Vegas Golden Knights head coach Pete DeBoer hasn't been with his new team for long, but he can already tell he has a special group in front of him.
"It's the most talented team I've had in my coaching career I've walked into," DeBoer said on Daren Millard's "The Chirp." "It seems like a great combination of talent and character and leadership. Great community, great ownership, great management.
"I think you coach in this league for opportunities like this, with teams like this. I'm really thankful for how everything played out this year, as tough as some of the moments were."
The San Jose Sharks fired DeBoer in December after a middling start to the 2019-20 season. A month later, the division-rival Golden Knights made him their new head coach.
Vegas has gone 15-5-2 - including an eight-game win streak - since DeBoer's debut Jan. 16. They sat in first place in the Pacific Division when the season was paused on March 12.
After spending over four seasons with the Sharks, which included a trip to the Stanley Cup Final, DeBoer saw his surprise firing as a sign of better things to come.
"I'm a big believer that everything in hockey happens for a reason," DeBoer said. "One door closing, the way that my career has gone, there's always been another door opens with a better opportunity. For me, as tough as it was to leave San Jose 33 games after going to the Conference Final the year before - for me, the Vegas situation is an opportunity of a lifetime."
DeBoer has been a head coach in the NHL since the 2008-09 season when he started with the Florida Panthers. Before arriving in San Jose, he had a stint with the New Jersey Devils, whom he also led to the Stanley Cup Final in 2012. Overall, he's compiled a 430-334-113 record.
Athletes everywhere continue to get creative as they deal with their respective leagues being on hiatus. Some are better at it than others. Every Sunday throughout May, we'll look back on the week that was before crowning a quarantine king or queen. Here are the top isolation moments from the sports world over the last seven days.
10. Bend it like Virgil
Premier League clubs returned to socially distanced training sessions in small groups this week as England's top flight continues to work toward a June return. It gave players their first opportunity in roughly two months to display their skills in a familiar setting, and Liverpool star Virgil van Dijk took full advantage by showing everyone at the club that he should probably be on free-kick duty when the season resumes.
Going without certain items we're accustomed to having is an all-too-common predicament during these times, and Thatcher Demko can certainly relate. The Vancouver Canucks goaltender shared photo and video evidence of his quarantine equipment shortage, and the moral of the story here applies to life as a whole: Make the best of what you have.
Eli Manning finally joined Twitter on Saturday and was promptly welcomed to the social media platform by Tom Brady, who poked fun at himself by referencing the two Super Bowls he lost to the retired New York Giants quarterback. Manning topped Brady in Super Bowl XLII and XLVI, tossing late touchdown passes to sink the New England Patriots on both occasions.
Any soccer clubs looking for a no-nonsense defender might want to give this exuberant pup a call. The tackling form needs a bit of work - that's a clear yellow card, at the very least - but you can't question the effort. Swiping the cone for good measure was a power move, too.
In a wacky Madden NFL 20 experiment, the Los Angeles Chargers used Pro Bowl defensive end Melvin Ingram at the unlikeliest of positions - all of them. The results were astonishing, with the 77-yard touchdown pass likely the best part.
5. Cutch challenges 'Uncle Larry' to Home Run Derby
Philadelphia Phillies outfielder Andrew McCutchen has been killing time in weird ways. Taking the cake thus far is a two-minute video of him challenging his alter ego, Uncle Larry, to a Home Run Derby that showcases some suspect swings.
Boston Celtics big Enes Kanter made everybody on Twitter incredibly uncomfortable when he posted a video of him feeding ... whatever these things are. Apparently, they are baby Gouldian finches, which look much more aesthetically pleasing once they've grown. However, that doesn't really do much to quell the unsettling feeling, especially when paired with that music.
San Antonio Spurs guard Dejounte Murray said on Instagram that it took these kids a couple of months to work up the courage to ask him to play a game before they finally did so on Tuesday. Evidently, Murray was itching to hoop again during the NBA's hiatus, and he hilariously pulled out all the stops on them, including a windmill jam. They might never ask him to play again.
When you knock on an NBA players door to see if he wants to come outside and play 👀
— FOX Sports Southwest (@FOXSportsSW) May 21, 2020
1. Cat-like reflexes ... literally
Call him Meownuel Neuer, Marc-Andre purr Stegen, Tim Meoward, or any other cat-inspired parody of a real goalkeeper's name that you like. We'll simply refer to this fleet-footed feline as the best shot-stopper on the internet. Multiple soccer teams worldwide would be better off with this cat between the sticks than their actual netminder right now.
The Tampa Bay Lightning feel the proposed 24-team playoff format gives an unfair advantage to some teams.
"I brought the format to my team. They didn't feel it was fair that certain teams that probably wouldn't have made the playoffs would have a chance to make the playoffs in a best-of-five series," Lighting winger and NHLPA representative Alex Killorn said, according to The Athletic's Joe Smith. "My team also felt it was unfair that the teams with a bye would not be as well prepared for a playoff series as the teams that had already basically played a playoff series to get into the playoffs."
"I don't want people to think that we don't want to play. Everyone on our team wants to play. In saying that, we are fine with the vote the PA took and we are ready with it going forward," Killorn added.
Tampa Bay was one of two teams to vote against the 24-team format on Friday. The other was the Carolina Hurricanes, according to The Athletic's Sara Civian.
The Lightning were in second place in the Atlantic Division when the league paused the season on March 12 and are guaranteed a playoff berth under the proposed format. Instead of participating in a best-of-five play-in series, the top four teams in each conference will reportedly be given a bye and partake in a round-robin tournament to determine seeding.
"The only problem I have with that format is that the top teams that have a bye, I don't know how competitive their games will be going forward where the teams at the bottom will be playing playoff games right away and (would be) potentially more prepared for, I guess, the real playoffs," Killorn said.
The NHL is reportedly continuing to work out the details for the format, including whether to reseed or use a bracketed structure following the play-in round and if the first round after the play-in series will be five- or seven-game series. An official announcement is expected early next week.
Find out the latest on COVID-19's impact on the sports world and when sports are returning by subscribing to Breaking News push notifications in the Sports and COVID-19 section.
An infectious disease expert says NHL players shouldn't agree to a return to play before making sure the league will cover costs for any long-term medical issues that arise if they contract COVID-19.
"Young athletes do not think about this stuff because think they are invincible, but every so often we see young, healthy people get very bad diseases, and this is no different," said Dr. Andrew Morris, an infectious disease specialist at Mount Sinai Hospital in Toronto, according to TSN's Rick Westhead.
Dr. Morris urged players to ensure teams and the league are committed to covering the costs of any medical care including rehabilitation, hospitalization, prescriptions, and counseling; according to Morris, patients on ventilators can later suffer from post-traumatic stress disorder.
"It would be unusual for a healthy young athlete to get really sick with COVID and wind up in the ICU, but, hey, somebody wins the lottery, right?" he said. He added: "(Players) should want their health care and income insured, seeing that they are taking an additional risk, especially if residing in the U.S."
The NHLPA agreed Friday to further talks with the NHL regarding a potential return featuring a 24-team playoff format. Commissioner Gary Bettman said the league is looking at eight or nine locations that could serve as hub cities to host games.
To this point, eight players - five from the Ottawa Senators and three from the Colorado Avalanche - have contracted and recovered from COVID-19.
Find out the latest on COVID-19's impact on the sports world and when sports are returning by subscribing to Breaking News push notifications in the Sports and COVID-19 section.
Acting U.S. Secretary of Homeland Security Chad Wolf signed an order Friday exempting foreign-born professional athletes from being denied entry into the country.
"Professional sporting events provide much-needed economic benefits, but equally important, they provide community pride and national unity," Wolf wrote. "In today's environment, Americans need their sports. It's time to reopen the economy and it's time we get our professional athletes back to work."
Wolf's order specifically mentions Major League Baseball, the National Basketball Association, the National Hockey League, the Women's National Basketball Association, the PGA and LPGA tours, and the ATP and WTA tennis tours. In addition to athletes, the order also exempts each league's "essential staff and their dependents."
MLB, the NBA, and the NHL are all working on plans to either begin or resume their seasons amid the pandemic.
It was reported Friday that MLB safety protocols will not require players to quarantine if they are returning to the U.S. from abroad; some foreign-born players returned to their respective home countries when the league halted spring training in mid-March.
Some in the NBA are apparently hoping players will be allowed to report directly to potential game sites in order to avoid quarantining. Orlando's Disney World is reportedly emerging as a top site to host the resumed basketball season.
Find out the latest on COVID-19's impact on the sports world and when sports are returning by subscribing to Breaking News push notifications in the Sports and COVID-19 section.
Conventional wisdom dictates the true Stanley Cup Playoffs feature best-of-seven series, but under these unconventional conditions, that tradition is being reconsidered.
In addition to the debate over whether to reseed or use a bracketed structure following the play-in round of the proposed 24-team playoff format, another matter that remains undecided is whether the first round of the 16-team postseason will feature five- or seven-game series, reports TSN's Pierre LeBrun.
As currently constructed, the 24-team format would reportedly involve a round-robin tournament between the top four teams in each conference (with those clubs progressing to the next round regardless of result), and bracket-based, best-of-five series between each conference's eight next-best clubs to determine matchups in the round of 16.
While the best-of-five nature of the play-in round has been agreed upon, the question is whether to continue with shortened series once the "real" playoffs begin.
The NHLPA said Friday that its executive board has authorized further talks with the league regarding the return-to-play proposal, but made it clear that some issues still need to be ironed out.
"Several details remain to be negotiated and an agreement on the format would still be subject to the parties reaching agreement on all issues relevant to resuming play," the union wrote in a statement.