A Saturday night without hockey? It’s the reality we are facing this weekend, and perhaps many more. The NHL is making up contingency plans to salvage some kind of season after a period “on pause” which will last for several weeks on an assumption the virus doesn’t spread through the player base because they will be self-isolated completely during this period.

There’s hope it will work, and that hockey can come back in some form, perhaps in empty arenas to start to end the regular season, then ramping up to a full blown Stanley Cup Final. The end result could still be the season being cancelled.

The waiting is the hard part. It’s going to be at least two weeks before any real update on next steps is going to be clearly communicated.

We can only sit here and wait.

While You’re Waiting

We’ll have weekend FTB’s until there’s a reason to go back to more frequent ones to talk about our beloved Maple Leafs.

So let’s watch some Auston Matthews together!

Any personal favourites in there? I like the one at 2:41 in the video. It was his second goal in that game against the Sabres. He actually uses Rasmus Dahlin’s body to deflect it in the net.

Feel free to talk hockey, or anything else. Have a good weekend, everyone.

From The Branches