It's far from perfect, but it's all we've got
As the NHL and hockey world face their biggest non-lockout crisis since World War II, we might want to adjust our expectations a little and have some perspective
Exceptional times call for exceptional players. And that’s why Sean Day made his NHL debut with the Tampa Bay Lightning Tuesday night. You may remember when Day received ‘exceptional player status’ from Hockey Canada to play as a 15-year-old for the Mississauga Steelheads in 2013. You might not remember much more of him. And chances are he would have faded into hockey obscurity if not for the ravages of COVID-19 and the fact that he was cheap enough for the Lightning to add to their roster.
Eighty NHL games have been postponed so far. Brad Marchand is pissed off, and he’s not alone. A late December game that should have featured Carey Price and Andrei Vasilevskiy facing each other in a reprisal of the Stanley Cup final instead had Sam Montembeault in Montreal’s net and Maxime Lagace in Tampa’s. Things in the NHL are worse than suboptimal. As it has done with so many aspects of our lives, the COVID pandemic has taken the NHL and the rest of the hockey world to its knees.
And unless your preferred alternative is to watch no hockey at all, we’d all be best advised to get accustomed to it for a while. A league that is hanging on for dear life and has to somehow do business in two countries whose approaches to the pandemic could not be more different, the NHL is operating on fumes at the moment and is trying to find a way to register a full 82-game season in the face of what might be insurmountable obstacles.
So if you want to take the NHL to task for trotting out an inferior product, for charging NHL prices in exchange for American Hockey League-caliber players, for once again declining to participate in the Olympics, well, have at it. Marchand, who teed off on the league directly (and on the NHL Players’ Association indirectly), has certainly used his platform to make his opinion known. You’ve got to love his passion and fire and for sure you’ve got to feel his frustration at not being able to participate in the Olympics. He would have played in 2018 if his league hadn’t been so short-sighted and his union hadn’t fallen asleep at the switch and failed to get Olympic participation entrenched in the collective bargaining agreement. Once again, he’s been robbed of the opportunity through no fault of his own, and he’ll be 37 when the Olympics come around again in 2026.
Marchand seems to think players should be able to make up their own minds as to whether or not they want to take the risks of playing in the Olympics. And that’s exactly what the league and NHLPA were prepared to let them do. But as the Omicron variant took on a life of its own and the postponements started piling up, playing in the Olympics became less and less viable and a riskier proposition. With the NHLPA in lockstep with the league on passing on Beijing, even the union that exists to represent the players’ interests doesn’t see it as a good idea. And it should never be forgotten that Marchand and all the other players are under contract to their teams and the NHL, not their national hockey federations.
As far as the league continuing to trudge through a snowstorm that has no end in sight, you can’t blame the NHL and NHLPA for trying their best to play a full season for the first time in three years. And if the NHLPA were not on board with everything the NHL has done to this point, it would be a lot easier for people to have the pitchforks out for NHL commissioner Gary Bettman and the board of governors. But here’s the thing. The NHLPA and players, of which Marchand is one, have just as much to lose by the league losing revenues by not playing games and not playing them in front of big, beer-drinking crowds as the league does.
The pandemic has been an enormous financial reckoning for everyone involved in the game. The players owe the owners millions of dollars in lost revenues, and that tab will only grow if games have to be cancelled. The worst of this might not even have hit the league yet. And even though the prospect of a full season grows dimmer by the day, the league is at least trying to make this work.
So instead of watching with disdain, perhaps it’s time to embrace what the pandemic is giving us. Sean Day is a feel-good story. Rafael Harvey-Pinard, a 5-foot-9 seventh-round draft pick, scored his first NHL goal for the Canadiens against Tampa. It might be his last. Or this opportunity that he might have never received could open some eyes in the Canadiens front office or another team’s and Harvey-Pinard might get a legitimate chance to prove he belongs in the NHL.
Everyone is suffering. The three junior leagues are reeling. Team USA had to forfeit its game against Switzerland in the World Junior Championship and is in danger of having its tournament hijacked. (In fact, the entire tournament will be in jeopardy if there is an outbreak in Edmonton.) And even though there’s been a groundswell of support for the best under-18 women’s players in the world, they were just told their dream of playing in an international competition has been taken away from them.
This is coming from someone who has been as vocal in criticizing the NHL, and the hockey establishment in general, as anyone. But perhaps what we all need right now is a little bit of patience and understanding. With the exception of the lockouts the NHL brought on itself, hockey is facing its biggest crisis since World War II and nothing is as we would want it. There are a lot of people trying to just get through this until times get better. And until they do, we’re all going to have to adjust our expectations.
In other words, let’s just all chill out a little and have some perspective while hockey tries to figure this out.
Very unprecedented times. I’m sure that all involved are doing the best they can for the game and the players.