Toronto Maple Leafs: Auston Matthews Diagnosis Puts NHL Playoffs In Question

The Toronto Maple Leafs got some terrible news this week.

On Friday, the Toronto Maple Leafs best player, Auston Matthews, was revealed to have tested positive for Covid. 

This is obviously a serious situation, and hopefully Matthews fully recovers and he and his family are doing well.

But the questions this brings up about the NHL’s plan to resume play are important and have to be asked.

Is it safe to do so? Should they just shut it down?

Cancel the Season?

I would like to watch some hockey.  Resuming the season, having the playoffs in the summer, watching the Toronto Maple Leafs potentially win the Stanley Cup are all things which I would  very much like to see.

But at what cost?

The Tampa Bay Lightning had to shut down their training facility, due to players testing positive.  The four major sports all had players test positive this week.

The facts have to be faced:  it is not ethically acceptable to force athletes to risk their lives to entertain us.

The NHL had no problem cancelling season when they couldn’t agree to a collective bargaining agreement, so it’s not like the NHL needs to finish the season to continue existing.

Everyone involved in the decision making about the NHL is a millionaire or a billionaire, and the only people hurting financially from its absence are  arena workers, media people, team employees  – basically the non-glamorous section of the hockey world.

It’s one thing to ask a player to come to work for millions of dollars, but what about the camera men, the team doctors and the various other personnel who would have to be quarantined along with the actual players?

Also, if the NHL can’t keep their players safe before playing starts, how is it supposed to do so when players are checking each other, sitting beside each other on the bench and getting in to fights?

What about the fact that the vast majority of coaches are on the older side and potentially high risk?

Finally, you have to consider the situation in America.  President Trump, through inaction, dangerously stupid rhetoric and a complete dereliction of duty has made the USA one of the worst responding countries in the world to this pandemic.

For the NHL to consider hosting games in a rumoured “hub city” like Las Vegas borders on psychotic.

As the days go by, it becomes more and more apparent that the need for sports doesn’t come anywhere close to being worth the risk.

I’d very much like to see the NHL resume play.  But at this point it does not seem like a safe thing to do.