Stu Cowan: No winners in the Canadiens-Panthers New Year’s Day game

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Just lose, baby!

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That could be the Canadiens’ motto for the rest of this NHL season.

It also helps explain why the Canadiens agreed to go ahead with their game against the Panthers on New Years Day in Florida despite having 16 players on the NHL’s COVID-19 protocol list. The Canadiens were only able to dress 18 players for the game (11 forwards, five defenders and two goalkeepers, two below the norm) and unsurprisingly lost 5-2 to the Panthers.

The 18 players the Canadiens dressed for the game had a combined salary cap of $ 22.76 million. according to figures from CapFriendly.com , and nine of them earn the league minimum of $ 750,000.

To put that in perspective, the NHL team’s minimum salary cap this season is $ 60.2 million with a maximum of $ 81.5 million. Basically, there was no chance the Canadiens could beat the Panthers, one of the best teams in the league.

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Still, the NHL agreed to let the Canadiens play after giving the team the option to postpone the game. The Canadiens saw their record drop to 7-23-4, including 2-13-3 on the road.

The NHL’s number one goal at this point seems to be completing an 82-game regular season for each team and putting off games for a team like the Canadiens, who are already out of the playoff race, doesn’t help with that. The NHL has already postponed the Canadiens’ next four scheduled games at the Bell Center because the league and team do not want to play at an empty Bell Center as a result of Quebec’s COVID-19 restrictions.

As for the Canadiens, losses will help them more than wins for the rest of this season when it comes to landing a first pick in this year’s NHL Draft.

That’s one of the reasons the New Years Day game was played in Florida.

The Canadiens closed all postgame operations until Thursday and their next game is not until next Wednesday against the Bruins in Boston, a game that was originally scheduled for the Bell Center.

Allan Walsh is the NHL’s most outspoken player agent – He has even started his own Agent Provocateur podcast. – so I thought it would be a good idea to call him and get his thoughts on what’s going on with the NHL and COVID-19.

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“The league is concerned about having so many games postponed that they will not be able to complete them all during what was anticipated as the three-week Olympic recess (in February) and they will have no choice but to start pushing the season through June and the playoffs once again. until July, ”Walsh said. “Again, that would result in a schedule (next season) that doesn’t fit in with the traditional NHL schedule.

“I think the NHL is looking at the integrity of the season in general and certainly, on a team that is in last place in a conference, there will be less integrity problems,” Walsh added of the Canadiens situation. “Maybe not who they play against, but at least them and even a little less based on who the competition is than a team that is competing for a playoff spot or firmly in a playoff spot.”

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The Canadiens weren’t a competitive team even before they were hit by COVID-19, so it’s not like the NHL is giving away two points to the Panthers. But it still doesn’t look good, and it’s not fair to fans paying tickets with the expectation of seeing two real NHL teams.

Players are stuck in a bit of a bind when it comes to playing these games because the salary cap is based on hockey-related income, which also has an impact on the collateral money players pay. There’s also the problem of gamers who test positive for COVID-19 while on the road (seven Canadians tested positive on the last road trip) and have to self-quarantine in a hotel room in that city.

Walsh said he’s hearing that most players who test positive are asymptomatic or have mild to moderate symptoms that can last for 1 to 3 days when they don’t feel very well. He added that the persistent symptom in some cases has been shortness of breath when they start exercising again and fatigue that can drag on for a while.

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“There may be an inherent conflict here between income and player safety,” Walsh said. “And my personal opinion is when those two, when you’re weighing the risk-reward analysis and it’s applying revenue over player safety, you should always give player safety the benefit of the doubt. In some cases, in some situations over the last few weeks, the safety of the players has been advanced and in other situations (the income related to hockey) has been advanced to the safety of the players and I do not agree with that. I think it’s wrong. “

It was wrong for the Canadiens to play on New Years Day.

However, there are many reasons why they did.

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