![]() ![]() But what if teams find it lucrative just to put up more advertising in the arenas and stadiums with more people watching on TV, theoretically?įour-time Stanley Cup champion Darren McCarty, who won three Cups under Hall-of-Fame coach Scotty Bowman, was the latest retired player to detail the experience with Babcock behind the bench. And I understand ticket revenue must be recouped. I’ve often wondered, if a quarterback falls in a forest of tacklers and no one is there to make noise, did it happen? OK, I’ve never wondered that. And here’s what else is concerning - what if it works too well? What if leagues grow accustomed to the arrangement, and fans find it adequate to sit at home and watch? What if sports entities find the easiest way to address safety issues is by keeping fans away even longer? ![]() But I’m concerned once the no-fan curiosity wears off, the games will look like stilted exhibitions. If it’s the only way to make it work during the pandemic, I suppose we do it. Or hey, check out the other channels showing continuous episodes of the NBA and NHL playoffs. Perhaps as early as July, you could binge-watch an 82-game Major League Baseball schedule. Sports could become what it’s essentially been for many people - a TV show. And by most projections, there will be no fans in the stadiums or arenas, not for a while. We will have sports again, if not by the force of passion, by the force of money. The NHL loves to talk about tradition when it fits their commercial purposes, but the status of what was once beloved as a winter game was altered long ago by growth into southern climes and now stands to be further twisted by holding the most important games in deep summer.Įven now, after most of us have accepted the new reality, it still seems unfathomable. That playing well beyond Canada Day is something Bettman and his owners are seriously considering just shows how desperate they are getting to find a way to “complete” the 2019-20 campaign, particularly in a way that satisfies their broadcast partners. Couldn’t wait another day to cancel the season.Ĭlearly, the NHL is flexible with the parameters of its season when it wants to be, and not at all other times. ![]() 16, 2005 when Bettman unilaterally cancelled the 2004-05 season because it was “no longer practical to conduct even an abbreviated season.” Couldn’t dream of playing into July then. Funny, but that didn’t seem to be the way things operated back on Feb. Suddenly, anything’s possible for Gary (Mr. Accordingly, it appears there’s a plan being advanced by the return-to-play committee to stretch the 2019-20 season into August, maybe even September, and start the next one in December. The NHL seems particularly hell-bent on discarding any sense that a hockey season should be contained to a particular time of year. And I could see none of them getting in and I don’t know if you could argue against that.” “I could see all five getting in and you really couldn’t argue against them. Three of them played for us,” said Jimmy Devellano, the former general manager of the Detroit Red Wings and an elected member of the Hall. “I know all five of them very well and I like every one of them. But all five goaltenders, through similar eras and a wide-ranging of both statistical and eye test discrepancies, are worthy of consideration. They may get in one day, they may never get in. All five candidates are more in the borderline range in a position that is under represented in the Hall. Not one of them is a sure thing to make the Hall the way Patrick Roy, Martin Brodeur, Dominik Hasek and Ed Belfour were slam-dunk choices. How do you select Tom Barrasso over Mike Vernon? Mike Richter over Curtis Joseph? Chris Osgood over Vernon? Joseph over Barrasso? Richter over Osgood? The great goaltender logjam - who was better than whom - continues to challenge voters for the Hockey Hall of Fame.
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