Nothing about the partially completed plan to resume NHL play is normal.
Hub cities. Quarantine. Buildings without fans. The playoff structure itself.
Just to scratch the surface.
Something else that may be odd is how we watch the games. From their start times to how they are called.
We’ve all known that the league is going to try to minimize the amount of people in attendance whenever the league tries to reboot. The goal is to halt the possible spread of the coronavirus between players..
To what extremes will the league go? Well, it’s possible the network television play-by-play guys may not even be allowed in the venues of the games they are calling.
TribLIVE Penguins beat writer Seth Rorabaugh joined me for Thursday’s “Breakfast With Benz” podcast. And he says be ready for the potential of remote broadcasts.
“I’m hearing not even the network guys will be allowed in the buildings,” Rorabaugh said. “They’ll be in a studio in Connecticut maybe. Or Toronto. You may only have cameramen at the games.
“They want to limit, severely, the number of people in the buildings.”
That has been happening on those ESPN broadcasts of KBO games. But baseball is one thing. Hockey is a different beast, given the pace and speed of the game. Also the fluidity of the line changes. Number identification will be a bear for the play-by-play guys. And in terms of color commentators being unable to see the whole ice, that is going to be really hard to provide insight beyond where the puck is.
However, as Rorabaugh points out, that has been done before by NBC broadcasts for some games overseas.
In terms of local radio broadcasts, Rorabaugh says it’s unclear whether they’ll be allowed in the building or have to do it off a monitor back home. I talked to someone associated with the local radio broadcasts yesterday, and I was told they have been given no plans yet.
The times you watch the games may be very different, as well. Or, maybe it’ll just be very different for the players.
Remember, the prospect exists that both hub cities for playoff pods could be out West — even for the Eastern Conference games. So that could cause for some really strange start times back East. And some really early start times in the buildings for the players.
How does a 3 p.m. (ET)/12 p.m. (PT) faceoff on a Tuesday sound to you? It’s going to feel like the Olympics for potentially two months.
Beyond the television angle, Seth and I talked about a number of different aspects to the potential reboot. We get into Penguins general manager Jim Rutherford’s reaction to playing Montreal in a first-round series, Nick Bjugstad’s latest injury, Dominik Simon’s surgery and the confusion over that draft pick heading to Minnesota for Jason Zucker.
LISTEN: Tim Benz, Seth Rorabaugh dive into what the rebooted NHL will look like
