No one wants to continue playing hockey this season more than Eric Staal; he just has a hard time imagining it.
“The whole thing is still difficult for me to kind of fathom and understand,” the Wild center said Thursday.
The Wild center was nearing the end of his 17th NHL regular season when the 2019-20 campaign was put on hold March 12, and he has seen a lot, returning from two lockouts and leading a relatively new team from North Carolina to a Stanley Cup in 2006. But from the restart plans he has seen floated in media reports — empty arenas, hub cities — he has his doubts about playing again this summer.
“That momentum and those moments of memory are with fans and with people and with excitement,” Staal told reporters on a video conference. “To go through the playoff run with nobody in the building is going to be really weird and different. To me, it’s hard to kind of wrap your head around it.
“Obviously, if that’s the route we go, and it goes, you just figure it out and you do it. I don’t love it personally, but there’s lots of things in life you kind of deal with as you go.”
NHL Commissioner Gary Bettman and other league sources said Monday the league is looking at eight or nine cities that could host a 12-team conference playoff tournament, among them St. Paul, that would ultimately lead to crowning a Stanley Cup winner for the 102nd time since 1914. If that were to happen, it would be a championship like no other.
“That energy and momentum are with fans and people and the excitement of it all,” said Staal, whose team-high nine goals and 28 postseason points led the 2005-06 Carolina Hurricanes to the NHL championship. “And to go through the playoff run with nobody in the building is going to be really weird and different. So, to me, it’s really difficult to wrap my head around it.”
When the season was suspended, Staal was third in goals (19) and points (47), second in assists (28) for a Wild team that had won eight of its past 11 games. They were ready for a morning skate before a game against the Vegas Knights at Xcel Engery Center when players learned the season had been halted.
The team’s previous game, a victory at San Jose, was nearly postponed, so players had an idea it might happen. Still, Staal said, “It felt a little bit surreal. It was a weird feeling.”
“I was actually walking towards the locker room,” he added, “and guys were walking back towards me, and one of the guys said, ‘We were told to go home.’ ”
Staal, 35, is ready to play, however, and estimated it would only take two weeks for a team to get back up to speed. The Wild were two points out of a playoff spot on March 12 but would be part of a 24-team postseason tournament under the restart format that seems to be gaining momentum.
But the devil is in the details. Being sequestered in a hub city for a month or more is unattractive to any player with a family. And then there are corona-related issues such as testing and social distancing, plus compensation issues for owners and labor to agree on.
But, Staal said, if he gets a shot at winning another Stanley Cup, he and the rest of the players will give it their all in any atmosphere.
“I think it’s still going to be meaningful, but I think it would just be different. It’s just not going to be the same,” he said. “I think with anything, coming back to sports or coming back to whatever, it’s just not going to be the exact same. I think that part you just have to realize, I guess, and figure out the best way to go about it.”
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For Wild’s Eric Staal, NHL’s return is difficult to envision - TwinCities.com-Pioneer Press
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