NHL in Holding Pattern as Coronavirus Pandemic continues to paralyze the World Population

People Who Are at Higher Risk for Severe Illness | CDC

It has been over a month since we last saw and NHL Hockey game be played. The next day the league hit the pause button on it's season due to the Coronavirus pandemic around the globe. Not only did the NHL suspend the season, the NBA, MLB and other sports around the world also either suspended their season or cancelled it. Many signature events have been either postponed or cancelled like The Masters, French Open Tennis, Kentucky Derby, Wimbledon, UEFA Euro 2020, March Madness and the most notable the Olympics in Tokyo. Yes, the Olympics will now take place next Summer in 2021.

But, the question remains, will we see NHL Hockey back this season or any sports in some form? Let's leave the deadly data out of everything and say that it is very tough to say what will happen tomorrow or the next day or the day after that. News keeps changing by the minute as medical experts and laboratories continue to develop therapies and tests to try and find cures for this "Invisible Enemy" as President Trump likes to call it. The virus, which originated in China, has no known cure for now, but there are vaccines being administered in Phase I clinical trials at the moment. It is known to be very contagious even if the person feels no symptoms whatsoever, but has proven to be deadly to the elderly population around the world. The most common symptom is pneumonia.

Currently most of the USA and Canada are on nationwide lock downs and strict guidelines. One of the main guidelines is social distancing and no public gatherings of more than 10 people. An NHL Arena sits at least 15,000. These measures are now in pace until at least April 30th and some states think it could go into as far as July. But, again news changes every minute and hour, so there could be some small hope.

On Thursday President Trump and his Coronavirus task force unveiled guidelines to reopen the US economy. Here are the guidelines. Every state will depend on its Governor's to open up their respective economy's. So, that will throw a damper on some teams to possibly play in their home arena's without any fans in attendance, which if the NHL comes back this season will likely be the case until crowds are allowed back. The next issue is how late is the NHL willing to play out if it wants to play a full season next year if even that will be possible. Gary Bettman reportedly is willing to delay the start til November and cancel the All-Star Game and the bye weeks for each team to get 82 games in.

In the end of the day, it will all depend on data, testing and logistics. In my opinion, there is still a lot of uncertainty in anything with regards to sports returning. They do say be very careful who you listen to, because quite honestly, nobody is a huge expert on anything. A one site option does not make any sense. Logistically speaking, I think it is best to play out the rest of this season in their respective home arena's but with no fans in attendance for an indefinite amount of time. But, a decision likely will have to be made by mid May and no later. 

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