The 2019-20 Canadian Hockey League playoffs and the Memorial Cup have been canceled due to the coronavirus pandemic, the CHL announced Monday.
The Quebec Major Junior Hockey League, the Western Hockey League, and the Ontario Hockey League play under the CHL umbrella. The winner of each league's playoffs and the team from the host city then compete in a four-way tournament for the Memorial Cup. This year's event was scheduled to be held from May 22-31 in Kelowna, British Columbia.
The QMJHL season was canceled on March 17. The OHL and WHL both followed suit the next day.
The Memorial Cup's cancelation means there won't be a major junior champion for the first time in 102 years, per TSN's Bob McKenzie.
Montreal Canadiens goaltender Carey Price and his wife, Angela, are donating $50,000 to the Breakfast Club of Canada's emergency fund in an effort to help children at risk of food insecurity during the COVID-19 pandemic.
"We are lucky to have everything we do when so many people lack access to healthy food," Angela Price said in a statement, according to Sportsnet. "We feel compelled to do our part so that the most vulnerable children and communities in the country, including Indigenous communities, aren't victims of food insecurity during this crisis."
The NHL has been shut down since March 12 due to the outbreak.
Prior to the postponement, Price owned a 27-25-6 record along with a .909 save percentage.
This one was never in doubt. The Maple Leafs slumped out of the gate under Mike Babcock and a midseason coaching change couldn't spark them. Questions about their depth and defense proved legitimate, as did pointing out that the team hadn't actually improved over the offseason. Barring an 11-0-1 finish, this was an easy under.
Washington Capitals over 97.5
"It would be shocking to see this team finish below 100 points."
The Capitals were at 90 points, meaning they needed just five wins from their remaining 13 games to hit triple-digits. They would have sailed over 100, let alone 97.5. Whoever set this total should give me their address so I can send a gift basket.
New Jersey Devils under 90.5
Everybody and their mother got on the Devils' bandwagon following a busy offseason, but I never quite could understand the hype. I doubted whether P.K. Subban and Wayne Simmonds would actually help this team much - they didn't - and cited Taylor Hall's expiring contract and Mackenzie Blackwood's resume in net as legitimate concerns. I wasn't wrong. Hall was shipped out after a miserable start and the Devils were on pace for a meager 80 points.
The bad
Anaheim Ducks over 81.5
This one was a bit unlucky. Injuries were a big issue for the Ducks, who used 36 different skaters through 71 games. The logic behind this pick made sense, though, and I stand by it: "(The Ducks were) a complete and utter disaster last season and finished with 80 points. ... They can't possibly be any worse this season." With enough injuries to key guys, it turned out they could be.
Chicago Blackhawks over 89.5
This was the worst call of them all. I really bought into the Dylan Strome and Alex DeBrincat duo up front, but it backfired in a colossal way. Neither came close to reaching their 2018-19 numbers. I also raved about adding Olli Maatta and Calvin de Haan to the Blackhawks' defense. Well, Maatta's been average at best and De Haan's been limited to 29 games. It's a blessing this future will be voided.
Minnesota Wild under 87.5
This one looked great until about a month ago. General manager Bill Guerin called the players out publicly and they answered the bell. The Wild won eight of 11 games before the season was suspended, putting them on pace to surpass this total after it looked like a pipe dream at the start of February.
The most frustrating part of this one is that I was right about Devan Dubnyk "turning back into the pumpkin he was in Edmonton"; what I didn't account for was Alex Stalock stepping in and picking up the slack.
Alex Moretto is a sports betting writer for theScore. A journalism graduate from Guelph-Humber University, he has worked in sports media for over a decade. He will bet on anything from the Super Bowl to amateur soccer, is too impatient for futures, and will never trust a kicker. Find him on Twitter @alexjmoretto.
The Minnesota Wild inked forward prospects Adam Beckman and Damien Giroux to three-year, entry-level deals, the team announced Monday.
Minnesota selected Beckman in the third round of the 2019 NHL Draft. The 18-year-old winger led the Western Hockey League in both goals (48) and points (107) in 63 games for the Spokane Chiefs to take home the Bob Clarke Trophy, awarded to the league's top scorer.
Giroux, 20, led the Ontario Hockey League's Saginaw Spirit with 44 goals through 61 games this season. The Wild drafted the 5-foot-10 center in the fifth round in 2018.
The Quebec Major Junior Hockey League season was canceled March 17 due to the coronavirus pandemic. The OHL and WHL followed suit the next day. The three leagues, all under the Canadian Hockey League umbrella, hope to complete the playoffs once it's deemed safe to play.
The NHL season is suspended indefinitely due to the COVID-19 outbreak, and while the league hopes it will eventually be able to resume and conclude the 2019-20 campaign, that's far from a foregone conclusion. This week and next, we're breaking down some of the major storylines that hang in the balance.
With hockey in limbo, spare a quick thought for David Pastrnak and Auston Matthews, young dynamos and Atlantic Division foes who stood a realistic chance to accomplish what, judging by the NHL's entire post-lockout history, is usually unthinkable. Either could have pried the Rocket Richard Trophy away from Alex Ovechkin.
Matthews had scored 47 goals when the season stalled, already a significant career high for the 22-year-old Maple Leafs sniper. Pastrnak, a year older and a goal ahead in the race, was tied atop the league leaderboard with Ovechkin, who, it should be emphasized, wins this award with something resembling death-and-taxes certainty. He has topped the NHL in goals in six of the past seven seasons, and eight times in all.
The Capitals captain is inexorable, which is why Pastrnak and Matthews might bemoan this possibly lost opportunity to break his stranglehold - and why, if the rest of the regular season has to be nixed as part of the effort to repress the coronavirus in North America, fans might still nurse hope that Ovechkin has another such virtuosic year or three left in him.
It's inexact to characterize Ovechkin's age-34 season as a throwback performance, since he approximates this level of output almost every year. The 68 games he got in before the lull took hold were special. 2019-20 gave rise to the hottest scoring stretch of his career. Marvel at what Ovechkin did over seven consecutives games from Jan. 13 to Feb. 4, broken up by All-Star Weekend and the one-game suspension with which he was tagged for sitting out that extravaganza.
Date
Opponent
G
A
PTS
Shots
Jan. 13
vs. CAR
2
0
2
4
Jan. 16
vs. NJ
3
0
3
5
Jan. 18
@ NYI
3
0
3
3
Jan. 29
vs. NSH
1
1
2
5
Jan. 31
@ OTT
2
0
2
11
Feb. 2
vs. PIT
0
0
0
4
Feb. 4
vs. LA
3
0
3
5
That's three hat tricks and 14 goals in all, which helped him close in on 700 for his career. Ovechkin reached that milestone in New Jersey on Feb. 22; he pinged a slap shot from the right circle off the far post and in, clearing the Washington bench and eliciting the rare standing ovation a player ever gets to bask in on the road.
When the season paused with 13 Capitals games remaining, Ovechkin's career goals tally was 706 - eighth in the all-time rankings. That's two goals fewer than Mike Gartner, 11 behind Phil Esposito, 95 back of Gordie Howe, and 188 away from Wayne Gretzky's famous benchmark of 894.
Here, we arrive at the rub. If expediency motivates the NHL to skip straight to the playoffs weeks or months from now, or if play is only able to resume in time for 2020-21, the hockey world won't get to watch Ovechkin's presumptive heirs strive to outscore him over the season's final stretch. Those circumstances would also complicate Ovechkin's pursuit of Gretzky's record.
Because small samples engender haphazard results, there's no way to be sure how Ovechkin would have produced over his club's last 13 games. Maybe he slumps as the likes of the Blues, Penguins, and Oilers limit him to a measly few goals. Maybe he feasts against the Senators, Sabres, and Red Wings (twice) and surges close to 60 goals for the season. The point is this: when a mark unattainable to everyone else who's ever laced up skates is up for grabs - and when brilliance is within the record-seeker's reach on any given night - every available shift has the potential to matter.
At the risk of reducing something joyous to an elementary math lesson, we can consider Ovechkin's scoring rate over the years to get a sense of the pace he'll have to maintain from here to catch Gretzky. To wit: he has averaged 0.70 goals per game this season, 0.64 per game over the past three seasons, and 0.61 per game for his career. At those rates, he'd require 269, 294, and 308 games, respectively, to bag 188 more goals.
Ovechkin celebrates his 700th career goal. Bruce Bennett / Getty Images
Across all examples, that's somewhere between three and four full 82-game seasons, a ballpark range that sets parameters for the defining challenge of Ovechkin's twilight years. Can he stay healthy and light lamps with familiar frequency into his late 30s? Can he hang around long enough to nip Gretzky at the line?
Another hypothetical: Ovechkin retires with, say, 890 goals, just far back enough of Gretzky to argue and lament that all the time he was denied over the years - the full 2004-05 and partial 2012-13 lockouts; these 13 games at the crest of his powers - constituted causation. To the extent that sports are meaningful in the context of a pandemic, that would be a big shame. Maybe that prospect simply isn't worth sweating, though, so long as he comes back strong once hockey returns.
A couple of months ago, in an interview for a story about Ovechkin's ascent to 700 goals, Capitals TV color analyst Craig Laughlin said he thought some people were overly fixated on what he called "the next but" - whether Ovechkin will eventually surpass Gretzky - at the risk of failing to properly appreciate what he was in the process of doing. Ovechkin was sitting on 692 goals that day, but Laughlin's thinking seems just as resonant at a time when he's unable to play.
"Scoring 700 is something really, really, really special," Laughlin said. "Yeah, we should talk about Gretzky's number, and that he's 202 away. But let's take in this moment. Let's take in goal No. 700, because every single milestone along the way for Ovi has been remarkable in its own right."
With the NHL season on an indefinite hiatus due to the ongoing coronavirus outbreak, let's take a look back at some of the best moments the 2019-20 campaign has offered fans so far.
5. Zibanejad enjoys 5-goal night
New York Rangers forward Mika Zibanejad quietly found himself on pace for a career-best season entering March with 30 goals and 32 assists. However, he took things to another level when the Washington Capitals visited Madison Square Garden on March 5.
Zibanejad got the Rangers on the board in the first period and was determined to find twine many more times. He added another tally in the second and two goals in the third - including what appeared to be the game-winner with less than two minutes remaining. After Alex Ovechkin tied it up with 43 seconds left, Zibanejad had no choice but to secure the win in overtime with his fifth of the contest.
In a single game, Zibanejad vaulted himself into the conversation for the Maurice "Rocket" Richard Trophy. Not regularly acknowledged for his goal-scoring abilities, Zibanejad absolutely torching one of the league's top teams was a treat for all hockey fans.
4. The Battle of Alberta renewed
The 2019-20 season has breathed new life into the Battle of Alberta. Calgary Flames forward Matthew Tkachuk and Edmonton Oilers forward Zack Kassian were involved in several altercations in a Jan. 11 contest. Kassian ultimately decided he had seen enough of Tkachuk's antics late in the second period and proceeded to grab and pummel his adversary, which resulted in a two-game suspension.
With high-octane offenses on display and bad blood brewing, the Albertan rivals were once again battling it out for provincial bragging rights.
Calgary and Edmonton met in the playoffs five times between 1983 and 1991 but haven't matched up in the postseason since. The Oilers currently sit in second place and the Flames in third in the Pacific Division. It puts them on course for a first playoff meeting in nearly 30 years, though the status of the this season's playoffs is unknown.
3. Ryan tallies touching hat trick
After taking a leave of absence in November to enter the NHL/NHLPA player assistance program, Bobby Ryan returned to the Ottawa Senators' lineup in late February.
In his first home game since returning, he pulled off a feat straight out of a movie. Despite scoring just once in 17 games leading up to a Feb. 27 matchup against the Vancouver Canucks, Ryan recorded an inspirational hat trick. He became visibly emotional as the crowd showered him with cheers after he completed his three-goal night with an empty-netter.
Bobby Ryan fighting back tears on the bench after recording a hat trick in his return to Ottawa and receiving a massive ovation from the fans pic.twitter.com/lpVpDSh7J1
After struggling on and off the ice, Ryan provided one of the season's most feel-good moments.
2. Ovi joins 700-goal club
Alex Ovechkin reminded everyone that he can still score with ease, potting 14 goals in seven contests between January and February. But he endured something of a cold streak as he approached a big milestone. Sitting just two markers shy of No. 700, Ovechkin went five straight games without recording a goal. But Ovi never goes long without his scoring touch.
With the 700th tally of his illustrious career against the New Jersey Devils on Feb. 22, Ovechkin earned his spot in yet another record book. He still celebrates each goal like it's his first.
1. What emergency?
It began as a regular Saturday night in Toronto, with the Maple Leafs taking on the Carolina Hurricanes. But after Canes goalies James Reimer and Petr Mrazek both left the game with injuries, the team was forced to call in the emergency goaltender midway through the second period. Intrigue sparked throughout the league as David Ayres put his uniform on - and then the unimaginable happened.
The 42-year-old Zamboni driver for the AHL's Toronto Marlies stepped onto the ice and took the Hurricanes' crease. With Carolina up 3-1, Ayres, visibly uncomfortable, let in a pair of goals on the first two shots he faced. It seemed the Leafs were about to pour it on, but the Hurricanes had other plans.
Ayres settled down, stopping the next eight shots he faced. Assisted by the Hurricanes' resolute defensive work, Ayres led his new team to victory and earned himself a spot in the record books as the first emergency goaltender to win an NHL game.
The story of David Ayres reached far beyond the sport, as he found himself making an appearance on "The Late Show with Stephen Colbert." He single-handedly sent the hockey world into a frenzy and left Maple Leafs fans reeling in one of the most bizarre, heartwarming, and coolest moments we've seen for quite a while in the NHL.
