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#NHL clears first coronavirus hurdle but now comes big test

#NHL clears first coronavirus hurdle but now comes big test

The Stanley Cup tournament will provide pockets of normalcy in this unique time. That will be most welcome. Truth be told, having the opportunity to go to the practice rink and watch the Rangers go through mid-summer drills at, for the most part, mid-summer pace, represented a welcome turn of normalcy.

And now the games will begin in Toronto and Edmonton as the NHL enters its two bubble hubs and life under lockdown for up to 10 weeks for the teams that emerge as Cup finalists. We’ll chart the victories and defeats, goals and saves, xGF, Corsi and all the peripherals.

But as the league enters its twin cocoons, health and safety are paramount. The two weeks of the NHL’s Phase 3 training camp went so well, it is almost miraculous. If you look at hockey and hockey alone, you could forget the United States is enduring a raging pandemic that has no end in sight.

That is a credit to the leadership of the NHL and the NHLPA, which worked methodically for months in collaboration with infectious disease experts and health officials across the U.S. and Canada to develop safety protocols. That is a credit to the medical trainers, equipment people and team physicians who have implemented these mandates. And that is also a credit to the athletes, who have adhered to the created guidelines and have come back from their hiatus with the best of intentions.

Plus, who wants to be the guy (or among the group of guys) who is so careless or so selfish that he would risk undermining the entire enterprise for a few moments of frivolity or earthly pleasures? Anonymity would not exist for that hypothetical individual, no matter how much the PA might want to protect his identity.

Ah. Risk. Again, it has all gone so well in rinks across the continent this last fortnight, it is easy to forget that the players, staffs, NHL officials and employees entering the hermetically sealed environment are indeed taking a risk by being there.

Yes, exposure to civilians will be limited and rare, and yes, testing will be ubiquitous, but there is no guarantee that the NHL will be able to pull this off. By reporting the mundane — the choice of the No. 1 goaltender, which top line might be hottest, which first-year players might make the greatest impact, etc. — we imply that a safe environment should be taken for granted.

It is, however, probably closer to the truth that it will be somewhat of a miracle if the NHL can pull off a venture this massive and of this magnitude. If a Stanley Cup champion is crowned in late September or early October, it will represent the greatest success in the history of the league. In that case, we’d suggest that even the cardboard cutouts in the stands would be moved enough to give Gary Bettman a standing ovation when he presents the chalice to Henrik Lundqvist.

(Just wanted to make sure you’re still with me.)

There are surely questions we should ask ourselves about the priorities of a society and culture in which thousands of tests per day will be performed and turned around within 24 hours for Pro $port$ League$ while most of us remain hostage to the chaos promulgated by the federal government, but it is not hockey’s responsibility to answer for it.

No one knows exactly what to expect, but I do expect the hockey to be extremely competitive right out of the gate. The 1972 Summit Series between Canada and the USSR began on Sept. 2. The 1996 World Cup of Hockey ended with Game 3 of the finals on Sept. 14. Thus, there is an abundance of high-quality summer hockey that serves as evidence of what motivated players can do even if beginning with a standing start.

The league is going to attempt to tailor the rinks with each team’s unique hometown flavor in Toronto and Edmonton. Whether “Potvin Sucks” following the whistle that ignites the four decades-old chant will be part of the package for Game 3, Rangers vs. Candy Canes, is as yet unknown. There is that word again.

It is all ahead of us. It is all ahead of the NHL. We have spent a lifetime familiarizing ourselves with the defensive zone, the neutral zone and the offensive zone, and about red, blue and checkered lines. Now we talk about the bubble zone. Now we talk about lines that cannot be crossed in the effort to keep the virus away from the rink.

The goal is to crown a Stanley Cup champion. But the overriding objective is for everyone to remain safe. Let’s be careful out there.

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