An incomplete season — one without playoffs — will cost the National Hockey League more than $500 million in gate revenue.
That would mean the cancellation of the 189 games that remain on the regular-season schedule. And that would mean no Stanley Cup playoffs of any kind would be played: In most years there are between 85-90 playoff games.
That’s a huge hit financially for the gate-driven NHL, which has already put in place a provision with the Players’ Association for dealing with the severe drop in hockey-related revenue, and how it would affect the upcoming season’s salary cap.
Under regular circumstances, the size of the cap is determined by a set economic formula. If the formula was applied in a season with so much revenue lost, the cap would drop significantly. The NHL, realizing how troublesome that would be for so many franchises, has taken a strong position here and the players would have no reason to quarrel over this.
Of course, there is no way of knowing if or when the season will be resumed. All of that is controlled by those making the coronavirus determinations.
This is not a hockey decision, nor should it be.
But under these difficult circumstances, facing potentially significant financial losses, the NHL has done well to prevent a hockey fear of sorts over what could have been a dropping cap. The cap has gone up six consecutive seasons and was thought to be going as high as $88 million for the coming season. That was before the season was put on hold.
THIS AND THAT
NHL players will be paid for the final 15% of the season, whether it’s played or not. I’m told that NBA players won’t be paid for the rest of the regular season if games are not played … The sports media seems consumed with whether arena workers will be paid or who will pay them during this stoppage? That’s nice. It’s small, big picture. I’m more concerned about businesses that employ people that are temporarily or permanently shutting down and all those Canadians concerned about their employment and their professions. This is an uncertain time for a lot more than arena workers … The Winnipeg Jets are owned by Canada’s wealthiest man, David Thomson. What an embarrassment it would be if he doesn’t take care of his arena workers throughout this period …The new March Madness: grocery store shopping … Buffalo Sabres had the second pick in the 2014 NHL Draft. They selected Sam Reinhart. They passed on Leon Draisaitl. Imagine a Sabres team now with Draisaitl and Jack Eichel? That would be a modern-day version of Sidney Crosby and Evgeni Malkin … I don’t know what’s worse? No games to watch or nothing but a virus to talk about … Sheldon Keefe has a 27-15-5 record record in his first NHL season since taking over as Leafs coach. That’s 102-point pace, the seventh best record in the Eastern Conference, 10th best in the NHL … Having lived the minor hockey life for years, I’m so sad for the kids who won’t complete their seasons. You don’t get that precious time back.
HEAR AND THERE
I’m no doctor but when I saw sweaty Raptors players hugging sweaty Utah players at the end of their game on Monday night, in light of the world circumstances, I said right away, that’s not good. Unrelated from the hugs, right after that Rudy Gobert tested positive for the coronavirus and passes it on to teammate Donovan Mitchell … If there is still an NBA season or playoffs to be played, one thing that might be nice for the Raptors: player rest. All season long they’ve been forcing a roster of whomever was available and dealing with so many injuries. Now, Norm Powell can get healthy, Fred Van Vleet can get healthy, Marc Gasol can get ready, Kyle Lowry can get rest. If they do have playoffs and the Raptors are complete, they’re going to be a dangerous team. They’re a dangerous team without everybody healthy. What happens when everybody is well enough to play? … Some people are hoarding toilet paper and hand wipes. I’m hoarding Diet Dr. Pepper … We’ve never really seen an athlete like Pascal Siakam before — going from 4.2 points a game, to 7.3 to 16.9 to 23.6 in his four NBA seasons. And still with places to go. Rebounding has grown from 3.1 to 4.5 to 6.9 to 7.5 in his career. Rarely is this kind of steady and annual improvement seen at the professional level of any sport.
SCENE AND HEARD
Sometimes, it’s how you sound, not what you are saying. Commissioners Adam Silver and Gary Bettman can say the exact same thing and it comes out completely differently. When Mark Shapiro talked about the Blue Jays cancellation being “more focused on our community and broader mankind and we’re all dealing with the uncertainty that lies ahead and doing the best we can to navigate through this challenge,” he sounds like a textbook I hated reading in university … Some guys aren’t this fortunate. The just returning Morgan Rielly gets to spend his time away with girlfriend, Tessa Virtue. Is this like the nicest couple ever, nice kid hockey player and the nicest of all-time women figure skaters … Rielly on what he saw of the Leafs during his time out with injury: “I’m a bad scout.” … Leafs pick Nick Robertson’s season in Peterborough was halted at 55 goals in 46 games. Can he score in the NHL? Similarly sized Alex DeBrincat, a little smaller than Robertson, had 28 and 41 goals in his first two NHL seasons directly out of junior hockey … Centres faster than Brayden Point in the NHL: Connor McDavid. Nathan MacKinnon. Then who? … Jon Cooper figures Washington”s John Carlson wins the Norris Trophy. “Look at his numbers,” said Cooper. “He’s elite.” His general manager, Julien BriseBois, doesn’t agree. If he was voting, he’d pick with his own defenceman, Victor Hedman. It’s an easy top three with Roman Josi of Nashville. The question is, which order do you place them? And do you actually have awards in a season that doesn’t necessarily end?
AND ANOTHER THING
What I’d like to see again on television in a world without games: The entire 1993 World Series; The final series of the 1987 Canada Cup; All six games of last year’s NBA Finals; Any of the Muhammad Ali fights with Joe Frazier and all eight minutes of Marvin Hagler fighting Thomas Hearns; Oilers-Flames hockey from the 80s; The batflip game; The men’s gold medal hockey game from Vancouver, the women’s gold medal hockey game from Sochi; Donovan Bailey’s gold-medal races; New Year’s Eve 1975 — Montreal Canadiens against the Soviet Red Army team; Lanny McDonald’s overtime goal to beat the Islanders; The 1989 Grey Cup and the 1996 Grey Cup in the snow in Hamilton with Doug Flutie. And that’s just a start … Word is, former CFL mainstay Chris Jones is staying with the Cleveland Browns in a personnel role. He wasn’t fired when head coach Freddie Kitchens was let go. He was moved from a coaching job to more of a scouting position … My new best friend: Netflix … It’s the tree fall in the forrest thing. If the XFL stopped playing, how would anybody know? … Give the Columbus Blue Jackets credit. Whoever came up with the Torts 2020 election T-shirts has a mind for commerce … Kind of a shame that the goal-scoring championship in the NHL might not be settled, with David Pastrnak and Alex Ovechkin at 48 and Auston Matthews at 47. There hadn’t been three 50-goal scorers in a season since 2010. That was Ovechkin, Sidney Crosby and Steven Stamkos … Not sure how playing a golf tournament with players, caddies and no fans is a health hazard to anyone … When they were talking about playing games without fans in the stands, I kept thinking of the Atlanta Thrashers games I’d been to, when the arena wasn’t completely empty but seemed that way … Happy birthday to Darcy Tucker (45), James Reimer (32), Steph Curry (32), Anthony Bennett (27), DeVier Posey (30), The Iron Sheik (78), Mark Scheifele (27), Dave McKay (70) and Wes Unseld (74) … And hey, whatever became of Bob Goodenow?
BEST GOALIE? THERE’S NO OBVIOUS ANSWER
Who’s the best goalie in the NHL? For the first time in a long time, there is no obvious answer.
There is no Patrick Roy. There is no Dominik Hasek. There is no Martin Brodeur, maybe not an Ed Belfour.
The last six years there have been six different Vezina Trophy winners. In the last 10 years, there have been nine different Vezina Trophy winners. For a moment in time, maybe longer, it appeared as though Carey Price would be that guy, the game changer, the difference maker, but through injuries and team difficulty and inconsistency he is there sometimes, not there other times.
Most eras in hockey can be defined by great goatlending. The 1960s had Glenn Hall, Johnny Bower, Terry Sawchuk and Jacques Plante.
The ’70s had Ken Dryden and Tony Esposito and Bernie Parent. The ’80s had Grant Fuhr, Billy Smith, and later Roy. The ’90s were stacked with Roy, Hasek, Belfour and Brodeur, who carried on for the next decade as well. All those goalies Hall of Famers.
So now, who? Tampa’s Andrei Vasilevskiy won the Vezina last year, but won’t win it this year. Price isn’t even a candidate. Tuukka Rask and Connor Hellebuyck have the best statistics this year, but neither goalie is what you’d call generational. This is a new decade and there’s time for someone to step forward.
RAPTORS LOVE HAS GROWN
The crazy celebrations of last June, connecting so many Canadians suddenly engaged with the success of the Toronto Raptors, will never be forgotten. There was a sporting excitement in the country we’d rarely known before.
And this season, with Kawhi Leonard leaving after one year, with the apparent championship hangover looming, it was easy to expect a challenging season for the Raptors.
But if you loved the team last June, maybe you love them just a little bit more right now.
Last year was a once-in-a-lifetime run for the Raptors, ending with eight victories in 10 games against the Milwaukee Bucks and what was left of the Golden State Warriors. This year has been mountain climb after mountain climb, victory after victory, a season before interruption of shake your head wins and shake your head lineups: There has been, before coronavirus, no championship hangover of any kind.
This Raptors season has been a miracle all its own, completely different from the championship run, the bouncing ball, or last spring. Not hitting expectations but exceeding them. Career seasons from Kyle Lowry, Pascal Siakam, Serge Ibaka, O.G. Anunoby, Norm Powell, when healthy Fred VanVleet. All at once. A season later to appreciate the value of coach Nick Nurse.
I don’t necessarily care whether any seasons in any sport come back in the short term with health and safety my greatest concern, but I do care to see a conclusion to this Raptors season.
MATTHEWS WON’T GET NEAR VAIVE
Rick Vaive’s record is safe.
Auston Matthews won’t be scoring 54 goals this season for the Maple Leafs. And if the regular season is called off, which seems rather likely, then he ends the season with 47 and with 10 games eliminated from the schedule.
The number will be a dangle for Matthews in the future, and from a season in which his game has grown and when he’s on — which he still isn’t on too many nights — he’s become more than just a goal scorer. He’s carried the puck more. He’s holding the puck longer. He’s impacting the game more.
There was talk, before the season was halted, that maybe Matthews can grow into a Hart Trophy candidate and Selke Trophy candidate in the future. So far, in four years in the NHL, he received very few Hart votes and none after his rookie year. This season, with Leon Draisaitl, Connor McDavid, David Pastrnak, Jack Eichel, Nathan MacKinnon, Artemi Panarin all legitimate Hart candidates, it’s hard to see where Matthews would get many votes this time around.
He won’t get many Selke votes either if people are watching closely (he could win Lady Byng). He still has to work to do on the defensive side of his game. He can still be sloppy with the puck in his own end.
Next year is Year 5 for Matthews. He’s not a kid anymore.
By Year 5, Wayne Gretzky, Sidney Crosby, Jonathan Toews had all won Stanley Cups.
