After more than four months, the National Hockey League made its long-awaited return this weekend.
And surprisingly, they managed to hit the ground running. Or uhh hit the ice skating.
From the moment the puck dropped in that first game between the New York Rangers and the Carolina Hurricanes, it was clear that this was going to work. Not only was hockey back but the level of competition was damn close to what we’ve come to expect from the post-season.
Because it’s been too long and because there really isn’t a lot else going on in the world of the Ottawa Senators these days, how about a league-wide edition of Five Quick Thoughts?
FIVE QUICK THOUGHTS
-Sixteen games in three days. The puck would drop in the early afternoon and for the most part, there was hockey on until about 1:00 AM every night. It was…glorious. And it’s going to continue for the next two days. Coming into this tournament, I had legitimate concerns about the quality of hockey we were going to see under these fairly unique circumstances. Based on what we know about hockey players, it usually takes them a while to get going. And because of the amount of time players have been away from the rink, it would not have been surprising to see a slow start in the Return to Play. Instead, it took about three minutes of that Rangers/Hurricanes game on Saturday afternoon for it to become obvious that we were going to be treated to the pace and intensity we’ve come to expect from the NHL playoffs. I really thought the no-crowd thing was going to be a huge issue but thanks to the set-up in the rink and the subtle use of crowd noise in the rink and on the broadcast, I barely noticed. Just an awesome weekend of surprisingly entertaining hockey.
-Admittedly, over the last couple seasons, I have been watching a lot less of other teams. The Ottawa Senators take up most of my free time and on the nights they aren’t playing, I usually take a bit of a break. But because hockey was gone for so long, I kind of feel like I need to watch every minute of every game. At least until my family hides the remote from me. One thing that has really jumped out at me over the last few days is that on far too many occasions, officiating is determining the outcome of games. Whether it’s a borderline call that leads to a power play goal or a call that’s missed entirely, it just seems like almost every game you can point to one or two officiating-related moments that ultimately determine a winner and a loser. And that should be a huge concern for the NHL. Not entirely sure what the answer is though. Hockey is a fast game and it’s becomingly increasingly obvious that it’s just too fast to expect on-ice officials to be able to keep up and to call the game consistently. Right now, it feels like they are trying to call everything and it’s sort of killing the flow of a lot of these games. I do wonder if the NHL would ever consider expanding the use of off-ice officials to help out the referees. The other thing that jumped out at me is it’s not really fair that only one team has a Connor McDavid.
-One thing that is a tad unfortunate about the Return to Play format is because that first overall pick is still up for grabs, it’s become a little more challenging to enjoy the misery of our rivals. And that’s usually one of the best parts of a Sens-free post-season. Watching Toronto embarrass themselves in the opening game of the play-in round should have been an enjoyable experience for all Sens fans but instead, there is that lingering concern that it could ultimately lead them to a first overall pick a little over a week from now. And that makes me a tad nauseous. Not only did the NHL rob the bottom teams of a first overall pick but in the process, they made it exceedingly difficult to truly enjoy the failure of others. Looking at the way the first few nights have gone, it’s not hard to imagine a Phase 2 lottery that includes the Calgary Flames, the Vancouver Canucks, the Toronto Maple Leafs and the Montreal Canadiens. Each with a 12.5% chance at Alexis Lafreniere. Yuuuuuck.
-We knew it would be this way but it really is striking how many former-Senators are in prominent roles with other teams. Robin Lehner starting for Vegas, Ben Bishop the number one goalie for the Stars, Mark Stone and Jean Gabriel Pageau scoring for their respective teams, Dylan DeMelo quietly anchoring the blue line of the Winnipeg Jets and Mika Zibanejad blasting one timers six feet over the net for the New York Rangers. Oh and I guess he scored a goal too. It’s sort of inevitable when you trade away your entire roster but it’s basically become impossible to watch a game without a former-Senator featuring prominently, in one way or another.
-One of the big talking points from this weekend was the league’s response to the issue of systemic racism and the way some players have chosen to show their support along the way. It is a little bit unfortunate to watch social media dissect and evaluate the “quality” of each of these statements but that’s the world we live in today. With that said, the speech delivered by Minnesota Wild defender Matt Dumba really was inspiring. True leadership. It was also encouraging to see that other players- including Ryan Reaves, Tyler Seguin, Jason Dickinson and Robin Lehner- were comfortable making their own statements during yesterday’s games. This is going to be an ongoing issue across professional sports and what’s really important is that teams and players feel comfortable adding their voice on this important topic. To learn more about the issue and how it specifically relates to the game of hockey, I recommend checking out the resources available through the Hockey Diversity Alliance.
