St. Louis Blues And NHL In Limbo As Sports World Shuts Down

The St. Louis Blues and the NHL fell into line with the other major sports in the country and around the world. They have ceased operations for at least the immediate future.

Less than 24 hours after the St. Louis Blues defeated the Anaheim Ducks, our sporting fears were realized. The NHL delayed longer than they originally said, but eventually released a statement saying they would suspend league play.

That is basically all we know at this point in time. Things trickled out throughout the day from the NHL and other sports.

There was a second Utah Jazz player that reportedly tested positive for the virus. Then, several college basketball conferences canceled their tournaments.

Then, the NCAA flipped from saying it still intended to have it’s national tournament, just without fans, to canceling both men’s and women’s basketball tournaments and all spring championships too.

The MLS has delayed it’s season at least 30 days. The USL, a minor league for MLS, has suspended their games.

Basically, the only major sports going on in the world at the moment will be the upcoming NASCAR race, which will be in front of no fans, and the PGA intends to keep playing, just with no crowds, at least for now.

As far as hockey goes, we are in a strange limbo. The league has officially stated, they intend to resume as soon as it is “appropriate and prudent”.

Blues president on the business side, Chris Zimmerman, echoed the NHL’s statement and put out a video.

Zimmerman statementBlues President and CEO Chris Zimmerman provides statement on NHL pausing the 2019-20 season

Zimmerman’s statements are comforting in the idea that the league wants to return. They don’t want to have no champion for 2019-20 if at all possible.

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The issue is the timing. With so little left in the regular season, there is only so much time to push past before canceling the regular season or even the playoffs becomes more of a viable option.

The other thing hanging over the head of the league is lost finances. According to The Hockey Guy, the NHL is poised to lose $300 million or more if these games and the postseason is never played.

Of course, people’s safety and health is the main concern, but let us not kid ourselves that people who make money are not in the habit of losing that kind of money. That breaks down to around $10 million lost per team.

The longer this suspension goes on the more you run into potential building issues. Arenas usually pre-plan their postseason events to maximize revenue, so they’re not thinking about open dates to have hockey games in June and July.

Ultimately, this was the only decision the NHL could make though. Too many buildings are shared with NBA teams and with confirmed cases of this virus in that league, it was too much a danger to keep playing.

Since March 4, Gobert and the Jazz had played at Madison Square Garden in New York, TD Garden in Boston and Little Caesars Arena in Detroit — which all host NHL teams as well. The Jazz also faced the Toronto Raptors, who share a home with the Toronto Maple Leafs. – Emily Kaplan, ESPN

It is just disappointing as a fan because we all use sports as a distraction from our lives and the depressing nature of much of the local and national news. Now, that has been taken away.

The Blues, as well as so many other teams, had legitimate reasons to hope for a championship. Now, we do not know if there will be a culmination to this season, even if this is for our own good.

For now, all we can do is wait, hope and do our best to stay healthy. It is now important for us all not to spread misinformation.

Going on Facebook or Twitter or social media and saying you heard this or so and so said that does not do anyone any good unless it is 100%, verifiably true.

I have already seen countless posts that the NHL is telling people to pack up their offices or that the season will be canceled. That is not true at this point. Maybe it will be true soon or eventually, but as of right now the league is telling people that they intend to resume their season if possible.

So, Blues fans can continue to cross their fingers and hope we still see the return of Vladimir Tarasenko, Jordan Binnington and there is a defense of their Stanley Cup. That might be the only silver lining, from a pure sports aspect, is Tarasenko now has more time to heal up before a potential return. There would just need to be games played.

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Let’s hope this passes or is contained satisfactorily and the Blues and the NHL can resume.

For more information about COVID-19, visit the CDC’s website or the website for your state’s Department of Health.

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