Back to the bubble

Hey there, time traveller!
This article was published 14/09/2020 (2099 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

It’s been used as a toilet, damaged during a rowdy bar celebration, turned into a food trough for a Kentucky Derby winner, sunk to the bottom of a swimming pool, dropped into a bonfire, left at the side of a highway and been the focal point of parades and celebrations in big cities and tiny communities around the globe.

Yeah, the Stanley Cup has seen some things. And the cherished silver chalice will have another wild tale added to its legacy later this month when it is presented to the winner of the most surreal playoffs in NHL history inside an otherwise empty Rogers Place in Edmonton.

There were many who thought we may never get to this point. But, knock on wood, the bubble has worked to perfection. There’s been nary a positive COVID-19 test to be found two months into this return-to-play experiment, which should prove to everyone what attention to detail and commitment to health and safety protocols can do to combat a virus that has been blamed for more than 9,000 deaths in Canada, 195,000 in the United States and 920,000 worldwide.

Nearly a full calendar year after it began, the end is finally near for a 2019-20 season unlike any other.

For that reason, I packed up the rental car and pointed it west on Monday, making the 1,300-kilometre trek back to the hockey hub to document the historic home stretch leading up to the first of the “big four” pro sports championships (NHL, NBA, MLB and NFL) that will be handed out in North America in the middle of a global pandemic.

This is going to look and feel a lot different than the other major sporting events I’ve covered, including the Winnipeg Blue Bombers ending their Grey Cup drought last November in Edmonton, the Toronto Raptors’ run to their first NBA championship in June 2019 and back-to-back American Association titles for the Winnipeg Goldeyes in 2016 in Wichita and 2017 at Shaw Park.

For starters, a normally jam-packed press row is going to be a ghost town. I’m one of just a handful of hockey writers across North America who will be covering the grand finale inside the rink, rather than at home off television and Zoom conferences. The mandatory 14-day quarantine kept most American journalists south of the border, and the NHL has clamped down on capacity and limited the number of Canadian scribes who can attend.

Despite the big stage, and high stakes, the rink will continue to be absent of fans and noise, save for the artificial sounds piped into the rink and the constant chirping and trash-talking between players that can be heard loudly and clearly and often isn’t for the faint of heart.

Are they going to play recorded booing when commissioner Gary Bettman, who entered the bubble last week and is still serving his mandatory quarantine, emerges to present the trophy to the captain of the winning team? I sure hope so. It wouldn’t feel right without it.

Heading into Monday night, the Tampa Bay Lightning and Dallas Stars were just one win away from punching their ticket to a best-of-seven series that could begin later this week. The Stars went on to defeat the Vegas Golden Knights Monday and will face the Lightning/New York Islanders winner. Although I have no rooting interest, I was selfishly hoping for a Golden Knights/Islanders final, if only because of the ample local storylines such a matchup would provide.

The Golden Knights are flush with Manitoba products, including forwards Mark Stone and Ryan Reaves of Winnipeg, defenceman Zach Whitecloud of Brandon, depth forward Keegan Kolesar of Winnipeg and injured forward Cody Glass of Winnipeg. Longtime Wheat Kings owner Kelly McCrimmon is the general manager, and they also have former Jets centre Paul Stastny and prospect Peyton Krebs, most recently of the Winnipeg Ice, on the roster.

The Islanders are led by Dauphin’s Barry Trotz behind the bench, and fellow Dauphinite Ryan Pulock on the blue-line, while also having longtime Jets captain Andrew Ladd in the fold. Remember him?

Of course, local connections can be found almost everywhere, including former Jets defenceman Zach Bogosian, now with the Lightning and former Jets 1.0 player turned coach Rick Bowness calling the shots for the Stars.

Regardless of how it plays out, the real story here isn’t who is playing, but how we got here and where we’re going. To that effect, I expect plenty of talk, and perhaps some news, to start emerging in the coming days about what the 2020-21 season might look like.

Bettman is likely to give a bit of a state of the union address, and I’m curious to see if he’s sticking to his guns about having a full 82-game slate next season, even if it’s now rumoured things might not get underway until early January. Whether that will be in hub cities and bubbles, or in all 31 markets in front of crowds of some size is one of the major burning questions.

So, too, is the impact on all clubs in having their revenues come to a screeching halt. TSN reported last week that at least 17 NHL teams have cut pay and/or staffing levels in recent months. That includes the Winnipeg Jets, who I’ve confirmed slashed by 20 per cent the salaries of all hockey operations personnel, including management and coaches, effective Sept. 1. There have not been layoffs as of yet, but the situation remains fluid.

There will also be some other hardware handed out in the form of major NHL awards. One of those is the Vezina Trophy, which Jets goaltender Connor Hellebuyck is a favourite to win. No date has been set for the announcement, but it’s expected to happen before one of the Stanley Cup final games.

I’ll also be turning my mind to the rapidly approaching off-season, which includes the NHL draft Oct. 6-7 and the start of free agent frenzy on Oct. 9. As I’ve written in this space before, Jets general manager Kevin Cheveldayoff has his work cut out for him in trying to get his club back to its form of a couple years ago.

There’s no question we’re a nation of hockey fans, the most knowledgeable on the planet with a deeply rooted interest in the sport at all levels. Which is why it’s a privilege to take you as close to the action as I can, especially given the unprecedented circumstances we’re all still grappling with on a daily basis.

Like the Stanley Cup itself, there are plenty of great stories to tell.

 

mike.mcintyre@freepress.mb.ca

Twitter: @mikemcintyrewpg