The recent pandemic of COVID-19 has left almost 4.3 million people out of a job in the U.S. and Canada combined. This has also left professional sports vacant as all four major sports leagues have either been put on hold or canceled completely. Sports Journalists and media writers have hit an unprecedented time and are facing challenges until the sports world resumes.
Challenging Times Ahead For Hockey Writers
Hockey writers, in particular, have been faced with one of the bigger challenges as all hockey leagues in North America have been cancelled with the exception of the NHL which has been put on hold for the imminent future. The NHL has already mentioned that they believe that it’s essential to finish the season and award a Stanley Cup, even if that means playing summer hockey. However, with the hold being put in place, this has delayed the draft and could possibly postpone free agency depending on if/when the NHL decides to resume play.
The challenges began before hockey came to a halt as leagues started putting restrictions on media access. One of the major changes included eliminating the press from locker rooms and having the postgame interviews set up at a podium near the locker rooms to promote social distancing. Even at the ECHL level where we weren’t allowed in the locker rooms, all season restrictions were still levied upon us as a barrier was put up to keep the media at least six feet away from the players.
This made our jobs tougher as the recordings of postgame interviews didn’t come out as clearly as before when the players were right in front of us. Now, the hockey world is without games.
This leaves the million-dollar question: what do hockey writers do in these empty times?
What To Write About When There’s Nothing To Write About?
Once the regular season is over, the sports media normally shifts into the offseason mode. Some of the stuff that we cover during the offseason includes awards, re-signings and the draft. The draft is easily one of the heavyweights for writers as there are hundreds of prospects to read over and cover.
Once you’ve done this, you have to figure out how they compare to other prospects and team needs. However, we’re currently stuck in a place where the season is almost over, but it’s not quite time for the offseason to begin as free agency is still at least two months away.
In the last few weeks, we’ve started to see writers use Zoom, Facebook Video Chat and other video chatting services in order to communicate with NHL players and fellow colleagues. This gives readers and fans a chance to see what NHL’ers are doing during the quarantine and is a lighter side of hockey news than we’re used to seeing. Meghan Chayka of stathletes.com recently put together a Hockey Analytics chat on Zoom last Saturday night.
The chat had multiple speakers, including Jackie Redmond of NHL Network and Natalie Spooner of Canada’s National Women’s Team. This was another great way of keeping people engaged with the hockey community as well as allowing fans to interact with these stars that would normally be busy during this time.
Writers aren’t the only ones who are looking to fill the void of no sports. Play-by-play announcers have recently taken to Twitter and have been doing play-by-play of anything. Joe Buck, Josh Lewin and Evan Pivinick are just a few names who have been doing this over the past two weeks.
We’ve also seen Montreal Canadiens PA announcer Michel Lacroix and Vancouver Canucks PA announcer Al Murdoch take to Twitter as well, taking requests for customized goal calls for fans. TSN’s James Duthie announced on Monday that he’ll be taking requests as well for fans who want a hello from one of TSN’s analysts.
What Have We Discovered With No Pro Sports?
The biggest thing that people are finally starting to discover is women’s hockey and why it deserves more publicity. NBC replayed the women’s gold medal game from the 2018 Sochi Olympics and the NHL Network streamers women’s hockey all day on Tuesday. It’s wonderful to see women’s hockey being aired so much despite the fact that it took every hockey league in North America to shut down for this to happen.
For those of you who haven’t watched women’s hockey, you’re truly missing out. It may not be as physical as the men’s game, but the skill level is just as high and deserves praise. The reason we don’t see much of it is because the CWHL folded and the NWHL doesn’t get much publicity. Hopefully, the NHL decides to step in to help grow the women’s game in the near future.