Bubble makes NHL ‘different ballgame’
As NHL teams touched down in their respective hub cities ahead of the 2019-20 restart tournament, Major League Baseball began to spiral as a coronavirus outbreak disrupted the recently resumed schedule.
Eleven Marlins players and two coaches tested positive for COVID-19 over the weekend, forcing the MLB to postpone Miami’s matchup with the Orioles and the Yankees’ game in Philadelphia on Monday.
As big as the news was in the sporting world, players on both the Rangers and Islanders have expressed their confidence in the NHL’s bubble system.
“Obviously it’s unfortunate what’s happening in the MLB, no one wants to see the games [postponed] and stuff, but I think the NHL is kind of more comparable to the NBA,” Rangers forward Ryan Strome said on a Zoom call Monday. “With the bubble format, there’s a lot less issues with the travel. Based on being here, it’s been about 24 hours now, but based on being here, as long as you’re wearing your mask and following the protocols they’ve put in place here, I don’t really see how anything could go real wrong.”
In addition to the NHL, the NBA, WNBA and MLS have all created bubble-type sites in order to return to play. But the MLB and NFL — for now — have kept their travel plans for the 2020 season despite having to travel to states with surging cases of COVID-19.
Considering how diligently the NHL has been about implementing strict protocols for its bubble, Strome believes it’s now up to the players to carry out those responsibilities.
“It’s up to everyone’s individual responsibility to be smart, but the setup is great,” he said “Everyone that’s in the bubble is being tested and following protocols. As long as everyone is smart and takes care of their own business and is responsible, I don’t see how the bubble isn’t going to work.”
Islanders forward Matt Martin, who left his newborn daughter to travel for the restart tournament, pointed at the success of the NBA bubble for why he believes the NHL’s will work. He noted that some NBA players have left the Orlando bubble, but “their bubble situation has been pretty strong.”
“The MLB is a little bit of a different ballgame than what we’re doing because they’re going home, they’re traveling to other cities, they’re doing all these different things and their exposure is a little different than us,” Martin said.