discontinued its men’s soccer team.

More cuts will come. Most, but not all, will be to men’s programs, owing to NCAA Title IX requirements mandating equal opportunities for men’s and women’s sports.

The main culprit? The reality of lost revenue from college football, which at most schools helps pay for almost every other program that they offer.

A recent USA Today report predicted a combined $4 billion revenue shortfall if college football can’t conduct a 2020 season. That’s an average of $78 million per school. And while much of that money goes to skyrocketing salaries for football coaches and stadium and facilities upgrades, a larger chunk helps fund cross country, volleyball and lacrosse programs, among others.

Those are the most vulnerable athletic subjects of the pandemic, sports that generate very little revenue on their own and may be the first to go when athletic directors have to make tough decisions.

To their credit, some schools are trying to avoid making cuts—or are at least kicking the can down the road.

Coaches and administrators at schools like Louisville, Oregon State, Washington State, Missouri, Iowa State and Wake Forest recently announced voluntary temporary pay cuts. It’s an admirable start. Virginia basketball coach Tony Bennett looks even more magnanimous now than he did last fall, when he declined a pay raise and asked that the money go to the Cavaliers’ overall athletic program.

But these reductions won’t solve the problem if the pandemic means no college sports until 2021. That very real possibility could mean dramatic changes. The so-called “Olympic”—formerly labeled “non-revenue”— could suffer a big hit.

One college commissioner I spoke to recently even predicted that the fallout could spur the “Power Five” conferences (the ACC, Big Ten, Big 12, SEC and Pac-12) to break off from the NCAA and form their own consortium, hogging even more of the TV money and leaving other schools to pick up the scraps. That could be even more dire for programs that don’t get much TV exposure. 1183212 World Leagues News Since then, Berdymukhamedov has ordered officials to ramp up efforts to detect any cases and prevent the virus spreading.

The president is known as the nation’s Arkadag, or “Protector.” State ‘We have no coronavirus’: Turkmenistan football season restarts with media has stressed the importance of his leadership in the pandemic. crowds In a poem published in state newspapers on Friday, the president’s favourite poet Gozel Shagulyyeva praised him as “the impregnable Agence France-Presse / 02:21 PM April 19, 2020 fortress of the motherland.”

“Protector, you are watching over (our) health,” Shagulyyeva wrote.

Turkmenistan is rebooting its football season on Sunday, with fans LOADED: 04.20.2020 flocking back to stadiums in one of the few countries yet to declare a case of coronavirus.

The reclusive Central Asian state followed other countries around the world when it suspended its eight-team league in March just three games into the season.

The national football federation cited recommendations by the health ministry and the World Health Organization for preventing the spread of the illness.

A month later, and despite international concerns that Turkmen authorities are underplaying the threat of the virus, football is returning, with supporters only too happy to follow the action from the stands.

“Joy boosts our immunity,” joked Ashir Yusupov, a 34-year-old entrepreneur.

He said he would be watching reigning champions Altyn Asyr take on early table-toppers Kopetdag in the capital Ashgabat on Sunday.

Yusupov said he had no fear of crowded places, despite being aware of bans on sports events in other countries.

“We have no coronavirus, so why not restart our league?” he asked.

Three ex-Soviet states have bucked the global trend for suspending professional leagues: Turkmenistan, Tajikistan and Belarus.

Global interest in the Belarusian league has surged on the back of its decision, while the Tajikistan’s Super Cup final earlier this month attracted a curious multi-lingual online following.

But Belarus, which has confirmed 4,779 coronavirus cases, has been strongly criticised for allowing fans to attend games.

Tajikistan has begun its season with matches held behind closed doors, even as its authoritarian government, like that of Turkmenistan, continues to insist there are no cases in the country.

Ashgabat-based Altyn Asyr, whose name translates as “Golden Age”, won the Turkmen title last year.

Victory against Kopetdag would take it top of the table, with other teams set to play on Monday.

Vepa, a 20-year-old student, said he “never misses a game” and will go to the match on Sunday despite not supporting either team.

His club is Ahal, who represent the region outside Ashgabat from where the family of President Gurbanguly Berdymukhamedov and much of the political elite hail.

Vepa said he was not sure Ahal can mount a serious title challenge but he has high hopes for new signing Elman Tagayev, a 30-year-old midfielder who has returned from a stint with a club in neighbouring Uzbekistan.

“His game is dynamic and beautiful,” said Vepa, who did not give his second name.

– ‘Impregnable fortress of the motherland’ –

Even during Soviet times Turkmenistan was no footballing powerhouse, and the sport is not among those promoted by sports-mad Berdymukhamedov.

On World Health Day on April 7, the president was shown on state television riding a horse and a bicycle as state employees engaged in mass exercise sessions across the country.

Such large public events have prompted observers to question how seriously the government is taking the pandemic.