Infectious disease expert tells TSN restarting leagues in two weeks 'unrealistic'

With play suspended in the NHL and several other leagues, many are wondering when games will be able to start back up again. The season has not officially been cancelled, just put on hold until further notice. In an interview on TSN, infectious disease expert Dr. Andrew Morris said no one should expect things to get rolling again right away.

"Well, I think they can put it on a pause for a while, but it's not going to be just two weeks," Morris told Gino Reda and Rick Westhead. "I think it's pretty unrealistic to think that we're going to be able to restart these leagues over the next few weeks because players are going to continue to be at risk of having infections, and until this goes away in the community, it won't go away in sports at all."

Morris added that once the spread of COVID-19 in the general community starts to slow down, that's when it would be reasonable to have leagues begin play again.

The difficult question for the NHL is, should it be June or July before things can get started again, would the league and players be ok with having some sort of playoffs knowing that training camps begin again in September? Are fans going to want to see a tournament that involves a different format than the one they are used to? There's also the question of whether the 16 teams currently in a playoff spot are the ones involved in a tournament for the Stanley Cup or whether it will be decided some other way. Not all teams have played the same amount of games and there are some that are currently one or two points outside of a wild card berth.

At the end of the day, it's safe to say it will be surprising if the regular season begins again before it was supposed to end in early April. There is the option of playing games without spectators, but that also puts players, team staff and media at risk. The NHL will definitely have some difficult decisions to make over the next few weeks.

Source: TSN.ca

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