Observations XXVIII

[PredsV82]

As frustrating as it is, its infinitely better than cancelling this season with no playoffs, and starting in October in empty buildings. Having hockey to watch from July to October, then getting back in the buildings after Christmas(maybe kick off the season with the Winter Classic) will be very satisfying given the state of affairs right now

 

[Armourboy]

So it was announced today that official training camps will not begin until at least July 10, and even that is not a guarantee.

JULY 10?? That is 42 freaking days from now. We are still in May and we might be looking at August before the season starts back.

Completely ridiculous- just shut the thing down and start next season on time...….

Yep. Just shut it down, handle the draft and free agency without this convoluted mess and let players and teams move on. Trying to push two seasons into one is silly.

 

[Armourboy]

As frustrating as it is, its infinitely better than cancelling this season with no playoffs, and starting in October in empty buildings. Having hockey to watch from July to October, then getting back in the buildings after Christmas(maybe kick off the season with the Winter Classic) will be very satisfying given the state of affairs right now

You won't have it in July. Training camps at the earliest on July 10th put camps not being over til August. All of this is assuming things go as planned as well.

 

[Scoresberg]

I don’t understand what’s the problem here? Obviously, we’d like the season to start as soon as possible but there are countless obstacles standing in the way so I can understand why it will drag to August.

From there, the playoffs take about two months and the season will end in late-September. Then about 2-3 months offseason and start in December. Next season, cut the byes and the ASG and drag the playoffs in late June like 2013. From there, you should have a normal 2021-2022 season when Seattle comes in.

A win-win situation where you can get the revenue you can from this year and declare the champion, and you probably get to play the next season completely with fans in the arenas which probably is not possible in October.

 

[Armourboy]

I don’t understand what’s the problem here? Obviously, we’d like the season to start as soon as possible but there are countless obstacles standing in the way so I can understand why it will drag to August.

From there, the playoffs take about two months and the season will end in late-September. Then about 2-3 months offseason and start in December. Next season, cut the byes and the ASG and drag the playoffs in late June like 2013. From there, you should have a normal 2021-2022 season when Seattle comes in.

I'd rather just see the season start when it should. I've already tossed out this season as over.

 

[Porter Stoutheart]

First, and I may be wrong, but I think this is at least in part a gamble by Bettman that having hockey to watch with no other sports to compete with will lead to an increase in overall hockey fandom. People are clearly starving for any kind of live sports programming.

Second, and again some of you may disagree, but I dont think there is a chance in hell of having fans in attendance indoors in October, and it's one thing to have the playoffs of an unfinished season finished without fans, but it's another entirely to propose starting the next regular season with no gate income.

So I think the current plan is making the best of a very bad situation.

Yeah, it sounds more and more like there is basically ZERO immediate financial benefit to doing these playoffs. Bettman keeps saying it. Whatever small amount of marketing/broadcast revenue they do get from it will be swallowed up by their logistical costs. There is no magic unreported bucket of cash coming in from this thing.

Instead, I think they really are just angling for a longer-term marketing gain. Filling the void that currently exists in society, giving people an outlet for distraction/entertainment, which is partly beneficial from a socio-political perspective too, but from the NHL's perspective hopefully pays off for them in terms of winning a larger audience down the road. It sounds like baseball is facing some issues getting their season sorted out. No idea where other major sports are headed. But if the NHL can slide in and win more fans, that's their payoff out of it all.

They have some built-in protections in terms of the 50/50 HRR split and escrow, so they might be in a better position to leverage a return-to-play option than some other sports. They have CBA and TV contract renewals coming up. Maintaining and possibly even building the fanbase are key components to those upcoming milestones. So never mind making any money today from this tournament... it's apparently not at all about that as we were originally thinking it would be.

 

[FossilFndr]

I'd rather just see the season start when it should. I've already tossed out this season as over.

I'd like to see ANYTHING be as it should.

 

[drwpreds]

I don’t understand what’s the problem here? Obviously, we’d like the season to start as soon as possible but there are countless obstacles standing in the way so I can understand why it will drag to August.

From there, the playoffs take about two months and the season will end in late-September. Then about 2-3 months offseason and start in December. Next season, cut the byes and the ASG and drag the playoffs in late June like 2013. From there, you should have a normal 2021-2022 season when Seattle comes in.

A win-win situation where you can get the revenue you can from this year and declare the champion, and you probably get to play the next season completely with fans in the arenas which probably is not possible in October.

I guess my problem is basically with all 3 sports leagues- there is absolutely no way it should take until August to get the season started. NBA hasn't even announced a plan yet, and MLB is a complete mess. All of these leagues are missing a huge opportunity to own the sports world, and they are all blowing it.

If we were talking about bringing sports back as normal with fans, traveling to all cities, etc? If that were the case then taking so long would probably make some sense.

But games with no fans in one or two hub cities??? I get that there are alot of things to sort out, but it should not take 42 days just to START training camp.

 

[Predsanddead24]

I guess my problem is basically with all 3 sports leagues- there is absolutely no way it should take until August to get the season started. NBA hasn't even announced a plan yet, and MLB is a complete mess. All of these leagues are missing a huge opportunity to own the sports world, and they are all blowing it.

If we were talking about bringing sports back as normal with fans, traveling to all cities, etc? If that were the case then taking so long would probably make some sense.

But games with no fans in one or two hub cities??? I get that there are alot of things to sort out, but it should not take 42 days just to START training camp.

Yeah it's pretty insane when you look at how quickly all the European soccer leagues have been able to get going once the governmental hurdles have been cleared. Granted I don't believe any of those leagues have nearly as strong of player's unions, which has been one of the issues with getting things going here (particularly the MLB). It seems to me that they should have been sorting all of this out in the last 2 1/2 months so they were ready to go forward with a plan as soon as it became logistically possible rather than waiting for it to be logistically possible then making a plan.

 

[Porter Stoutheart]

The only holdups now are based on public health, right? I know they haven't actually picked the final hub cities, but nevertheless have researched the candidates and related logistics thoroughly enough that that choice could be done in a day if they were really prepared to move forward. I don't suppose anybody knows what their internal public health thresholds are, but presumably that's all that's stopping camps from starting today. They simply aren't reassured of the overall public health risk yet, correct? Not enough evidence that the virus is on the retreat yet, basically?

They are just demonstrating "abundance of caution", rather than having dropped the ball on researching or planning anything?

 

[Predsanddead24]

I could be wrong but my understanding is that they really have no plan currently for how anything is going to work logistically even if the public health risks are what they deem acceptable. ESPN has an interview with Brind'Amour today and it seems like even he has very little concept of how things are going to work. The most salient quote for this discussion is:

ESPN: Can you allow yourself to get excited about this, knowing that there's so much uncertainty left to be settled?

Brind'Amour:
"I think initially it was excitement, just because it felt like, "Oh, it's going to happen." You watch the press conference and you say "Oh, it looks pretty exciting. We're going to have some hockey." The next day, we're figuring out how we're going to do all of this, and then I'm like, "Oh my gosh. How is this actually going to work?"

And then this is just us here, with the variables you can control, you know, putting all these people and teams in a place and, how are you going to work out? Where are you going to go? Where are you going to stay? What's the practice like? All the questions just start coming in and you're like, "I've no idea how that's going to work."

So somebody, I assume, is trying to figure this out. To me, that's the hardest part. Figuring out the format, like I said, I think that's pretty easy to do. But now the work begins for everybody to try to figure out how we can make this work."

 

[drwpreds]

The only holdups now are based on public health, right? I know they haven't actually picked the final hub cities, but nevertheless have researched the candidates and related logistics thoroughly enough that that choice could be done in a day if they were really prepared to move forward. I don't suppose anybody knows what their internal public health thresholds are, but presumably that's all that's stopping camps from starting today. They simply aren't reassured of the overall public health risk yet, correct? Not enough evidence that the virus is on the retreat yet, basically?

They are just demonstrating "abundance of caution", rather than having dropped the ball on researching or planning anything?

If the only hold up is public health risk then (and this is just my opinion here) it is all the more ridiculous. Again, if they were trying to start things back as normal, with fans- then that would make sense.

But playing in empty arenas in 1 city (2 total)?

Someone will have to explain to me why that is such a huge risk when the vast majority of America is back to work and trying to keep this country from going down the tubes. I have gone into this at great detail in other threads so I won't do so here, but again I ask- is anyone in charge actually looking at the data??

There is virtually 0 risk for any of these athletes- not a single athlete in any sport in the world has even gotten sick from this virus. Not to mention they are going to be tested every freaking day and will have the best medical care in the world available to them 24/7. Heck, for ANYONE under 50 you have just as great a chance of dying from the flu. Do we shut down sports for that? Of course not

I have been to the grocery store/restaurants/ costco, etc just like millions of people are. That is 100 times more risky than anything these athletes will have to face playing a game in empty arenas. They literally would have more risk driving to the arena or getting on a flight to go to the hub city.

I get being cautious- but they are going way overboard in my opinion and it should not take 42 days just to start training camp.

 

[PredsV82]

I guess my problem is basically with all 3 sports leagues- there is absolutely no way it should take until August to get the season started. NBA hasn't even announced a plan yet, and MLB is a complete mess. All of these leagues are missing a huge opportunity to own the sports world, and they are all blowing it.

If we were talking about bringing sports back as normal with fans, traveling to all cities, etc? If that were the case then taking so long would probably make some sense.

But games with no fans in one or two hub cities??? I get that there are alot of things to sort out, but it should not take 42 days just to START training camp.

I would imagine the 42 days is a combination of the players demanding a few weeks to work themselves into shape before camp and the league making sure of two things, one that everything logistically needed (daily testing, quarantine facilities, etc) would be in place and second enough time to make sure there isnt a second spike which would lead to another shutdown. I hate it, but I understand it and I accept it.

 

[Porter Stoutheart]

...
There is virtually 0 risk for any of these athletes- not a single athlete in any sport in the world has even gotten sick from this virus. Not to mention they are going to be tested every freaking day and will have the best medical care in the world available to them 24/7. Heck, for ANYONE under 50 you have just as great a chance of dying from the flu. Do we shut down sports for that? Of course not
...

Why do you think this? Are you trying to draw a distinction between some vague definition of "gotten sick" and "tested positive"? I see articles about 3 Avs players and 5 Sens players testing positive, and recovering from symptoms has been mentioned in some articles, so they aren't all just asymptomatic positive tests.

Did anybody die? I don't know, I'm not following all athletes in all sports in the entire world. It seems very very unlikely that at least somebody amongst 360,000 deaths wasn't an athlete of some kind in some sport. But again, that's not really supposed to be the point, is it? Lots of them tested positive and got sick. They are young and healthy and recovered or will recover. But were still capable of transmitting the disease to more vulnerable people they came into contact with.

And that's the whole point with this virus. It has a higher transmission rate, and it has the nefarious element of a long incubation or even being carried asymptomatically. A lot of the positive tests in basketball and hockey showed up after going through the same arena. Was it SJ or LA, I don't know, but the Nets and Avs and Sens were all part of that 'hub'. Get just one case in your hub arena for this tournament, and many players will get it.

Colorado Avalanche player tests positive for COVID-19

"Two members of the Lakers also are known to have tested positive, along with four players on the Brooklyn Nets — who visited Staples Center on March 10 — Rudy Gobert and Donovan Mitchell of the Utah Jazz, Marcus Smart of the Boston Celtics and Christian Wood of the Detroit Pistons. Wood’s agent said Wednesday that his client has fully recovered."

Von Miller of the Denver Broncos talked about the effects he experienced with Covid-19. Go ahead and google it, you'll probably find dozens, I'm just skimming the front page.

It doesn't seem like NHL teams are rushing to announce the names of players who had it, though. Not sure why there should be any real stigma. But it's fair to expect that more players have had it as well. Just as we tend to expect that many more people in the general population have also had it than are officially tested and counted so far.

 

[Marty Party]

Just received a five minute survey from the NHL via email. Most of the questions are geared toward my current frame of mind, my plans for next season and how I feel the Preds have handled their response to Covid.

I answered honestly but it's good to see that they're reaching out to fans, who attend games, for their opinions.

 

[PredsV82]

Drw I'll point you to the COVID thread and the Vox article in the Eric Topol tweet.

Quite a few survivors have permanent damage to their lungs, heart, or brain, any one of which would be a career ender for a pro athlete. It's not just a binary between you either have a mild case or you die.

 

[ILikeItILoveIt]

I think MLB, NFL, NBA, and NHL are playing "you go first .... no, you go first ... no, I insist, please, you go first ...". There are so many variables, nobody wants to be the league that screws up. MLB has major economic issues. They're asking players to play an 82-game season at 30%%-to-40% of their salaries. NFL has the most time to play with. NBA and NHL are trying to keep the integrity of the 19-20 season and crown a champ, and at the same time, push the start of 20-21 out far enough to get fans back in buildings. NBA is talking Orlando and Disney said they are re-opening their parks in July.

NBA and NHL will be playing real games by the end of July, early August.

Best of 5 against the Yotes. Revenge for 2012 or major choke and we whimper quietly away. Fan emotions will be tested. No games for months, and then bang, do-or-die playoffs. Kinda shocks the system.

Good practice: The Simulated Preds play the Simulated Flyers for the Cup beginning Tuesday, June 2nd , on Fox Sports. Rinne has been in net for the entire playoffs. Simulated Pekka has found the Fountain of Youth.

 

[GoldOnGold]

I think MLB, NFL, NBA, and NHL are playing "you go first .... no, you go first ... no, I insist, please, you go first ...". There are so many variables, nobody wants to be the league that screws up. MLB has major economic issues. They're asking players to play an 82-game season at 30%%-to-40% of their salaries. NFL has the most time to play with. NBA and NHL are trying to keep the integrity of the 19-20 season and crown a champ, and at the same time, push the start of 20-21 out far enough to get fans back in buildings. NBA is talking Orlando and Disney said they are re-opening their parks in July.

NBA and NHL will be playing real games by the end of July, early August.

Best of 5 against the Yotes. Revenge for 2012 or major choke and we whimper quietly away. Fan emotions will be tested. No games for months, and then bang, do-or-die playoffs. Kinda shocks the system.

Good practice: The Simulated Preds play the Simulated Flyers for the Cup beginning Tuesday, June 2nd , on Fox Sports. Rinne has been in net for the entire playoffs. Simulated Pekka has found the Fountain of Youth.

If we choke we'll at least get a lottery pick. So we have that going for us lol

 

[Porter Stoutheart]

I think another motivator for holding this tournament is that "people change". If there's no NHL hockey, people will find other things to do. Maybe they find things that they like enough that they stick with those other things even when the NHL does come back. If we aren't otherwise going to have NHL hockey until December, they want to stoke the embers a little bit right now so we don't forget about it and move on to something else.

Well, WE here are of course not truly the at-risk population for losing interest. We're the die-hards who aren't going anywhere even if they shut down for a year. But there are lots of other fans they could lose more easily.

 

[drwpreds]

Suddenly, with what is going on not only in Nashville but all over the country tonight, none of this stuff we have been discussing/debating the past few days seems the least bit important any more.

Stay safe, everyone.....

 

[sparkle twin]

2017 Playoffs Round 3, Game 5 vs Anaheim.

Western. Conference. Final.

Series defining game. We were already without Fiala, now down Johansen and Fisher, how will the Preds respond? Who will step up?

Fox Sports TN, 8pm (Central)
Replay at 11pm, 5am (Fri), 12pm (Fri)

*Also available on the FSGo App!


* Note the time is now 8pm for the games!


Post-Game Talk: - WIN!!! - WCF - Game 5 - Nashville 3 at Anaheim 1 -NSH Leads 3-2



Also tonight, the Virtual Stanley Cup is beginning. The Preds are the Western conference champions, taking on Philadelphia on the Finals.

The game will be broadcast on Fox Sports TN at 7pm (it's why the 2017 replays are pushed back an hour) AND the FSTNGo App!

 

[drwpreds]

That game 5 in Anaheim is one of the most inexplicable wins, and maybe the most important one, of the entire Cup run. Had just lost a devastating OT Game 4 AND lost Johansen for the playoffs. I had zero hope going in we would win that game. And we even fell behind. No doubt in my mind that had we lost that game no way we were winning that series.

Also, if anyone has not watched the virtual playoff games, it is worth checking out- surprisingly exciting..

 

[drwpreds]

Preds are 3 wins away from the Virtual Stanley Cup- win game 1 in Philly 6-3.

If only this was real life..........sigh......

 

[drwpreds]

That game 5 in Anaheim is one of the most inexplicable wins, and maybe the most important one, of the entire Cup run. Had just lost a devastating OT Game 4 AND lost Johansen for the playoffs. I had zero hope going in we would win that game. And we even fell behind. No doubt in my mind that had we lost that game no way we were winning that series.

Also, if anyone has not watched the virtual playoff games, it is worth checking out- surprisingly exciting..

Watching the replay tonight- it is interesting that they are showing the Canadian broadcast- I've never seen this feed and I am enjoying this one more than the NBC one.

 

[hockey diva]

The Ducks were soooo dirty!