The Athletic conducted a poll with 57 players from 22 different NHL teams.
The unnamed players overwhelmingly voted their desire (87.8 percent) to complete the 2019-20 season despite a continued rise in coronavirus cases.
NASCAR recently became the first major pro sport to announce its return, targeting a May 17 return date at Darlington Raceway with no fans.
According to The Athletic, 63.2 percent of players who were polled voted to have some regular-season games and a full postseason while 24.6 percent voted to go straight to the playoffs. 12.8 percent of players (7) voted to cancel the season.
“I think if you asked most players they’d say they want to play again,” a Western Conference player said in the story. “Sure, we have concerns and you hope those are taken care of as best as the league can take care of them, but we want to play.”
The NHL is currently examining plans where several NHL cities would operate as hubs to play games. One talked about scenario would see one hub for each NHL Division.
Reports recently surfaced that the 2019-20 season could be completed as late of October and the 2020-21 season could start in December. But there is a myriad of concerns the league would have to address to make that happen. Earlier in the week, Canadian prime minister Justin Trudeau announced that the NHL would need to follow quarantine rules before the season could resume.
“I think it’s a question we’ll have to look into,” Trudeau said in a press briefing according to the CBC. “Certainly at a strict minimum, anyone who arrives from another country will have to follow all the rules of quarantine in an extremely strict manner, but we’re not there yet in our discussions with the NHL.”
Meanwhile, many NHL facilities, such as the Capitals’ MedStar Iceplex, remain closed due to state ordinances.
Doctors also warn that the US could see a new wave in cases and deaths as states continue to re-open.
“The vast majority of Americans have not been exposed to the virus, there is not immunity, and the initial conditions that allowed this virus to spread really quickly across America haven’t really changed,” Dr. Larry Chang, an infectious-diseases specialist at Johns Hopkins University, said to the New York Times.
This reality has led some NHL players to believe that the league would be better off canceling the season and looking forward to next year.
Super interesting piece.
"I mean, hotels, food, to charter the Europeans back. It’s crazy. Wouldn’t it make more sense, instead of them putting all of this effort into trying to get this season going, to take this time to focus heavily on making next season run smoothly?" https://t.co/9q8ws0jrX6
— Emily Kaplan (@emilymkaplan) May 5, 2020
Where do you fall?
"complete" - Google News
May 07, 2020 at 01:00AM
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Nearly 90 percent of polled NHL players want to complete 2019-20 season - Russian Machine Never Breaks
"complete" - Google News
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