Columbus Blue Jackets News Clips June 13-15, 2020 Columbus Blue Jackets PAGE 02: Columbus Dispatch: Post-bunker view: Maybe NHL should focus on 2021 PAGE 04: Columbus Dispatch: Blue Jackets’ John Tortorella ‘listens and learns’ on anthem protests Cleveland Monsters/Prospects NHL/Websites PAGE 06: The Athletic: ‘There is racism still very alive and well’: The Indigenous experience in hockey PAGE 15: The Athletic: By the numbers: Revisiting the true value of a draft pick PAGE 17: Sportsnet.ca: Vegas will be NHL hub city for Stanley Cup Playoffs when play resumes PAGE 18: The Athletic: With Vegas the frontrunner to host NHL’s return, which city is the second hub? PAGE 23: The Athletic: Bourne: With subjectivity in awards voting, a look at one ballot’s priorities 1 Columbus Dispatch / Post-bunker view: Maybe NHL should focus on 2021 By Michael Arace – June 13, 2020 Today we rejoin former Dispatch diarist John Forslund, the longtime voice of the Carolina Hurricanes. Although it seems like a million years ago, it was only the second week of March when Forslund was one of the first people in the country to be ordered into a two-week quarantine, for fear he had been exposed to the coronavirus. He lent us daily reports that roamed wherever his supple mind went during his isolation. Nearly 13 weeks after he emerged from his basement bunker, he’s back. "I’m doing great," Forslund said. "Looking back at those two weeks, the daily conversations we had were very therapeutic for me. It’s good to talk to Columbus again. How’s everybody doing?" Forslund went down a very dark hole and became a cable-news junkie during his lonely, mid-March fortnight. Back then, he was dubious about restarting pro sports amid the COVID-19 pandemic. Although he still has doubts, he is now more sanguine on the subject. "The country is starved for live sports and hockey fans are rabid," he said. "I hope they play this summer. I’ve heard mixed reviews from players. Some want to get going. Some are very apprehensive. It’s representative of our society at the moment, I think. We’ve got people who are acting like there’s no coronavirus, others who are stuck in the fetal position." Given that he has been broadcasting NHL games at local and national levels for a quarter century, hockey is Forslund’s primary filter. He still sees the state of the game through a wide-angle lens. The league has plans to finish the season with a 24-team tournament that will decide a Stanley Cup champion. All good — but what about the future? "I worry about next season," Forslund said. "I understand the economics of restarting, but the key to me are the bridges — the ones that have to be crossed next season, including the players’ bridge to a new (collective bargaining agreement). I think it’s all intertwined. And there are a lot of questions." With the virus still out there, he wonders if it would be better for the league to focus on the 2020-21 season. Would it be preferable to have "a traditional summer rhythm" with a draft and a free-agent season? What of the distinct possibility of a second wave of the virus? Should the league tread more carefully until there is a vaccine? How does all of this affect a business that needs to go on and, at some point, must have fans in the buildings? "The optimists are thinking that, by the conference finals, the last two or four teams will be able to have some fans in the building," Forslund said. "That’d be great. I still worry about next season. If (pre- tournament) training camps open sometime in the second week of July and they start playing in early August, this (tournament) might not be over until sometime in October. "OK, then, is December the start of the new season? January? You’d think that’s where it has to be. … What if you’re one of the seven teams that won’t play a game between March 12 and Jan. 2? Are you telling me (New Jersey Devils star) Jack Hughes, who just turned 19, is going to go eight months without playing a game?" 2 As Forslund further widens the angle of his lens he wonders: Is a January start something the league could adopt? It’d make sense in Columbus — where the Jackets sometimes struggle with their gate during football season — and many other markets. Leave autumn to football, start the NBA season on Christmas Day (some tradition there) and the NHL season on New Year’s Day (some tradition there, too)? This would set up winter months with less competition for fans’ disposable income, and spring and early summer months with a head-to-head with baseball. The NHL could still wrap by July 1, if it wanted to. "All of this, to me, is very interesting," Forslund said. Is it a far-fetched fantasy? Maybe. Maybe not. Long have there been rumors that such a scenario has been spitballed, if not spread-sheeted, at the league office. Owners do not like October hockey. They’re not too keen on November, either. Presently, they’re pining for August hockey. So is Forslund, who will handle some play-by-play on NBC Sports networks when the tournament begins. Most likely, he will be calling games from the NBCSN studios in Stamford, Connecticut. "It’s going to be different," he said. "TV is very do-able. With the technology, it’ll definitely be good. But they’re going to want publicity and there’s no way to cover it (for most media). Everything (off-ice) is going to be Zoomed. Radio calls are going to come off TV feeds. You might as well yell out the window." In the 1930s, Ronald Reagan "called" Chicago Cubs games on radio by reading telegraph messages. Perhaps we’ll see the launch of another president. It could happen, according to Johnny’s Post-Bunker Report. 3 Columbus Dispatch / Blue Jackets’ John Tortorella ‘listens and learns’ on anthem protests By Brian Hedger – June 15, 2020 John Tortorella’s heart has not changed. His mind, however, is a different matter. The Blue Jackets coach remains an adamant believer in standing during renditions of the national anthem, facing the Stars and Stripes and paying his respects to those who have served and currently serve in the military. That group includes his son, Nick, an Army Ranger. It’s something he’ll always do, something that is sacrosanct on a personal level. But Tortorella also has gleaned a new perspective about anthem protests since telling ESPN before the 2016 World Cup of Hockey: "If any of my players sit on the bench during the national anthem, they will sit there the rest of the game." Four years later, after watching America continue to struggle with the concepts of equality and civil rights, Tortorella has a better idea why some may choose to take a knee. "I will always stand in front of that flag during the anthem because I believe that is the time to reflect and show respect to the men and women who have given their lives, and the men and women who are still serving, to defend our Constitution and give us our freedoms," he said last week in an interview with The Dispatch. "That has not changed. Where I have, I guess, listened and learned and tried to educate myself is, ‘What are the feelings of the men and women who are kneeling?’ I’ve tried to understand that better." In that regard, he has come a long way. At the time of Tortorella’s "benching" decree in 2016, the athletic landscape within the U.S. was embroiled in controversy. It swirled around former San Francisco 49ers quarterback Colin Kaepernick, who had begun to sit on the bench during the anthem to protest racial inequality and police brutality against Black Americans. After a conversation with a retired Green Beret named Nate Boyer, then a 34-year-old rookie long- snapper trying out with the Seattle Seahawks, Kaepernick took a knee instead. He had multiple family members who’d served; his protest wasn’t about the military, and according to Boyer, the two reached a "respectful" compromise in the form of kneeling. At the time, as Kaepernick's kneeling roiled the sports world, Tortorella didn’t know about Boyer or that branch of the story. He just saw NFL players and other athletes following Kaepernick’s lead, kneeling during the anthem, and felt a boiling pot of disrespect welling up. Now, he knows all about Kaepernick’s switch to the knee and why it happened, calling it "quite a story." That’s not all the Jackets’ fiery coach has learned the past four years, either. After looking into the movement even further, he has a better grasp of what drove Kaepernick and others to protest in the first place. He said he has realized there is an important distinction to be made, which runs right to the root of what it means to be a U.S. citizen. 4 "That I choose to stand during the anthem," Tortorella said, "does not mean that I don’t think there is a need for justice reform that assures the protection of all civil rights to all people." Introspection led to his change in thought. It is also what keeps Tortorella’s heart resolute in his personal dedication to standing for the anthem. That duality is important to remember.