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The Unpolished Perception of NHL Bubble Life

An unique look inside the NHL bubble

Last week, I touched on life inside the NHL Bubble as described by Columbus Blue Jacket forward, Nathan Gerbe – a great conversation from the Puck Pursuit Podcast, found here. This week however, ESPN’s Emily Kaplan and Greg Wyshynski created an outstanding read about life in the bubble. The pair interviewed nine anonymous players from teams bounced out of the 2020 bubble playoffs. More precisely, Wyshynski and Kaplan created an anonymous account of the 2020 bubble experience from four Toronto bubble players, and five from the Edmonton version.

Glance Inside the NHL Bubble

For hockey fans, the ESPN feature is an interesting and honest insight into the unknown – an unpolished player perception of the NHL bubble. Understandably, the bubble venue was sealed tight because of the coronavirus but the eventual player reaction was average to unfavorable. The restrictions made for a completely different animal in terms of atmosphere. A fact noted by the players.

One of the anonymous nine players described the environment as an adjustment, “For a guy that’s been fortunate enough to play in some pretty crazy atmospheres, it was very, very, very different.” Another player added, “You can’t just snap into a playoff mentality after not playing for five months, and the first game playing in an empty arena just felt spooky.” As an outside observer, the fan-less games just never felt right. I sincerely hope the game of hockey, and all sports get back to those magic moment’s created in a ruckus playoff environment.

If anything, the bubble experience should increase players appreciation of the NHL fan base on an entirely different level.

NHL COVID-19 Tests
NHL COVID-19 Tests

Bubble Leaks

Based on the ESPN research, it sounds as though a big bubble issue for players was the difference between what was “promised and actually delivered [on].” It always struck me as odd that during promotions for Edmonton as a potential hub city, the ads featured a lot of Rocky Mountain footage. The closest mountains are a 3.5-hour drive west of Edmonton to Jasper. It would be a near logistic impossibility for teams to visit the mountains with such a rapid-fire schedule.

As a result, an on-going joke in the bubble were different cracks about fly fishing expeditions. One of the players hilariously noted:

In the little brochure they sent, there was a picture of a man fly fishing in the mountains, and one of the guys was like, ‘Where did they get this picture of the mountains?”

Never mind fly fishing, some players mentioned that days would go by before they went outside for fresh air. Part of this was due to the convenient arrangement of having hotels that adjoin the arena, but it sounds as if the players felt a bit mislead.

The last issue of contention for the players revolved around having families inside the bubble for the conference finals. Since most of the families live stateside, the NHL could not get governmental approval to allow individuals into the bubble without a two-week quarantine. One player summarized that let down by saying “I just wish they communicated better.”

2020 Stanley Cup

These are items the NHL can work on for the next sweeping global pandemic. But really, how could the NHL make this a perfect scenario? Impossible. Speaking of, a hats off to the NHL for even pulling this off. The fact that the league has stayed Covid free thus far is an applauding effort. Just having summer hockey was unreal, but especially after months of uncomfortable uncertainty. It is extraordinary that the NHL will still hand out the Stanley Cup in 2020.

Hopefully the candid nature of the anonymous feedback in the ESPN feature will help next time around. On the other side of that coin, the overall sentiment from players might make it harder to convince them of another next time. For several players involved in the ESPN story, bubble 2.0 would be a last resort option.

NEXT: NHL Scribe Lists 14 Most Likely NHL Buyout Candidates 2020

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