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The 1919 Stanley Cup Finals were cancelled because of the Spanish Flu pandemic. With the 2020 IIHF Women's World Championship already cancelled, I wonder what other sporting tournaments will be cancelled including the upcoming NHL playoffs?

I don't think they will cancel playoffs, but they may just be played in empty arena's. At least with TV coverage, you can salvage part of the disaster.

Santa Clara County has banned gatherings of 1,000+ for the rest of this month. Starting with their March 17th home game, the Sharks will be the first NHL team to play with no fans in the stadium (unless they go to a neutral site out of the area.)
https://www.nbcbayarea.com/news/coronav ... h/2251123/

UPDATE: Just now, the Blue Jackets announced they will be the first to play before no fans, as per Ohio mandate:
https://lastwordonhockey.com/2020/03/11 ... pectators/

BC 1988 wrote: ↑

Wed Mar 11, 2020 1:46 pm

Santa Clara County has banned gatherings of 1,000+ for the rest of this month. Starting with their March 17th home game, the Sharks will be the first NHL team to play with no fans in the stadium (unless they go to a neutral site out of the area.)
https://www.nbcbayarea.com/news/coronav ... h/2251123/

UPDATE: Just now, the Blue Jackets announced they will be the first to play before no fans, as per Ohio mandate:
https://lastwordonhockey.com/2020/03/11 ... pectators/

The NCAA March Madness basketball tournament will proceed but with no fan attendance.

NBA just announced that the season is suspended.

Robbie wrote: ↑

Wed Mar 11, 2020 7:29 pm

BC 1988 wrote: ↑

Wed Mar 11, 2020 1:46 pm

Santa Clara County has banned gatherings of 1,000+ for the rest of this month. Starting with their March 17th home game, the Sharks will be the first NHL team to play with no fans in the stadium (unless they go to a neutral site out of the area.)
https://www.nbcbayarea.com/news/coronav ... h/2251123/

UPDATE: Just now, the Blue Jackets announced they will be the first to play before no fans, as per Ohio mandate:
https://lastwordonhockey.com/2020/03/11 ... pectators/

The NCAA March Madness basketball tournament will proceed but with no fan attendance.

NBA just announced that the season is suspended.

I wonder if players and coaches still get paid full salaries?

With the embarrassing game-time cancellation of the Utah-OKC NBA game last night, a wave of reaction is happening across all sports. March Madness had been planning on "no fans" games, but it now sounds like they are going to abandon it all together. MLB is rumored to be shutting down spring training. MLS postponed all matches for a month. All signs point to the NHL doing a similar "hiatus" as the NBA (announcement coming at 11:00am PDT).

Of course how long this will last will be up in the air, but it sounds like both NBA and NHL hope to eventually get the playoffs in (maybe in June-July, with a shortened season for 2020-21.)

Robbie wrote: ↑

Wed Mar 11, 2020 7:29 pm

The NCAA March Madness basketball tournament will proceed but with no fan attendance.

In the end, NCAA tournaments have been cancelled entirely. Certain college students who were so excited in winning a championship will now be so sad and disappointed.

The 2020 NHL playoffs might still occur after all. It will be Vancouver Canucks vs. Minnesota Wild in the first round.

It looks like the current NHL season will continue after all on August 1.

It will start anyhow

https://www.traderumours.com/index.php?blog=20303
The first kerfuffle about broadcasts of the RTP. NBC is bringing in their entire production crews for the Toronto hub. (But we will still see CDN broadcasters doing the games remotely.) Canadian Sportsnet crews will do the Western Conference rounds in Edmonton. The Cup Finals are slated to be in the Edmonton hub, no word yet on if NBC will employ their crews there for that.

Rumor has it NBC was very unhappy that Las Vegas was dumped as a hub city, and this is the NHL's way to appease them.

On July 23, Seattle NHL's team will reveal their team name and logo and some predict it would be Metropolitans, Krakens, Sockeyes, or Sirens.

I suppose for alliteration and along with the Seahawks, Sounders, Storm, and previously SuperSonics and SeaDogs, the name will start with an 'S'.

And with all the political correctness these days, we definitely know it will NOT be on an ethnic or racial human group. I guess naming after animals or objects is always to safest choice to avoid potential controversy.

Sockeyes

Official: It's going to be Seattle Kraken!
No alliteration and hopefully no political incorrectness.

Logo is a stylized 'S' with a red eye and a tentacle through the 'S'.
The name of its arena may not sound the most attractive: Climate Pledge Arena

At least it doesn't appear to be controversial.



It looks like there are now five NHL teams named after water animals:

Seattle Kraken
Vancouver Canucks (at least with its Orca logo)
Anaheim Ducks
San Jose Sharks
Pittsburgh Penguins

It's a clever use of the original Metropolitan's "S", to form a serpent. I like how the designer was quoted as saying they wanted to avoid making the logo cartoonish.
https://www.tsn.ca/nhl-seattle-announce ... -1.1498846
The jersey colour scheme is a bit reminiscent of the first Canucks Orca Bay from 1997-2001, except Seattle has narrower red striping.
http://www.nhluniforms.com/Canucks/Canucks13.html
Along with VGK's colour scheme similarity to Canucks 1989-1997, that's two expansion teams who borrowed from Canucks previous looks.