When you're dealing with the NHL in normal times, the schedule is sacred. You can guess what day and usually what time the team you cover is practicing and you can plan the entire schedule from October through April.
Being on a day-to-day cycle is completely foreign, but that's where we are right now. There's a feeling that the NHL isn't in control of much, and none of its teams are, either. And that's not really a knock. It's just what happens when you live in the world of Covid-19.
General manager Kevyn Adams and his staff don’t know which players will be available in the Buffalo Sabres’ first game since Dec. 17.
When the NHL shut down early for the Christmas break, you didn't know how long things would stay stagnant. The Sabres, remember, were off for 10 months (from March 2020 to January 2021). No one wanted to relive that again from an emotional standpoint, and the league, quite frankly, can't deal with that again when it comes to its books.
Sabres alternate captain Kyle Okposo, the team's rep to the NHL Players Association, acknowledged that the last few days have been difficult. A text canceling practice Sunday was a major bummer. You just don't know what comes next.
"It does enter to the back of your mind that you just don't have any control over the situation," Okposo said after the Sabres returned to practice Monday in KeyBank Center. "You've got to be good at crisis. And that's what we've been in the last 20-whatever months it's been. I think as far as a league as a whole and leadership within our organization, we're doing a good job, as good as we can, managing crisis. And that's what we have to do."
Practice was upbeat Monday. There was hooting and hollering and stick taps when assistant Matt Ellis finished his introductory talk at the start of drills. The speed was good. The chatter was loud and clear. It's easy to forget that this team is on a four-game point streak for the first time in more than two years and is coming off a sensational 2-0-1 road trip to Winnipeg, Minnesota and Pittsburgh.
There's relief that coach Don Granato, a cancer survivor who went on the Covid-19 protocol list Sunday, is asymptomatic and doing well. Granato has spoken to general manager Kevyn Adams and the coaching staff several times in the last two days. He's one of several head coaches in the NHL taken out for now by the virus. Many teams have seen assistants hit the list as well, so the Sabres are keeping a wary eye and keeping everybody apart as best they can.
"We're certainly missing him and missing his presence," Ellis said of Granato. "We're right back to Zoom and telephone. But the nice part about our staff and the way Donnie has created the cohesion not only in our coaches room, but the entire hockey department, is that we own everything together. When one person is down, others have to pick up the slack and take over."
Tokarski was one of three goalies on the ice, joining Ukko-Pekka Luukkonen and Malcolm Subban.
It was a victory to see 16 skaters and three goalies on the ice, and see no one else join the five Sabres still on the Covid-19 list. Injured forward Drake Caggiula returned in a non-contact role. And goalie Dustin Tokarski was back with the club after having a positive test Dec. 1 in Florida – and then having to spend a 10-day quarantine in a hotel in Florida as he endured moderate symptoms.
"It wasn't ideal, since I couldn't go and enjoy the ocean and the beaches," Tokarski cracked. "But it was what it was. We're trying to keep people safe and follow protocols."
Things felt oddly surreal Monday. The game notes for the media for the postponed Dec. 20 game against Columbus were still stacked neatly in the back of the press room. Practice was just about skating and exercising and getting loose. It will take a decidedly more serious tone Tuesday, with the expectation that the season resumes here Wednesday against New Jersey.
"All indications on my end from league communication is that we need to be ready to play Wednesday," Adams said. "So that's what I told the team."
There is no stopping the NHL right now, no matter how bad things might look with nearly 150 players on Covid-19 protocol lists. The accountants in the top offices in New York and around the league had to be spooked by that fan-less game last week in Montreal's Bell Centre. Quite a shot at the old Hockey Related Revenue, and the HRR figure is central to everything in this league.
Andrei Vasilevskiy continues to hold the fort in the Lightning net.
The plan was for this to be the first 82-game season since 2018-19, and all the financials in this game revolve around the league making it happen, no matter what the product will be. They properly pulled out of the Olympics and have lots of time in February to make up games now, so it seems odd that the holiday break wasn't extended even more.
Taxi squads are back and Monday's new CDC recommendation of a five-day quarantine – rather than 10, like Tokarski served -– can particularly help get asymptomatic players and coaches back sooner. Those are good things.
But you have to worry about fans paying full dollar for a watered-down product. What will the folks in Tampa Bay see Tuesday if the Lightning's game against Montreal is actually played? Those two teams have combined for 15 shelved players, plus Tampa Bay coach Jon Cooper. The Lightning don't have any goaltenders and might struggle to find a healthy one at Syracuse of the AHL, where Covid-19 is also an issue.
There's no clarity about the Canadian border, either. Manitoba health officials announced Monday that they're limiting ticketed events to a capacity of 250 people over the next two weeks, and you have to think the NHL is moving the Winnipeg Jets' two home games in that time. Every trip to Canada is a Covid-19 risk due to quarantine rules, and the league is taking a huge hit with capacity restrictions in all seven cities.
Doesn't matter. The NHL is issuing the full-speed-ahead call to handle this Covid-19 crisis. You hope the Titanic doesn't find the iceberg.
