Maple Leafs star Auston Matthews tests positive for COVID-19

[lmm]

16 minutes ago, mll said:

That idea was shutdown months ago already by Bettman.  

 

There's not the infrastructure.  It would cost far too much to put them at NHL standard and set up all the cameras.  The difference between pre-season games at non NHL arenas is visible - eg the game at Abbotsford game in pre-season.  Theres' no fans in the stands so it's all going to be about the quality of the broadcast.  There's sanitisation issues too where NHL arenas have the procedures, technology and personnel in place.

 

They are setting up 2 hub cities to eliminate travel.  They want all teams in the same location and isolated from the rest of the world.   They are trying to create a bubble where everything will be sealed off and that includes hotels, restaurants and entertainment.  Players need things to do during downtime.  Creating bubbles all over the province has a cost - they need people to run that bubble and security to ensure there's no breach.   

 

Some of those locations don't offer much to do either.  Players can't just go from the ice to their hotel rooms.  Some of those locations don't even have the hotel standards - they are looking for high end luxury hotels with all the amenities.  The league is worried about the players' psyche/moral as they are going to be kept in isolation.  They want them to have things to do during downtime.

 

That's also why Vegas is high on the list of the players' preference - they can seal off more amenities than many other locations.   Setting up in Vancouver and then traveling to those provinces to play is unpractical.  They want to have the play-ins in about 8 days.  They can't be on the road all that time.  Players aren't going to be allowed outside the bubble. Setting up a bubble is already considerable work and costs - adding more is not realistic.  That's also in part why they went down to 2 hubs rather than 4. 

 

with 1/2 the teams in Vegas, the other 1/2 are gonna feel like the ugly stepchildren

 

[Pears]

17 minutes ago, mll said:

That idea was shutdown months ago already by Bettman.  

 

There's not the infrastructure.  It would cost far too much to put them at NHL standard and set up all the cameras.  The difference between pre-season games at non NHL arenas is visible - eg the game at Abbotsford game in pre-season.  Theres' no fans in the stands so it's all going to be about the quality of the broadcast.  There's sanitisation issues too where NHL arenas have the procedures, technology and personnel in place.

 

They are setting up 2 hub cities to eliminate travel.  They want all teams in the same location and isolated from the rest of the world.   They are trying to create a bubble where everything will be sealed off and that includes hotels, restaurants and entertainment.  Players need things to do during downtime.  Creating bubbles all over the province has a cost - they need people to run that bubble and security to ensure there's no breach.   

 

Some of those locations don't offer much to do either.  Players can't just go from the ice to their hotel rooms.  Some of those locations don't even have the hotel standards - they are looking for high end luxury hotels with all the amenities.  The league is worried about the players' psyche/moral as they are going to be kept in isolation.  They want them to have things to do during downtime.

 

That's also why Vegas is high on the list of the players' preference - they can seal off more amenities than many other locations.   Setting up in Vancouver and then traveling to those provinces to play is unpractical.  They want to have the play-ins in about 8 days.  They can't be on the road all that time.  Players aren't going to be allowed outside the bubble. Setting up a bubble is already considerable work and costs - adding more is not realistic.  That's also in part why they went down to 2 hubs rather than 4. 

 

For one, it wasn’t shut down months ago, because it was only suggested to the NHL by the BC government just a few of weeks ago. They wouldn’t be all over the place either considering one city would host at least one play in series. The US does not have a handle on this virus at all so it’s really not that outlandish to think games could be played in a place like BC. 

[mll]

25 minutes ago, Pears said:

For one, it wasn’t shut down months ago, because it was only suggested to the NHL by the BC government just a few of weeks ago. They wouldn’t be all over the place either considering one city would host at least one play in series. The US does not have a handle on this virus at all so it’s really not that outlandish to think games could be played in a place like BC. 

Bettman shutdown the idea of playing games in non NHL arenas months ago.  Doesn't matter if BC or elsewhere.  The league insists on playing in NHL arenas because of all the infrastructure they need to make it work.

They want to create an air tight bubble - players won't be allowed outside.  The initial plan was for them to just to go the rink and back in their hotel rooms and even eat in their rooms.  There was considerable push back.  It's still the same idea.  They want to create a bubble where there is no access to the exterior.  Creating the kind of air tight bubble they want all over BC is not realistic.

 

[Pears]

1 minute ago, mll said:

Bettman shutdown the idea of playing games in non NHL arenas months ago.  Doesn't matter if BC or elsewhere.  The league insists on playing in NHL arenas because of all the infrastructure they need to make it work.

They want to create an air tight bubble - players won't be allowed outside.  The initial plan was for them to just to go the rink and back in their hotel rooms and even eat in their rooms.  There was considerable push back.  It's still the same idea.  They want to create a bubble where there is no access to the exterior.  Creating the kind of air tight bubble they want all over BC is not realistic.

 

It appears they have changed their stance on that topic

 

 

[mll]

7 minutes ago, Pears said:

It appears they have changed their stance on that topic

 

 

 

Vancouver has emerged as a favourite already last week.  They have the upscale hotels that the league is looking for unlike Edmonton.   Everyone would be stationed in Vancouver though and not playing all over the province like you were suggesting.  They can create a bubble in Vancouver.  

 

Edited June 20, 2020 by mll

[DeNiro]

13 minutes ago, Pears said:

It appears they have changed their stance on that topic

 

 

Their number 1 priority should be going to a city where numbers are the lowest. Nothing else matters if their goal is to ensure that they dont have to shut it down due to an outbreak.

 

The idea of Vegas and Toronto as marketing ploys is ridiculous. Go to cities that have things under control period.

 

 

[mll]

14 minutes ago, DeNiro said:

Their number 1 priority should be going to a city where numbers are the lowest. Nothing else matters if their goal is to ensure that they dont have to shut it down due to an outbreak.

 

The idea of Vegas and Toronto as marketing ploys is ridiculous. Go to cities that have things under control period.

 

 

Not necessarily.  They want to create an airtight bubble.  If they go in a location with low cases but can't create an airtight bubble they would be at risk of external people entering the bubble and bringing the virus inside.  It could be riskier than going in a location where they can create an airtight bubble and completely shutdown external access as to preserve the bubble.  

 

Living comfort and amenities cities can offer as part of the bubble are high on the consideration list because players are going to be cut off from the external world.  That's probably why players prefer Vancouver over Edmonton and Toronto.   If players are comfortable that the league can create that air tight bubble and preserve it, would think that Vegas would remain high on their list as they have access to more amenities than in other locations.  

 

[DeNiro]

3 minutes ago, mll said:

Not necessarily.  They want to create an airtight bubble.  If they go in a location with low cases but can't create an airtight bubble they would be at risk of external people entering the bubble and bringing the virus inside.  It could be riskier than going in a location where they can create an airtight bubble and completely shutdown external access as to preserve the bubble.  

 

Living comfort and amenities cities can offer as part of the bubble are high on the consideration list because players are going to be cut off from the external world.  That's probably why players prefer Vancouver over Edmonton and Toronto.   If players are comfortable that the league can create that air tight bubble and preserve it, would think that Vegas would remain high on their list as they have access to more amenities than in other locations.  

 

Being comfortable is all well and good but something tells me the players would be more comfortable knowing their in a city where numbers are low and there isn’t civil unrest going on all around them.

 

The bubble can be created on any one of the cities in consideration otherwise they wouldn’t be in consideration.
 

The risk is obviously much higher in cities with higher numbers though. It means all support staff coming to the arena are at higher risk of bringing in the virus. So if their goal is to reduce that risk, the numbers are the most important thing. Comfort is important for families but it should not outweigh safety and risk.

[mll]

1 hour ago, DeNiro said:

Being comfortable is all well and good but something tells me the players would be more comfortable knowing their in a city where numbers are low and there isn’t civil unrest going on all around them.

 

The bubble can be created on any one of the cities in consideration otherwise they wouldn’t be in consideration.
 

The risk is obviously much higher in cities with higher numbers though. It means all support staff coming to the arena are at higher risk of bringing in the virus. So if their goal is to reduce that risk, the numbers are the most important thing. Comfort is important for families but it should not outweigh safety and risk.

 

Vegas rates are soaring.  McKenzie believes they are still the front runners.  

 

Minnesota was out of the running before the civil unrest - they didn't have the amenities.  

 

Staff in regular contact with the players will apparently be isolating too.  

 

Arizona is a virus hotbed yet several players are skating there not just Coyotes. Many are using the facility of Arizona State's hockey team.  Did the Coyotes even put ice in.  Sweden has some of the highest rates yet players are still out and about.  As you point out the bubble can be created in any one of the cities - it has to be airtight and preserved otherwise it's not a bubble.  Safety is certainly a concern but I am not sure the rates are going to be the key driver of the players' decision.  All the players are going to vote and each might have different priorities.

 

[Crabcakes]

1 hour ago, mll said:

 

Vegas rates are soaring.  McKenzie believes they are still the front runners.  

 

Minnesota was out of the running before the civil unrest - they didn't have the amenities.  

 

Staff in regular contact with the players will apparently be isolating too.  

 

Arizona is a virus hotbed yet several players are skating there not just Coyotes. Many are using the facility of Arizona State's hockey team.  Did the Coyotes even put ice in.  Sweden has some of the highest rates yet players are still out and about.  As you point out the bubble can be created in any one of the cities - it has to be airtight and preserved otherwise it's not a bubble.  Safety is certainly a concern but I am not sure the rates are going to be the key driver of the players' decision.  All the players are going to vote and each might have different priorities.

 

If the bubble is perfect, then it doesn't matter what the local infection rate is.  The question for me is, how perfect can the bubble be realistically?

 

So all team members and team related support staff have to be free of Covid.  Then they have to travel to the hub city and enter the bubble and then determine that they are still clean.  This presumably takes a 14 day quarantine.  In BC, Dr Henry says that this group must be less than 50 people.  Same goes for the media.

 

Same goes for all of the people it takes to care for all of the above.

 

What if one or more of the above test positive?  As they go, they are going to have to be very careful about contacts and contact tracing.  There are going to have to be spare people in case things go wrong and if players have to be removed, they can't be replaced and are going to have to be treated as injured until they can be shown to be covid free.

 

What is the likelihood that people within the bubble get antsy and sneak out?

 

So, I think that since maintaining a perfect bubble is impossible, hub cities should be doing pretty well in terms of infection rates but it's not the be all and the end all.  Good facilities decrease the likelihood of inmates wanting to escape.

 

The more you drill down, the more complex running this thing becomes.  I have only outlined a few of the problems that might arise.

[kurtis]

Bad move if they choose Vegas. That place is messed with the numbers increasing. Many players will end up getting it.. 

[kloubek]

8 hours ago, Crabcakes said:

If the bubble is perfect, then it doesn't matter what the local infection rate is.  The question for me is, how perfect can the bubble be realistically?

True. But if I was to be dropped in an ocean inside of a shark cage which may or may not fail, I would sure rather the amount of sharks around to be as low as possible.

 

I think between testing, rules, and security, the idea of a covid-free playoffs is possible. But I also find it unlikely. If you consider all the staffing required for a playoff competition (could they all be quarantined too?) I think the risk of an infection to players and coaches is relatively high. And if that happens, everything gets royally screwed.

 

According to Bieksa, half the players he has talked to don't even want to risk it. Wonder how this will all affect morale - especially with no real home games and no fans.

[Gawdzukes]

On 6/19/2020 at 3:37 PM, grandmaster said:

Another red flag for the NHL in considering hub cities.

 

Ontario is a big NO!
 

Way too many active cases floating around there....

What does that matter, they'll be isolated?

[Hairy Kneel]

I dont even care if it lessens the broadcast value. Give up some broadcast pedigree for less covid in the  surrounding communities. 

If Arizona is trending up, drop them. Go somewhere its safer. Wives are going to want to shop. Young guys are going to get  texts from pretty girls. And if the Starbucks are safer here than Arizona forgetahboutit. Move it.

[mll]

.

 

Edited June 21, 2020 by mll

[Crabcakes]

4 hours ago, Hairy Kneel said:

I dont even care if it lessens the broadcast value. Give up some broadcast pedigree for less covid in the  surrounding communities. 

If Arizona is trending up, drop them. Go somewhere its safer. Wives are going to want to shop. Young guys are going to get  texts from pretty girls. And if the Starbucks are safer here than Arizona forgetahboutit. Move it.

What I heard was no wives or families inside the bubble at least for the play in round and the first couple of rounds.  That eliminates 20 teams families from quarantine.

 

It could be manageable if it's only 4 teams.

 

Not all players then will be away from their families for 2 1/2 months.  The maximum would be 6 or 7 weeks and that's only for 8 teams

[Hairy Kneel]

4 hours ago, Crabcakes said:

What I heard was no wives or families inside the bubble at least for the play in round and the first couple of rounds.  That eliminates 20 teams families from quarantine.

 

It could be manageable if it's only 4 teams.

 

Not all players then will be away from their families for 2 1/2 months.  The maximum would be 6 or 7 weeks and that's only for 8 teams

You know young guys and pretty girls, it's like in Jurassic Park, they will always find a way..

[Dumb Nuck]

Well, he is at the center of the universe, that’s where all the cool viruses hang out.

[Tre Mac]

On 6/19/2020 at 3:45 PM, Slegr said:

I’m really finding the reporting on this so interesting. There is nothing on it from Sportsnet and TSN right now even though it’s a huge story. It’s all over other media outlets; CBS Sports, yahoo sports, Toronto Sun, the Score, etc.  
 

It just goes to show nothing gets reported on the Leafs from TSN or Sportsnet unless they have Leafs management blessing. Those two media outlets are literally owned by the Leafs.

Quote

OPINION: Fans should be concerned as the relationship between NHL teams and the media that covers them gets stranger by the minute

Steve Simmons, like most journalists, has a long and complicated history with Twitter, so he was prepared for the reaction when he reported Toronto Maple Leafs star Auston Matthews had tested positive for the coronavirus.

“I’d say it was about 80 (per cent) to 20,” the Toronto Sun sports columnist says over the phone from Toronto. “Eighty were, ‘You’re an idiot.’ Twenty were, ‘Good story.’”

OK, nothing too surprising there, especially for someone who’s stumbled into more than one of these encounters. But the reaction from other sectors of the media? That surprised Simmons. Hell, it should surprise anyone in our business. It should also scare them, even if it’s part of a trend which now seems irreversible.

Auston Matthews testing positive for COVID-19 is a huge story on about 48 levels. He’s the biggest star on one of the NHL’s most storied franchises. He’s one of the best young players in the game. The news comes as the NHL tested 200 players resulting in 11 positives.

Matthews was also skating with a group of players in Arizona that included members of the Arizona Coyotes and Leafs goalie Freddie Andersen. An undetermined number of the Coyotes’ players tested positive. Arizona, where many NHL players are skating during the lockdown, has experienced an alarming rise in COVID-19 cases over the last two weeks.

All this comes as the NHL prepares to open training camps on July 10. In Vancouver, the provincial government has thrown its support behind a Vancouver Canucks-driven plan to act as a hub city when play resumes at the end of July. This will bring players from 12 different teams along with support staff, medical people, security, TV crews, etc., etc., to our town.

True, that’s not quite 48 different levels. But it’s still a big story. At least it is to most. But there is no mention of it on TSN or Sportsnet, at least there wasn’t three days after Simmons’s story ran on the Toronto Sun’s website. There was no panel discussion. No hot takes from the insiders on what this could mean. Nothing. Crickets. A yawning void.

Simmons did appear on the TSN radio station in Toronto on Friday to discuss his story and the station initially put the clip on its website.

But it was down an hour later. If you performed a Google search with the key words: Auston Matthews, COVID and TSN on Monday, you got a link to a story under the headline: Simmons on breaking news that Leafs star Auston Matthews tests positive for COVID-19.

When you click on the link, it directs you to a page which says: “Oops! There is nothing here to see.”

Couldn’t make it up if you tried.

“I’m upset with my industry,” Simmons said. “I expect more from them.”

All this, of course, raises any number of uncomfortable questions for TSN and Sportsnet, which are NHL rights holders and also have an ownership stake in Maple Leaf Sports and Entertainment. Did the decision to spike the story come from corporate headquarters? Did it come from the Leafs?

Simmons, who’s been a longtime contributor on TSN, poked around for some answers and got some conflicting messages. One suggested Matthews’s positive test was a personal health matter, which made it out of bounds. But both TSN and Sportsnet reported on the positive COVID tests of, among others, Dallas Cowboys running back Ezekiel Elliott and Utah Jazz guard Donovan Mitchell.

Why is Matthews different?

Can’t tell you. But we can tell you it’s part of a media landscape in which the lines between teams and the people who report on them have been blurred beyond recognition; a landscape where every attempt is made to manage availability in order to create homogeneous storylines; where access to information and sources is directly linked to what’s reported and when it’s reported.

This, of course, serves the purposes of the leagues and their individual teams. It just doesn’t serve the purposes of their audience but, over time, that’s also changed. Fans seem willing to consume news served in a diluted form. Either that or they’ve been conditioned to accept it. Don’t know.

But do know, unless you’re a rights holder or you’ve been granted that favoured status, a different set of rules apply. You can ask the Canucks if their trainer, Roger Takahashi, would be available for a story on the challenges of staying in shape during the lockdown. Just don’t expect the answer to be yes. Or 1040, the sports talk-radio station in Vancouver, can book an interview with Utica Comets head coach Trent Cull, advertise it on air, then be told Cull isn’t available, presumably because the request didn’t go through official channels.

Maybe you don’t find this outrageous. But this comes at a time when both the business and the soul of traditional media is fighting to survive. We used to be an unbiased filter between the established order and the public. Sometimes we still are. But we’re losing our strong, independent voices. We’re losing our place and the public is losing something in the bargain.

You can understand why teams and leagues, to say nothing of political parties and their leaders, like this arrangement. But you shouldn’t.

https://theprovince.com/sports/hockey/nhl/ed-willes-the-story-behind-the-story-about-auston-matthews-positive-test-is-bewildering

 

 

 

This is so pathetic.  

[skategal]

Story I heard is that no one is talking about it because he didn't release the info so it's private medical information.  Generally teams would announce "a player" from their team but not the identity without the players permission.  Makes sense.