If anything can be said of the 2020 sports landscape, let it be said that 2020 has been a season like no other.

From fan-free stadiums and Ballparks, to playing sports in a bubble, sports fans are truly seeing things they likely never thought they would see. Of course, due to social distancing they are seeing it from a safe distance which most likely means from their couch.

One of the biggest treats I have discovered during this upside-down season is summer bubble hockey.

Normally I would be fully engaged in the Major League Baseball (MLB) season this time of year. However, thanks to COVID-19 taking a sledge hammer to the schedules of the major sports leagues, the National Hockey League (NHL) is fully engaged in the quest to crown a team worthy of hoisting Lord Stanley’s Cup meaning the “Boys of Winter” are now the “Boys of Summer,” at least for this season.

Washington Capitals Captain Alex Ovechkin is seeking his second Stanley Cup Finals victory. Unlike previous years, thanks to COVID-19 The Capitals and the rest of the Stanley Cup eligible teams are playing hockey during the summer while quarantined in either Toronto, or Edmonton.
Photo R. Anderson

To say that I am enjoying summer hockey would be the same type of understatement as saying that I enjoy breathing.

While breathing is a mostly automatic factor that I take for granted, I had no idea how much breath I would get out of four hockey games a day.

With teams safely quarantined in either Toronto, Ontario or Edmonton, Alberta, there are literally back to back to back to back hockey games on almost every day.

That is like a hat trick of hockey plus an overtime period. Or stated in a more Canadian way, it would be like ordering poutine and learning that the chef made too much, and, instead of throwing away the extra he is giving it to you at no extra cost.

The Vancouver Canucks have given their mascot, Fin, something to cheer about; albeit from a social distance and outside of the Edmonton bubble. The Canucks have a two games to one lead over the defending Stanley Cup Champion St. Louis Blues.
Photo R. Anderson

It should be said that I am totally sorry that it took a global pandemic to create summer hockey. COVID-19 is a horrible disease that I am ashamed to say the United States government has not done enough about.

Over 170,000 Americans have died from COVID-19 at the time of this writing. That is unacceptable. Each and every one of us should be holding our elected officials accountable for the way it was mismanaged.

Also, the rush to reopen schools, with zero coordinated effort, is already generating the type of results that anyone paying attention to the way germs spread could have told you would happen.

A week after returning to on campus classes, the University of North Carolina is shutting down in person learning and going back to online instruction due to outbreaks of COVID-19. Of course, UNC was quick to point out that even with students learning remotely have no fear the Tar Heels are still on track to play football in the fall, and travel from city to city with the Atlantic Coast Conference (ACC).

Unfortunately, instead of focusing on the important things, the bulk of the country has seemed to embrace a “let them eat cake” philosophy. Although instead of cake as the tone-deaf refrain, it is let them play football.

Playing hockey in two arenas where players are quarantined, is a completely different matter than allowing college football teams to go from town to town to bring people enjoyment on the weekend.

MLB has shown that playing outside of a bubble and traveling is a perfect recipe for catching and spreading COVID-19.

Stand up if you had summer Zamboni rides on your 2020 Bingo Card. Thanks to COVID-19 a winter sport is now a summer sport as the NHL seeks to crown a Stanley Cup Champion from inside the bubble.
Photo R. Anderson

Of course, the proponents of playing college football are likely to say that there is way less physical contact in football than there is in baseball. So the ability for the virus to spread won’t be as high, oh wait…

As I have said many times, I love college football. I would love to be watching college football when September rolls around. However, we are not in a position where that would be wise to do.

I also don’t see us magically getting the case count of COVID-19 to a low enough level in the next four weeks where playing college football is a wise thing to do.

Dr. Deborah Birx, the head of the White House Coronavirus Task Force, said that she wished that the United States had shut down and managed the virus in the same way that Italy did. Perhaps if the task force she is in charge of had made a stronger case for that, people would have listened.

Instead, America did a halfhearted shutdown before opening things wide open in time for Memorial Day. I mean why let a global pandemic get in the way of a three-day weekend, right?

As anyone who pays attention to how trends work could tell you, the levels of COVID-19 went up faster than a high stick in a hockey rink; and all of the gains made during the brief shutdown were lost.

Instead of a unified approach to the virus, some Americans wore masks and socially distanced, while others called the virus a hoax and said wearing a mask infringed on their civil liberties. Seriously?

When did doing what is right for the greater good become a political statement?

It looks like COVID-19 will continue to rage until there is a vaccine since some people cannot bring themselves to wear a mask. As a result, I will continue to enjoy bubble hockey from the safety of the Gigaplex.

I would love to be back out in the world doing the things I did before March of 2020. However, with around 1 in 4 people around here infected with COVID-19, and with so many unknowns about the long-term impacts of the disease, I am choosing to stay safe by limiting the number of things I do outside the Gigaplex. And when I do venture forth, I wear a mask and keep a safe social distance from those around me.

In Texas, very few people seem to be wearing masks. I guess they are still thinking they are immune. Either that, or they enjoy playing an extended game of Russian roulette. After all, I believe one of the conspiracy theories being spread on the misinformation superhighway is that wearing a mask takes away your Second Amendment rights.

That would be so worthy of a face palm, although as part of being COVID-19 aware we are not supposed to touch our faces. So, a virtual face palm will have to do.

The next NHL season is supposed to begin in October. Whether that season begins in two bubbles in Canada pretty much rests on what we do over the next two months to take COVID-19 seriously.

As much as I love bubble hockey in the summer, I really would like to attend sporting events in person again.

I am wearing a mask and doing my part to make that happen. What about you?

Now if you’ll excuse me, my Kraft Dinner is waiting.

Copyright 2020 R. Anderson