I’ll tell ya what, this is an awesome challenge being presented to sportswriters and bloggers everywhere. On a normal day, one has something to write about be that the game msot recently played or some roster speculation, perhaps something on prospect development, or even the upcoming draft. But when there’s no hockey being played, things get quite difficult I’ve found.

I mean look at the Athletic, for example, Oilers writer Jonathan Willis has gone back to ragging on Peter Chiarelli for his latest article and this guy is one of the more talented writers out there. He simply grabbed an interview between Chiarelli and Bruce Garrioch out of Ottawa and gave his two cents on the former Oilers GM’s comments…

Luckily for me, the boys on the radio haven’t let me down.

Yesterday on Oilers Now, Bob Stauffer interviewed both John Shannon and Mark Spector (Sportsnet) and he posed the same question to both,

“What percentage possibility would we have that we would have a Stanley Cup playoffs and a Stanley Cup Champion?” 

Spec said his gut tells him there’s a lot closer to a 25% chance that this happens. He basically said that hockey is at the behest of the governments of Canada and the US and when they decide that it’s safe to congregate in groups of more than 50 people (for example), then we might see some hockey.

“I don’t like the chances, Bob. I hope I’m wrong.”

Stauffer added this,

“Mark, if we get shut down for six more weeks here and they can hit the ice (around) basically May 1st and then we’re up and running for the playoffs May 15th. That’s the only way it’s feasible and a lot of things would have to go right for that to occur here.”

Mark Spector briefly noted that hockey would suffer if it were played in August. He thought the interest would be minimal if they were playing hockey in the summer.

Really? He reckons that there isn’t going to be any interest after the game was ripped out of our hands on the brink of the post-season? You have to be kidding me… Hockey fans are nuts. They’ll watch it on the moon if they have to. In addition to that, I don’t hear anybody complaining about the u-18s going in during August or the World Cups in September…

Shannon said he thinks there’s a 75% chance.

“First of all, let’s put this in practical terms. We all believe that the next 14-15 days are the most important of COVID-19 and the spread and containment of it. if everyone does their part then in 15 days from now we’ll get a better indication and that to me is a lamen and I do believe that the people in professional sports have had a much greater dialogue and understanding of what’s going on with the virus and in reading and in talking to a few people, they’ve said that the optimal opportunity is within 45 days of the 60-day CDC ban or suggested deployment of “nothing going on” that they could be in camp. And so I truly believe within our 15-day window and then another month we’ll have a great indication that the teams can go back to practice. 

Now, do I know that the virus is going to be contained? Absolutely not, but I do believe that it will pass and I believe that what we’ve witnessed what’s going on in China recently where there’s a decline in the virus, that we’re going to be in much better shape because we’ve admitted there’s an issue right from the beginning unlike some other countries.”

I like John Shannon, but North America wasn’t one of the parts of the world that hopped on this from the beginning. I was under the impression that Canada and the USA took action quite late and are now “paying the price” if you will.

Bob said he’s 50/50 on the NHL playoffs returning and Stanley Cup being rewarded.

Now, Am I missing something here? Is somebody going to magically make this virus disappear by the end of the week? I don’t think people back home get the severity of how contagious it is and if you saw the pictures posted from a Florida beach over the weekend, I don’t think the public has an idea either.

From last night to this morning, the global confirmed cases of infection went up 30,000 people approximately and we’re not even getting started yet. How in the world does anybody think that there’s even a snowball’s chance in hell that ANYTHING gets going before July?

From what I’ve read, a couple of things have to happen in order to really get a handle on this thing. Herd immunity where there are more infected than not. In order for that to happen, the numbers would have to spike at an unbelievable rate and that would put already stressed-out health care systems at high risk for failure, or a flattening of the curve where the health authorities manage to simply slow down the infection rate to the point to where it’s manageable.

I’ve seen online that the vaccines are on the way but it’s still going to be some time before they can be produced at the level required to stunt this virus globally.

The big thing standing in the way is the lack of testing that’s taking place in some countries and once that challenge is solved, the numbers will climb even more.

I kind of thought that for normal life to resume, the risk of catching this “bug” needs to be zero to none.

If we’re being honest here, I’m preparing for the season to be scrapped. I’m just waiting for an actual confirmation or else I’d just go directly into my off-season blogging content but I can’t do that because I’d feel like an ass if I started posting those articles and then the season actually came back.

I hope that John Shannon’s optimism pays off and everybody is back to normal in two weeks, I really do. I just have a hard time coming to grips with that reality right now and I feel that until it hits North America at full power, the public there has no idea and won’t until it’s too late. I even think that Mark Spector’s 25% is too high.

What do you think? What percentage do you give it that hockey will be back, the playoffs will be played, and the Stanley Cup will be rewarded? Let us know in the comments!

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On the bright side, the break has allowed me to watch some old games on YouTube.

So far I’ve watched game 2 of the 1986 Smythe Division finals between Calgary and Edmonton and I’m just getting into game 7 of the 1987 Stanley Cup Final. The one thing that I’ve taken from both games is that there’s no doubt in my mind that Paul Coffey is the best skater of all-time. He’s completely unmatched. Connor is a close second, but he doesn’t have the grace that Coffey had.

Have you been watching any old games? If so, which ones? Do you have any suggestions?