SPORT-SCAN DAILY BRIEF NHL 6/7/2020 Boston Bruins Vegas Golden Knights 1185937 NHL calendar may be tilted for good 1185960 NHL’s Eastern Conference play-in series preview 1185938 Bruins' Zdeno Chara writes heartfelt statement after 1185961 NHL’s Western Conference play-in series preview Boston 'Black Lives Matter' protest Washington Capitals Chicago Blackhawks 1185962 Sports will play a role in fight for racial equality, and be 1185939 Polling Place: Which Chicago broadcasters are best? held accountable when falling short of expectatio Blackhawks’, Bears’ duos get nods 1185940 First playoff berth gives Connor Murphy chance to prove Websites he’s Blackhawks’ new Niklas Hjalmarsson 1185963 Sportsnet.ca / Quick Shifts: NHL community taking critical 1185941 Toews: 'My message is to white people to open our eyes steps in fighting racism and our hearts' 1185964 Sportsnet.ca / Sarah Nurse urges fellow Canadians not to 'suppress our Black history' Colorado Avalanche 1185942 Q&A with former Avalanche defenseman Jan Hejda World Leagues News 1185943 Chambers: NHL’s summer-long Stanley Cup playoffs this 1185965 Coronavirus wrap: Premier League testing boost as year could become permanent Djokovic shares US Open doubts 1185966 Coronavirus: Virtual events getting popular Columbus Blue Jackets 1185967 More than 150 teams flock to baseball tournament in 1185944 Blue Jackets hope they get in game shape quickly Shawnee, coronavirus concerns remain 1185968 'Covid subs' may get nod in Test cricket Detroit Red Wings 1185969 'I want to play baseball:' Summer travel sports begin 1185945 Mitch Albom: Sports teams have big plans to play — during COVID-19 pandemic except in Detroit 1185970 Pro bowling returns from coronavirus shutdown with 'PBA 1185946 Detroit Red Wings 2015 draft review: Squandered picks Strike Derby' and what they could have had 1185971 What Cooperstown's National Baseball Hall of Fame and Museum is doing amid the coronavirus shutdown Edmonton Oilers 1185972 Why Many Athletes Will Be Left Out When Olympic 1185947 Lowetide: Charting Theodor Lennstrom’s future with the Training Centers Reopen Oilers 1185973 As N.B.A. Mulled Return, Financial Needs Emerged as Central Minnesota Wild 1185974 Big Ten task force focused on mitigating athletes' 1185948 When will pro sports return? Soon. Here's what we know COVID-19 risk SPORT-SCAN, INC. 941-284-4129 Montreal Canadiens 1185949 Racial inequality discussion hits home for Canadiens prospect Jayden Struble New Jersey Devils 1185950 NHL stars bash ESPN’s Max Kellerman for hockey-hating rant New York Islanders 1185951 The best New York athletes to wear every number 1185952 Bryan Trottier's magical playoff run was crucial in Islanders' first Stanley Cup victory New York Rangers 1185953 The best New York athletes to wear every number 1185954 K’Andre Miller’s pain is call to action for all of hockey 1185955 Seth Jones, Jarome Iginla understand how Rangers prospect K'Andre Miller feels about racial identity Ottawa Senators 1185956 Hopefully our pal Walter Miller is teeing it up at a golf course in the sky Pittsburgh Penguins 1185957 Penguins A to Z: Bryan Rust becomes point-per-game player 1185958 Ron Cook: This big question remains regarding sports and COVID-19 Toronto Maple Leafs 1185959 Players speaking out on social justice ‘a huge moment for us’, NHL executive says 1185937 Boston Bruins Again, a reminder: Everything here assumes there are no health hitches. This is one gargantuan undertaking. At minimum, each of those 24 teams will arrive to play in August with NHL calendar may be tilted for good some 35 personnel (players, coaches, trainers, equipment guys, management, etc). The numbers winnow down by a one-third very quickly at the conclusions of the play-in tournament. But still, the league Kevin Paul is attempting to gather some 840 workers, divide them in two hub sites, and then trim back the numbers over two-plus months with everyone still June 6, 2020, 12:07 p.m. standing happy and healthy when the Cup winner is crowned. You betcha. What are the odds nothing backfires? Hockey is expected to take its first baby steps back this coming week Think back to days of yore with maybe a throng of 60 skaters on an with most of the 24 NHL clubs, the Bruins likely among them, beginning outdoor patch of ice for a robust afternoon of town hockey. Could the their informal small-group sessions at rinks throughout the United States best puck wizard out there lug the puck end to end through 60 skaters, and Canada. keep possession, and tuck home the goal? Maybe, if the kid lugging the Provided the Bruins get the good-to-go from Beacon Hill, they’ll unlock puck was Bobby Orr. Otherwise, count on some disruption in the neutral the doors to their Brighton practice facility and players in groups of up to zone. six can start to shake out the kinks that have developed over the last If the players indeed escape healthy, all of the above leads to an three months of dormancy. offseason encompassing most of October, November, and December. For those still keeping score, Sunday marked day No. 88 of life without The draft, normally held in late June, would be the first order of the NHL. Three months. It only feels like the game lapsed back in the business., followed soon (Nov. 1?) by free agency. Training camps, middle of the Bronze Era. normally starting in early September, also would move ahead by at least Where this goes from here, and how quickly it progresses, still remains in 90 days to mid-December. the invisible, deadly vise grip of the coronavirus pandemic. The new season of 2020-21 most likely lifts off with the Winter Classic on In a perfect world (trigger the laugh track), all 24 clubs will begin formal New Year’s Day. The site: Target Field, Minneapolis, the city turned training camps in the 5-7 days following July 4, ultimately leading to the epicenter of racial unrest two weeks ago. return of real-life games, in real empty buildings, on or about Aug. 1. Meanwhile, the league’s vision remains fixed on all clubs playing 82 Such was the aspirational return-to-play plan outlined by the NHL, in games in 2020-21. If so, a Jan. 1 start would set next year’s playoff cycle concert with the Players’ Association, back on May 26. In the near two in motion at the start of July with a September finish. So for the moment, weeks since, substantive updates have been fewer than Bruce the idea that we’ll ever see regular-season games again in October and Shoebottom hat tricks, which speaks, in part, to the complexity of making November appears to be vanishing. Unless the virus has other things in such an ambitious, unprecedented scheme go from drawing board to ice mind. sheet. CHOSEN LEADERS “First and foremost, players have to feel safe about going back,” noted DeBoer suddenly looks Golden agent Matt Keator, longtime representative of Bruins captain Zdeno Chara. “I think they realize nothing is 100 percent risk free. So if they feel Golden Knights coach Peter DeBoer has turned things around in Vegas safe, based on the protocols put in place, and how it’s all executed ... it after becoming head coach in January. all moves forward, cautiously.” Golden Knights coach Peter DeBoer has turned things around in Vegas That said, NHL commissioner Gary Bettman and union boss Donald Fehr after becoming head coach in January.Maddie Meyer/Getty this past week were still in the back and forth of hammering out details, financial and otherwise, of reawakening the business. Money, as always, Alain Vigneault (Flyers), Rick Bowness (Stars), and Peter DeBoer remained a huge talking point. It could become the sticking point that (Golden Knights), three of the eight coaches with byes when the keeps the game sidelined. postseason begins, were all first-year coaches behind their respective benches in 2019-20. Related: NHL playoff season comes with plenty of on-ice questions Vigneault was hired after last season as part of Chuck Fletcher’s Players did not receive their final checks of the regular season, which remodeling of the Broad Streeters. was formally canceled May 26. That frozen money now must be factored into the forever-contentious issue of salary escrow, and how that affects Bowness, who had a one-year tenure as Boston bench boss (1991-92), settling the books in 2019-20 and how escrow will be framed for seasons came aboard in Dallas when Jim Montgomery was abruptly dismissed in to come. We’ve seen too often how fast, how far parsing the dollars can December. go into the hand basket between these sides. DeBoer, canned earlier in the season by San Jose, took over the Knights Provided the dollars get divvied up to everyone’s satisfaction, and games upon the astonishing removal of Gerard Gallant in January, only 18 do resume around Aug. 1, then Round 1 of elimination play — with four months after the latter led the first-year franchise to the Cup Final. Not best-of-five-game series in the East and West — would lead to a much equity in a Cup run, is there? traditional Round-of-16 tournament starting around the third week of The sample size was less than two months, but DeBoer’s impact in the August. desert was powerful. The Knights were poking along at 24-19-6 (.551) The Bruins, remember, will be one of eight teams (four per conference) when GM Kelly McCrimmon ditched Gallant, and DeBoer rallied them to dealt a bye for that preliminary play-in round. Instead, they’d face off in a 15-5-2 (.727) prior to the lockdown, slotting Vegas into the No.