Return-to-Play News & Notes
Report: Blues cancel practices due to ‘multiple’ positive COVID-19 tests | Sportsnet.ca
“The practice facility has also been closed following the positive tests, and while the Blues didn’t hold their scheduled workouts on Friday, the venue was still being used by the public.”
“while the Blues didn’t hold their scheduled workouts on Friday, the venue was still being used by the public”
“THE VENUE WAS STILL BEING USED BY THE PUBLIC”
Anyway, that’s how return-to-play is going across the Mississippi River!!!
Hockey Canada cancels 2020 World Under-17 Hockey Challenge | Sportsnet.ca
Meanwhile, Hockey Canada does not think that hockey is going to be back by the end of October.
Nine injured stars on track to return for the Stanley Cup Playoffs | Sportsnet.ca
This is quite a list. Just about everyone on here is a spectacular, impactful player. Also, Chris Kreider is here too for some reason. Sending bubble wrap and good thoughts to the Hurricanes’ goalies.
Other News & Notes
Flyers’ Oskar Lindblom rings bell after final cancer treatment | ProHockeyTalk | NBC Sports
Congratulations and best wishes to Lindblom.
Best rivalry in women’s hockey | The Ice Garden
Our counterparts at the Ice Garden weigh in on Rivalry Week. I’m really excited by Mike Murphy’s speculation that Finland is stepping into the Canada-USA rivalry, because I am unspeakably tired of those two teams monopolizing everything.
Potential CBA modifications emerging as NHL/NHLPA continue negotiations | Sportsnet.ca
Some of the changes under discussion for the new CBA are news-y sounding ones: players signing 35+ contracts, as long as they’re not front-loaded, can just retire before the end of the deal without penalty; players with a NMC or NTC that has yet to kick in can keep it, which, if it had been in effect all along, would have spiked the P.K. Subban to the Devils trade (the Canadiens traded him two days before a NMC); Olympics participation!
Seven hockey players suspended in Belarus match-fixing case | ProHockeyTalk | NBC Sports
I suspect this isn’t the “some kind of news, please, we’re so bored” that fans of the team(s?) in question were hoping for. The article is tantalizingly vague about the fixing—were all seven players on the losing team, or were players on the winning team cheating (the ol’ James Neal “second puck up the sleeve” trick?), or some combination? Ah, teamwork.
Projecting Team Canada 2022: Crosby and McDavid together at last | Sportsnet.ca
Oh. Joy. I’m so excited.
Okay, also, who’s looking at Carey Price right now, and Carey Price’s injury history, and the incredibly unforgiving aging curve for basically every goalie who isn’t Dominik frigging Hašek, and going “yes, Carey Price needs to be Team Canada’s starting goalie in 2022 because #experience”? I like Price, but let the man take a nap.
Phil Kessel expects to rebound for Coyotes | ProHockeyTalk | NBC Sports
Speaking of taking naps, my hot take of the day is that “ironman streaks” benefit neither the player, the team, nor the sport. Nobody is at their best playing injured or ill, and having a streak to uphold means you’ll do stupid things to keep it. I have a Duolingo streak longer in days than current NHL ironman Keith Yandle’s streak in games, and at one point last summer while camping I found myself hiking out to the edge of a valley at twilight to get somewhere where I could get cell signal to do a lesson—and Duolingo actually comes with a “streak freeze” option, which the NHL doesn’t.
There are absolutely people playing through things that are keeping them from performing at their best. Best-case scenario, they recover without more than a few games below their ability. Worse-case scenario, you’re looking at something more like Shea Weber needing season-ending knee surgery because he played through a broken foot in the fall. Worst-case…?
The Pride are out for revenge | The Ice Garden
“While the Pride can’t inflict harm on COVID-19 for ending their chance to win an historic second Isobel Cup” — alas.
I’m sorry, it’s a great article about an extremely scary team, I’m just completely distracted by wishful thinking and a too-vivid image.