The National Hockey League announced the decision Thursday afternoon to suspend all games until further notice due to concerns regarding COVID-19 according to multiple reports:
As per someone on the Board of Governors call with the NHL, the season has officially been paused.
— Pierre LeBrun (@PierreVLeBrun) March 12, 2020
The NHL is planning to suspend its season. Announcement coming soon. The league still hopes it can return at some point this spring, but obviously situation is fluid.
— Emily Kaplan (@emilymkaplan) March 12, 2020
This announcement comes in the wake of the National Basketball Association’s decision Wednesday night to suspend its league’s games until further notice after one player, Rudy Gobert of the Utah Jazz, tested positive for the disease.
NBA To Suspend Season Following Tonight's Games pic.twitter.com/2PTx2fkLlW
— NBA (@NBA) March 12, 2020
The decision was forecasted by a Tweet Thursday morning in which NHL Player Relations advised all teams to cancel the day’s meetings.
Given the uncertainty regarding next steps regarding the coronavirus, Clubs are advised not to conduct morning skates, practices or team meetings today.
— NHL Public Relations (@PR_NHL) March 12, 2020
Known more commonly as the coronavirus, the disease has begun to crop up all across the United States, and with cases reaching professional athletes and well-known celebrities such as Tom Hanks, concern regarding COVID-19 has reached an all-time high and businesses and organizations are responding accordingly.
What COVID-19 Suspension Means
For the NHL, the future is uncertain. Most teams have 12-14 games remaining on their regular-season schedules. One approach would be to merely resume play as normal after the hiatus and push the months-worth of games deeper into spring. This would also push the playoffs deeper into the summer, shortening the offseason.
A second option, short of canceling the rest of the season in its entirety, would be to come to some sort of agreement that would shorten the season and eliminate certain games. Now, this option is highly controversial considering the fact that many teams need the remaining games to fight for a spot in the playoffs. And for that reason alone, taking games off the schedule seems to be an unrealistic option.
These are options that the NHL and league owners will begin to hash out over the coming weeks to see what makes sense for all clubs heading into the final stretch of the season.
