"Before we stopped, he was ready to come back the next week and play, so, he did a great job of getting himself back," Berube continued. "He did a great job with his rehab, along with the training staff, and he kept himself in great shape. He actually came back in better shape than he came to camp (in September) ... He's been on the ice and doing things right now, so he's ready to go."
Tarasenko was hurt during a game on Oct. 24 and had shoulder surgery performed five days later. He was given a timetable of at least five months the day before the procedure.
The 28-year-old forward collected three goals and 10 points in 10 games before the injury. He led the Blues with 33 goals in 2018-19 and played a key role in their championship run, posting 11 markers and 17 points in 26 playoff games that spring.
Tarasenko led St. Louis in goals for five consecutive campaigns before 2019-20, notching at least 30 in each one and burying 40 in 2015-16.
"He amazes me," the Pittsburgh Penguins forward said Friday on Sportsnet's "Hockey Central." "I just love watching him play. The way he skates, the way he sees the ice, the way he creates space for himself - and that goes into his skating - is amazing."
Marleau spent two seasons in Toronto from 2017-19 and developed a close relationship with Marner. The seasoned veteran applauded the now-23-year-old for his hockey skills, but it's Marner's conduct off the ice that stands out to Marleau.
"He's kind of like Jumbo (Joe Thornton) in a way where he can have a great time and then flip that switch. As soon as he's on the ice it's all business," Marleau said. "He knows those different moments where he can relax and have some fun, but he's also very passionate and very focused on being one of the best players in the league and winning.
"A lot of people cannot see that part because they always look at the happy, the smiling, and that. But he's very focused and very committed."
Marner has been one of the Maple Leafs' best players since the team selected him fourth overall in the 2015 NHL Draft. He's amassed 83 goals and 208 assists in 300 career games.
New York Islanders president and general manager Lou Lamoriello believes the team's new arena at Belmont Park will give fans a feeling of nostalgia.
"I think what you're going to see is a Coliseum atmosphere in a new facility," Lamoriello told season-ticket holders Friday, according to Newsday.com's Andrew Gross.
"This is state of the art," he continued. "I think that when the fans see the results, they're going to be ecstatic."
In 2015, former Islanders owner Charles Wang moved the franchise's home games from Nassau Coliseum, which is known as one of the most raucous buildings in the league, to the Barclays Center in Brooklyn. In 2017, New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo arranged for the club to share home contests between the two buildings.
Lamoriello claims the arena at Belmont Park will replicate many of the features that made Nassau Coliseum so special for Islanders fans.
"I think the major point of it is it's going to be a hockey facility," Lamoriello added. "They've paid 100% attention to the atmosphere in the building, the way the seats are located for the hockey experience and tight to the arena. It's not like some of these new arenas. When you talk about old arenas, you talk about Boston Garden. But you go to a new arena, everybody says it doesn't have the same atmosphere."
The Islanders were given the go-ahead to resume construction of the arena at Belmont Park in May after pausing work at the site in March due to the coronavirus pandemic.
New York will play all of its home contests during the 2020-21 season at the Coliseum before moving to Belmont Park the following campaign.
Edmonton Oilers farmhand Cooper Marody released a heartfelt song Friday in memory of his former teammate Colby Cave, who passed away April 11 at the age of 25 after suffering a brain bleed.
All proceeds from the song will go toward the Colby Cave Memorial Fund.
Marody wrote "Agape" as a tribute and gift to Cave's widow, Emily.
"I want to thank Cooper Marody for this song, and specifically for using words that meant so much to Colby and I," Emily said, per the Oilers. "'Agape' was a word that Colby and I said to each other because we felt that 'I Love You' never fully described the amount of love we had for each other.
"'Agape' is the highest form of love," she continued. "Selfless, sacrificial, and unconditional love; it persists no matter the circumstance. I'm so grateful I got to experience this love with my best friend. Getting to love Colb is the best thing I will ever do and continue to do until we see each other again."
"Agape" is available for download on all music platforms, including Apple Music and Spotify.
The Ottawa Sun issued a correction and apology to Ottawa Senators owner Eugene Melnyk after becoming aware of errors in a pair of columns by Rick Gibbons the publication ran last week, per Sportsnet's Wayne Scanlan.
One of the two articles is from June 5 entitled "Split between Senators and foundation boils down to money" and the other is from June 8 with the headline "Melnyk's tussle with Sens foundation could be a messy one."
"We sincerely apologize and regret any misunderstanding caused by the errors contained in the two columns," the Sun wrote.
"The Sun would like to clarify that it did not intend to suggest that Eugene Melnyk or the Ottawa Senators had exercised improper influence over the Ottawa Senators foundation or that they had attempted to misdirect, misappropriate, or misapply charitable funds of the foundation or The Organ Project."
According to the Sun, the June 5 article incorrectly inflated the amount that the team charged the Senators Foundation for rent. The original article cited that Melnyk charged "hundreds of thousands of dollars annually" when in fact that number was $78,750 in 2019.
The column also noted that charging charitable foundations for rent is not a common practice among sports franchises, but the Senators said they are "required by law to charge rent because of the arms-length structure of the foundation," also noting that the rent charged was below market.
The June 8 column referred to a Canada Revenue Agency filing that indicated Melnyk's private foundation, The Organ Project, donated just $5,000 to the Kidney Foundation in 2018. However, The Organ Project notified the Sun that its main goal wasn't to distribute money to other charities, but instead "to spend money it raised on activities aimed at promoting organ awareness and registration."
The commissioners of the five professional sports leagues operating in Canada have banded together to impel the federal government to allow single-game sports betting in the country, according to the Windsor Star's Dave Waddell.
On June 8, the NHL's Gary Bettman, NBA's Adam Silver, MLB's Rob Manfred, CFL's Randy Ambrose, and MLS's Don Garber signed and sent a joint statement to several key members of government.
"The National Basketball Association, the National Hockey League, Major League Baseball, Major League Soccer, and the Canadian Football League support an amendment to Canada’s federal laws that would authorize provinces to offer betting on single sporting events," the statement said.
"Sports betting gives fans another exciting way to engage with the sports they love. Because a legal and regulated sports betting market in Canada would be beneficial to sports and their fans, we urge prompt action to make this a reality."
Prime Minister Justin Trudeau, Finance Minister Bill Morneau, and Attorney General of Canada Dave Lametti each received a copy of the statement. Other prominent members of government, including Ontario premier Doug Ford, were also sent a copy.
"Sports betting already happens illegally in Canada; creating a legal framework would shift consumers from illicit, unregulated markets to a legal and safe marketplace," the statement continued. "Regulating single-game betting would allow for strong consumer protections as well as safeguards to further protect the integrity of sports."
Professional sports leagues have taken a financial hit amid the coronavirus pandemic after all five operating in Canada were forced to halt play. The leagues have lost large sums on ticket sales from canceled games, and it's unclear how long it will be until spectators are permitted to once again attend venues.
MP Kevin Waugh (Saskatoon-Grasswood), alongside Windsor West NDP MP Brian Masse, reintroduced a bill after Masse's private bill died at the cabinet level last year.
"The government can do this with an order of council like they did with the new gun control laws a month ago," Waugh said. "We'll be putting pressure on the government to get this done before Parliament finishes June 17."
In late May, the NHL unveiled a four-phase return-to-play plan with the hope of resuming and completing the 2019-20 season, which has been paused for three months because of COVID-19. This week, teams opened facilities across North America as the league officially moved into Phase 2, which is centered around on-ice workouts for groups of six players or less. Full-team training camps are set to open July 10, though dates for the start of games have yet to be determined.
There's been significant progress, but there are plenty of milestones to reach. We don't know which two of the 10 potential hub cities vying for hosting privileges will be chosen. We don't know what kinds of health and safety measures will be enforced by the NHL in Phases 3 and 4. We don't know how the coronavirus will continue to affect North America over the coming weeks, and how those trends might affect the NHL's plans. And so on.
To explore these issues and more, theScore solicited the perspectives of five experts from the fields of epidemiology, infectious disease, and virology:
Zachary Binney, epidemiologist and assistant professor at Oxford College of Emory University
Earl Brown, professor emeritus of virology at the University of Ottawa
Jill Weatherhead, assistant professor in infectious disease at Baylor College of Medicine
Michael N. Teng, associate professor in the department of internal medicine at the University of South Florida
Their thoughts, which they shared in separate conversations over the past week, have been condensed and edited for clarity.
Steve Russell / Getty Images
theScore: How would you go about choosing a hub city if you were the NHL? What kinds of factors and variables would you prioritize?
Binney: From a health perspective and a COVID-19 perspective, it's a really difficult choice because I think you have two forces that are almost exactly opposed. One is a city that's going to let you actually pull this off - bring 12 teams to their city and play professional sports games - and then you also want an area that is going to keep the virus relatively contained and not let an outbreak get to the explosive point where, for example, their healthcare centers are being overwhelmed and they would have to shut a whole lot of things down, including the NHL. Those two forces are at odds, I think, particularly in the U.S., where the response to COVID-19 has unfortunately taken on a strong political element - the places most likely to say, "Yeah, sure! Come on down!" are also the places likely to have the loosest regulations.
Snoeyenbos Newman: There's three domains against which you want the city to be ready. The first: You want to pick a city that has low prevalence and that has been low prevalence for a while. (The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention) has guidance about that. It's less than 10 infections per 100,000 people. You want that to be a stable number (for at least two-to-three weeks). The second thing is testing capacity. You need a city that has a lot of excess capacity because the NHL plan involves a lot of testing, which I think is appropriate. The third thing is hospital capacity. That is important for the (chosen city), not just because you want it for your players and (staff) but also you don't want any - hopefully small - outbreaks within the NHL to really pull capacity away from what's needed.
Brown: I think you run into the problem where the cities with the greatest facilities and support are often hubs that bring in a lot of people. So that becomes a wild card. Las Vegas? Everybody goes to Las Vegas. I'm just not sure that's the way you want to think, even though it's got all the amenities and can handle people. So you run into this conflict where the best people-handling places are often the highest-risk places because this is an infectious disease and the question is, who's got it, and who brings it in? And then it spreads. Everybody's trying to get a grip on it, but that's your conflict, I think. Ideally, you'd like to have a place in the desert or the Arctic where nobody goes to so you can show up (alone). But then there's no amenities, right?
Xinhua News Agency / Getty Images
theScore: Are the NHL's health guidelines - namely what we read in the the extensive Phase 2 protocol memo - rigorous enough to keep players and staff safe?
Snoeyenbos Newman: I was impressed by the Phase 2 plan. They have both the specificity - in terms of what they're asking for, with testing and quarantining - as well as a very detailed plan, that is sport-specific, (that lays out) how they're going to do voluntary training. I think that the thing I really appreciate about it is not only the specificity and the fact that they've really thought through what it will look like, but also the language they've included about flexibility.
The most important thing that we can say about the coronavirus is that we have to be able and willing to rapidly respond to changing epidemiology in the location where you are. I think planning is great, I think moving forward is great, as long as it's appropriate in the very local public health context that you're in. The most important thing any organization can do, and what I think is inherent in this NHL plan, is being really ready to respond to change. Because this is a virus that can move very, very quickly, and so things can look very different a week after today.
Brown: I was impressed that they said every team has to have a liaison person who is in charge of their biosafety or public health protocol. They're going to have someone who's responsible for every team, so every team has to sign off all the time, saying, "Yeah, we're doing it right. We're not getting problems, we are actually distancing, and not having contact outside. Everybody has stable temperatures and no symptoms."
Weatherhead: The NHL proposal for Phase 2 opening is comprehensive and addresses issues related to social distancing in a sport that requires significant contact, cleaning and disinfecting within shared spacing, and testing strategies. However, as outlined in the proposal, access to testing may be limited and risk factors for players may be impacted by local transmission dynamics. It will be critical to have active surveillance programs, increased access to testing without impacting local supply, rapid contact tracing, and medical care without impacting local resources and strict adherence to the proposal across all locations.
Derek Leung / Getty Images
theScore: What types of red flags in Phases 2 and 3 of the NHL's return-to-play plan would have to arise for you to be concerned about the viability of holding a 24-team tournament?
Binney: You're going to have to watch out for two things. One is clusters of cases on the same team. If you start seeing three or four guys who are sick at the same time, even with daily testing, that would really worry me. You would probably want to shut that team down for two weeks. What does that do in terms of their practice schedule and their ability to get started again and stay on schedule with the rest of the NHL teams? I don't know. But that's something I'd be worried about.
Another thing I'll be on the lookout for is any explosive outbreak or signs of overwhelming a healthcare system in the hub cities that are chosen. That would obviously disrupt everything massively. Unless you have a backup hub, I'm not sure how the NHL would be able to recover from that. I would also be worried about an explosive outbreak within any team and any city having training camp. That could be shut down - and even if it isn't shut down, you could argue that they really should be keeping players and staff at home as much as possible, both to contribute to public health and to reduce the chance that they get sick if you have a lot of cases floating around. That's going to have to be a decision that each team makes and is prepared for.
Brown: You want to start clean and stay clean of the virus. You want to know that nobody is coming in (from outside the team bubble). If you've got cases during training camps, you would be very concerned. That would be cause for pause.
Weatherhead: Once they get to that Phase 3 stage, where there's a lot more contact between individuals - both physical contact and the sheer number of people who are coming together - (the whole return-to-play plan will be challenged). We know the more people in a closed, contained setting, the higher the likelihood of transmission of this infection because it's a respiratory disease transmitted through respiratory droplets. You have to be in close contact with another person in order to get this infection, so the more you're spread out during this Phase 2, with fewer people, it's less likely there is going to be transmission. If you're seeing that transmission and you're seeing players pop up positive, that's got to be a red flag. Once you introduce more players coming from multiple different areas, that could be very dangerous in terms of facilitating the spread of the infection.
Jared Silber / Getty Images
theScore: What additional precautions can be taken by NHL players and staff who have underlying health issues? For example, Max Domi and Kaapo Kakko both have diabetes.
Weatherhead: This is the exact problem, because we know that most (NHL-related) individuals are not going to have a major problem with this infection. Most young adults will have mild to moderate symptoms from the coronavirus. It's the other people who have underlying conditions that are going to be at risk. It's not that they're more likely to get the infection, but they're more likely to have more severe outcomes because of the infection.
It's really the responsibility of everybody involved, not just those individuals with underlying health issues, (to care). That means everybody's wearing a mask, that means everybody's following the cleaning and disinfecting rules, that you're staying apart as much as you can, and if you're sick, that you're staying home and reporting your symptoms.
Teng: The major way people are getting infected is through droplet transmission when people are talking or singing or shouting at each other. So what you really need to do is get these small particle masks - these N95s - and some sort of protection for your face. Not necessarily a face shield, but at least some sort of eye protection like goggles or glasses or something like that, to stop droplets from getting into your eyes. Touching surfaces, you have to wear gloves as well.
Binney: Beyond daily testing and the steps that everybody should be taking - like wearing masks when you're not on the ice and washing your hands and not gathering in locker rooms or showers or anything like that - I don't know if there's a lot of extra steps that I would recommend if you're really worried about getting sick other than staying home.
If you're not comfortable with the steps that everybody else is taking, then there's not a whole lot that you can do to protect yourself. I think that clubs need to continue to pay anybody with a good fear and a good reason why they are at a higher risk of a bad outcome if they get COVID. I think that those people need to make individual risk decisions, and I don't think it should have financial consequences for them.
Boston Globe / Getty Images
theScore: Given the current state of the coronavirus and the availability of testing, and future projections for both, are you optimistic the NHL can bring back games in an ethical fashion this fall?
Snoeyenbos Newman: I don't know. Part of the real challenge in answering that is that you're asking me to answer a national and - when we include Canada - international question about a process that's being managed at a local level. I think we're really asking: Can every single city and training site before the hubs do that ethically? And then at the hubs: How have they been chosen? Do they have the capacity? Are they able to do the things that are necessary? Those are very - unfortunately, I think - hyper-local, hyper-specific questions.
And we also don't know what will happen with reopening. I think that, so far, fingers crossed, in many places that are in Phase 1 (of community reopening) or modified Phase 1 and trending towards Phase 2 reopening, we have not seen large spikes. But that doesn't mean it's not going to happen. I would say I am very cautiously optimistic about where we'll be by the end of the summer, but if you told me we had another huge resurgence, I wouldn't be surprised.
Teng: On some level, you can wait until we're immune and not play hockey for five years, or however long it's going to take. Or you can try to do it carefully and see if it works. The other thing you have to be unafraid of saying is, "This is not working and we have to stop." That, I think, is going to be the bigger problem for our favorite commissioner because there's going to be significant pressure once you start to finish. You have to be able to say, "Look, we have two teams now that have significant infections, we have to stop this playoff thing, or modify it so we can eliminate a lot of the contact."
Brown: Public sentiment won't be against it as long as s--- doesn't hit the fan, as long as it doesn't go south. Because then there will be lots of people afterwards saying, "Oh, I told you shouldn't have done that." You want to make sure you're not in that situation.
Mike Stobe / Getty Images
theScore: Lastly, would it be wise for the NHL - or any other sports league, for that matter - to welcome fans back into arenas before a vaccine is readily available?
Teng: As a sports fan myself, I'd love to go back to watching live-action games instead of reruns of the 2015 Stanley Cup Playoffs, but as a public health person, you just can't. There's no way to socially distance in an arena. If you have to go to the bathroom, you can't stand 6 feet away from the guy in front of you. It just doesn't happen that way. It's going to be a big problem.
Until we get a vaccine, until people start getting vaccinated and we get a certain amount of herd immunity, I think it's going to be a problem. These are the places it's going to spread. We have all of these protests right now in all of our major cities in the United States. These have got to be spreading the coronavirus. Some people are wearing masks, some people are not. You're standing there and you're shouting and you're yelling and you're talking to people. I think we're going to see a spike in coronavirus cases after this is over.
Snoeyenbos Newman: It's entirely possible that the vaccine development will take 10 years. We don't know how long it will take for this vaccine to develop. We really don't. I think that we have ambitious goals for it, but it could take years. If we're talking about years, we're looking at a different way of analyzing and evaluating and responding to risk. So that's something where we're just going to have to see how it goes and see how it looks. There is some promising early vaccine data, but it's very early data.
Our risk tolerance for vaccines - because vaccines are something we give to healthy people - is appropriately incredibly low. … (Vaccines) take a long time to develop because they take a long time to test. We would hate to give out a vaccine that didn't do what we expected it to do. There are few examples of vaccine development that have caused harm, but it's not zero. So we want to be incredibly cautious.
Binney: Absolutely not. No, no, no, no, no. I can't say no enough times. Every decision we make about going out and doing things comes with a risk and a benefit. So when I go to the grocery store, I am taking on a risk. But the benefit of that is substantial. I get to pick up food. There, the benefit outweighs the risk, which is why we never shut down grocery stores at all.
When you talk about bringing professional sports back, I tend to be of the mind that there is a real social and psychological benefit to getting sports back on TV. It helps people see the light at the end of the tunnel. It can help some people with mental health and help them feel psychologically better. There are some modest economic benefits as well. If you do it with some combination of centralization and daily testing, I think it can be done without posing a large risk to public health. At least that's my hope.
So the benefits are there, and the risks are acceptable, so that's something with the right plan that we can talk about. When you add fans to the equation, you lose me because the only benefit is financial for teams and leagues. The risk is enormous in getting thousands of people together, especially indoors for hockey and basketball. That is insanity. The risk-benefit analysis is completely out of whack.
