The Canadiens were meant to lose, ooops to play, against the Buffalo Sabres last night but the puck never dropped since the news came early in the afternoon that the NHL season was suspended. No word yet on how long for, the league intends to keep monitoring the situation and resume its activities when it's wise and prudent to do so. At this stage, it's hard to know when that might be. The Major League Soccer suspended its activities for 30 days, the English Premier League announced that everything was postponed until April 2nd but even though they did put a date on the duration, you can expect them to reevaluate the situation and renew the suspension if needs be and not to be too alarmist, but it wouldn't surprise me if it was.
Clearly, the NHL hopes to both finish the regular season and have the playoffs after but how long can that plan remind viable? I mean take the Bell Centre for instance, when the hockey season is over, there are more shows and activities planned there. Not that it's relevant this year since the Habs will not make the Spring (or Summer) dance but it's the same in every city. That being said, more and more of these events are getting cancelled. Even though there are still months to go before they are scheduled to take place.
Stay safe everyone.
— Max Domi (@max_domi) March 12, 2020
It's been over one hundred years since the Stanley Cup wasn't awarded for health reasons, it was 1919 and the world was battling the Spanish Influenza. Back then though, the league was stubborn and they only ceased their activities after game 5 of the Cup final. By then, both the Habs manager and most of their players were ill and had to be hospitalized, in fact only 3 players remained healthy and 4 days later, one of the Montreal players died. As for George Kennedy, the manager, the illness permanently weakened him and he died a few years later. The league didn't wait to be that far down the line this time and while some will say this is an over reaction, I don't think it is. The Athletic is reporting that the Stars are currently trying to get a COVID-19 test kit to test Alex Radulov as he has been ill. Apparently, they quarantined him for the whole time and he's feeling much better now but still. Anyone can catch this thing and god knows illness spread so fast in a locker room context...Remember the mumps outbreak in the league in 2017? The difference is, that couldn't kill people. Of course, professional athletes are in great shape and probably wouldn't die from the COVID-19 but they do have families and they can pass it on to them. Babies with immune systems still forming, elderly relatives who are easy targets, we may not like it, but pulling the plug was the right thing to do.
Soyez prudents. On se revoit bientôt. 💙ðŸ¤â¤ï¸
— Canadiens Montréal (@CanadiensMTL) March 12, 2020
Stay safe everyone. We'll see you soon.
For those who had tickets for the remaining home games, sit tight we'll know later if they'll be refunded or just valid at an ulterior date, should the league be able to resume its activities. And for the French speakers amongst us, well, we can at least crack a smile at the Senators' attempt to translate a press release... Guess a translator was too pricey and they went with Google translate:
During these dark days, we can at least laugh at the Sens French attempt... pic.twitter.com/iBRx63jN24
— Karine Hains (@Pheebs888) March 13, 2020