Hockey Hall of Famer and two-time Stanley Cup champion
Joe Sakic is pretty much doing the same as the rest of us during this COVID-19 pandemic.
He’s staying at home, in quarantine with his family and doing things he normally wouldn’t have the time for at this time of the year.
“Staying safe, we’re bundled up here, a lot of to do’s -- cleaning out the garage,” Sakic said during a recent social media interview with
Altitude TV's Kyle Keefe. “Single room is pretty spotless now. It’s something I hadn’t done since I think we moved here. We’re a bunch of hoarders.”
Sakic also has been contact with his players, who he said are healthy and ready to hit a training camp of sorts if and when the NHL gets the go-ahead to resume what remains of the 2019-20 regular season and gear up for a run at the Stanley Cup.
The NHL, along with virtually every other league and sports entity, has been on pause since March 12 because of the pandemic. There has been talk, depending on how the situation develops, that hockey could resume in the summer.
“We’re kind of lucky in our sport because we can play in July and August, even September,” Sakic said. “If we can turn this corner and see that everybody’s back, that’s something that everybody would really welcome.”
How the
NHL MIGHT RESUME SEASON
The Avalanche, despite a rash of injuries to front-line players, were on a 9-2-2 roll when the league shut down. They were two points behind St. Louis for first place in the Western Conference and Central Division with 12 games remaining and a game in hand on the Blues.
“I don’t think you worry about the momentum that you had going in there; everybody is in the same boat,” Sakic said. “Everybody’s been off for a while. There are a lot of guys probably who can’t train the way they normally train in an offseason. I’m sure some people -- I know
Nathan (MacKinnon) has got a gym and I think
Gabe (Landeskog) and a few guys have a gym in the house, so they can probably do more than other guys.”
MacKinnon,
Matt Calvert, Nazem Kadri, Philipp Grubauer and
Colin Wilson were out with lower-body injuries when the Avalanche defeated the New York Rangers 3-2 in overtime on March 11, while
Andre Burakovsky and
Mikko Rantanen were sidelined with upper-body injuries.
“Hopefully we can get back and make a run,” Sakic said. “We’ve got a good group that believes in each other and I think the one benefit we’re going to have -- I guess every team -- we’re going to be healthy. We’ll have a healthy roster, and we were dealing with a lot of injuries at the end and everybody will be back healthy.
“Let’s just hope that everybody can get back to some normalcy here, we can overcome this COVID-19 and get back to playing sports. Hopefully we can come back. If we know we’re coming back, even if it’s late in the summer, that’s a good sign for what’s going on out here.
“Everybody’s got to be safe, quarantine, let’s get over this thing and try to get back to some normalcy. If we can end up playing hockey, that’s a good thing. I know (coach
Jared Bednar) said (we need) a couple weeks (for training camp), but even if it’s two-three weeks I think the one thing is everybody’s in the same boat.
“Once you get to playoff time I’m sure that the energy, everything will be ramped up whether we have fans in the building – hopefully we do, but if not just to have the sport back will be a big thing. If every team goes into the playoffs healthy it’s going to be pretty exciting.
“It’s going to come down to the health, the experts, and see where we are. The next phase for us would be to get our players to come back and start training and being able to do the normal things they usually do in offseason training. We just got to get to that step. Hopefully we’re turning the corner as a society and we’ll get there and athletes can come back to work, everybody can come back to work and get our lives back to as normal as it was before.”
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