CAROLINA HURRICANES

NEWS CLIPPINGS • May 11, 2020

Rest of AHL, Charlotte Checkers season canceled by coronavirus pandemic

By Luke DeCock

The Charlotte Checkers will be holding onto the Calder Cup

a little longer than expected. Their title defense was cut short

Monday when the AHL announced the cancellation of the

remainder of the 2019-20 regular season and playoffs,

unable to find a way forward during the COVID-19 pandemic.

In a league where revenue is primarily driven by gate

receipts rather than television contracts, playing without fans

-- at the moment, the only way forward for sports leagues,

including the AHL -- was financially unfeasible for the AHL.

The decision was made during a leaguewide conference call

Friday but teams were given the weekend to prepare for the

announcement.

“After a lengthy review process, the American Hockey

League has determined that the resumption and completion

of the 2019-20 season is not feasible in light of current

conditions,” AHL president David Andrews said in a

statement. “The League’s operational focus has turned

toward actively preparing for the 2020-21 season.

“We are very grateful to the National Hockey League and its

teams for their support and leadership in navigating through

the challenges faced over the past two months. The AHL

continues to place paramount importance on the health and

safety of our players, officials, staff and fans and all of their

families, and we all look forward to returning to our arenas in

2020-21.”

The end of the season also brings closer the potential end of

the partnership between the Checkers and Carolina

Hurricanes. The Hurricanes have been in discussions to

move their AHL affiliation to the Chicago Wolves after the

conclusion of the season, with the Checkers potentially

linking up with the Florida Panthers. Current Checkers coach

Ryan Warsofsky would move with Carolina’s prospects to the

Wolves if that deal goes through.

While it may be the end of the Checkers’ season, it may not

be the end of some players’ seasons. The NHL still intends

to complete its season this summer or fall, whether that’s

some portion of the regular season as well as the playoffs or

merely some modified version of the playoffs. In either

scenario, teams would carry several extra players from their

AHL teams as emergency replacements, for injuries or

coronavirus or otherwise.

The Checkers beat the Wolves in the finals to win the Calder

Cup a year ago, and despite losing their coach and a

substantial portion of their roster over the offseason were still

in position to defend their title when the season halted

because of the coronavirus on March 12. The Checkers were

in third place in the Atlantic Division after 61 games with a

34-22-5 record despite juggling six goalies and 46 players,

tied for second-most in the AHL.

Defenseman Jake Bean led the Checkers with 48 points in

59 games; Steven Lorentz led the current Checkers with 23

goals, although Julien Gauthier had 26 before he was traded

to the New York Rangers on Feb. 18.

Any resumption of AHL play would likely have to wait for the

beginning of the 2020-21 NHL season, which in some

scenarios might not happen until December or January.

CAROLINA HURRICANES

NEWS CLIPPINGS • May 11, 2020

Behind the Canes brand: Social media engagement, ‘The Office’ and Bunch of Jerks

By Sara Civian

At least 667 of you agree on one thing: The Hurricanes have

the best marketing and social media in the league.

As fun as they make it look, it doesn’t come easy. It takes

buy in and trust from top to bottom, and dozens of people

behind the scenes actually making things happen.

To name a few, there’s Vice President of Marketing and

Brand Strategy Mike Forman, who spoke with us last season

about what he does. There’s Hurricanes.com Senior Editor

Michael Smith, who needs no introduction. There are entire

graphic design and video content teams. Then there’s Digital

Media and Marketing Coordinator Nikki Stoudt, who is

basically a team in herself.

“She’s sort of our glue player, really. Our utility player,” said

Dan LaTorraca, Senior Director of Marketing. “Without her

we would be in rough shape.”

You can find Stoudt running around the arena doing

something different every day. If you see a picture from a

post-game presser, she probably snuck through the masses

to get it. If you see a player Tweet anything, there’s a good

chance she had something to do with it.

You used to find LaTorraca doing the social media posts

from the Hurricanes’ accounts, but he handed the reigns

over to former Durham Bulls social media manager Matt

Sutor this season. It’s a bit of a relief for LaTorraca, who had

been doing the Tweets for years — including for the Carolina

Panthers — before his time with the Hurricanes.

We caught up with LaTorraca about the Hurricanes’ brand,

accidentally retweeting marijuana and life in sports social

media amidst a global pandemic.

This might be obvious, but why is fan engagement so

important to you?

That actually started two jobs ago. My first sports position

was with the Carolina Panthers for about six years. My

strategy was: We’re never going to beat the Cowboys, or

some of the bigger teams, with brand visibility or awareness.

We might not have the best content resources available, but

we can interact with people and engage. That’s under our

control. I don’t know why more brands don’t do it. When I

was interviewing with the Hurricanes, it was something I

pushed quite a bit — that it’s going to make a big difference.

Especially in a new era with new ownership, a new head

coach, the second overall pick, you want to inject some

energy into your brand? Answer your fans! Talk to them!

Build up a dialogue that is actually meaningful and not

empty.

And then you just so happened to get the best story of

the year …

Which one? (Laughing) It’s been a lot. Back in 2015 the

Panthers had their Super Bowl run, I was like “That’s it.

That’s the most fun I’ll ever have.” And then last season

happened and completely blew that out of the water — I

mean, every week it was something else. I like to think we

have a pretty good understanding of how to capitalize on that

stuff, whether it’s a t-shirt, or creating something fun out of it.

Making something exciting even better has been our real

path to success.

Everyone always talks about how the Hurricanes

management and leadership let you be creative, but

what does that actually mean?

Well, specifically with the whole Bunch of Jerks thing, when

that went down we did a couple of social media jabs like

changing our Twitter bio and the grandpa Simpson meme,

but the whole time we were talking about making shirts. We

weren’t done with our game coverage until midnight, and I

remember Mike Forman standing in my office saying “We’ve

gotta make Tom (Dundon) and Don (Waddell) aware of this.”

So Mike texted them at, like, 12:30 a.m. and we got a

response back in 5-10 minutes tops, like “Go for it. Do it.”

Then we got to work. I think the ability to take risks and be

that nimble, to have that freedom to take chances really

helps us be successful. We had an opportunity and had to

act quick, and I firmly believe that having ownership agree so

quickly allowed us not only to get our best people on it, but to

capitalize on the discussion before it went away. If we didn’t

have shirts ready for another week no one would care by

then, but we had them less than 24 hours later — we

capitalized on that moment.

What has engagement been like since COVID-19? I’m

very curious if it’s more because people are at home,

less because there’s no hockey, or what?

I assumed interactions would be down just based on the eye

test, and yeah, in total they are significantly down. That’s to

be expected. But we’re still managing to pace the league —

we’re first on Instagram, second on Twitter and second on

Facebook for interaction rate right now. I’m proud of what

we’re doing but I also told our staff that metrics don’t matter

right now. We’re lucky to have a passionate fan base that

helps us lead the league in a lot of these metrics, but right

now the rules have changed so dramatically. It’s just about

keeping our brand as relevant as we can and being there for

the fans who are missing what we do.

What are some of the things you’ve done to stay

“relevant” and adjust during the NHL pause?

The biggest change right now is making sure our people are

OK. We started reading the tea leaves early, seeing

potentially having games with no fans and I got our team

brainstorming, some ideas of how are we going to handle

CAROLINA HURRICANES

NEWS CLIPPINGS • May 11, 2020

this, at the time no one thought anything like this was going

to happen. We also kind of looked at our idea bank and

things we’ve wanted to do over the years we didn’t have time

or resources for, and we put together a robust strategy.

In this situation here our digital marketing team becomes one

of the more functional pieces of the organization when

there’s no hockey. But when everything started to get shut

down, I wanted to make sure our staff took a few days to fully

digest what was happening — and I don’t think anybody is

really going to digest or comprehend any of this for a while

— but to clear their heads for a while. From there we put

together the right communication platforms to make sure we

had an appropriate workflow and direction. I laid out some

things to keep us ahead, but then as this got worse it turned

into, “All right, what are we doing to engage our fans?” We

put a lot of our big-picture ideas on hold for a while to tread

water for a little bit.

So were the recent posts saying something nice about

every team and “The Office” planned?

That’s the Matt Sutor special, and that started when we

mentioned every team except the Caps on world kindness

day (Nov. 13). We wanted to kick off our quarantine

campaign with something like that and it went well. As that

was evolving, we started discussing The Office-themed one

as well. But some of the stuff we’ve been doing, like the

Storm Surge fan vote, we’ve been talking about for a year.

We kept waiting for the right time to do it (in the midst of the

coronavirus crisis), stuff like that you don’t want to be tone

deaf but it was fun and well-received. We wanted to make

sure we were still hitting the foundations of our strategy,

which is to be really, really interactive and sort of create a

platform for 1-to-1 interactions, being responsive. I’m glad it

brightened people’s day because it was pretty early in this

whole thing.

What is your all-time favorite post from the Hurricanes

Twitter account?

DL: OK, so there was one that never took off where

somebody insulted us and their account was a jar of

mayonnaise. I was always kind of bummed that it never took

off.

The “tag” one too, from the playoff run.

There were so many from the (2018-19) playoff run that were

pretty special. The bend the knee one, I made that like a

week and a half in advance. There was a lot of back-and-

forth with PR like, “Yes, No, Yes, No,” but I was finally like

“Yes, we’re doing it.”

That one I’m certainly partial to, but it was one of those years

where things clicked and the team gave us every opportunity

to be fun and snarky. It was like playing a video game on

easy mode.

What do you consider your biggest mistake?

Well, certainly the millions of typos I’m always responsible

for. Gosh, I’m sure I’ve made tons of mistakes it’s just

figuring out which one was the worst. I had three tweets with

the Panthers that got me in trouble.

One was the time I accidentally retweeted a bag of

marijuana. I drove home Christmas Eve after a game and my

wife and I were exhausted, but we wanted to make breakfast

for our family. This was back in, like 2011, so I had a Palm

Pilot and the league asked us to ask fans what they got for

Christmas and retweet some of them. I saw a hat come

through our feed, and I guess the image didn’t expand all the

way so I’m like, “Oh, cool.”

The hat had a big bag of weed on the bill.

Some people responded things like, “Hey, why do you have

chronic on your feed,” and I had no idea! It was like 8 a.m. on

Christmas, so I unretweeted it, closed my computer and

thought that was that. About an hour later it’s the No. 1 story

on Deadspin. So I had to call my boss Christmas morning, I

was mortified — back then social was new, I was certain I

was going to get fired. I didn’t.

And maybe if it was three or four years later I would’ve made

a joke about it — like “It’s going to be a green Christmas,” or

something. These are the things you learn over time

(working in sports social media). When you’re a kid and it’s

your first job in sports, everything is so serious. It was a

learning opportunity and a rough Christmas.

Well, here you are and you never seem to shy away on

the Hurricanes account. Speaking of which, can you take

us through your approach on Pride Night? I think that

meant a lot to a lot of people. You guys really didn’t back

down, and it’s probably the first time I’ve really seen an

NHL team go so hard on Pride Night, it was awesome.

Absolutely, I’m really proud of that. Matt Sutor the social

media manager deserves all the credit for being the driving

force behind a lot of how we managed that. Even when we

interviewed him for the position over the summer, it was one

of the things that came up because he was with the Durham

Bulls and they did a great job of respectfully explaining why

it’s important to have these nights. It’s something that we all

feel very passionate about on our staff, and we’re all

empowered to stand behind that. We wouldn’t be hosting a

Pride Night if we didn’t feel strongly about that, that it’s

something really important for our community and fans, and

even in general for people who aren’t part of our community.

So I was incredibly proud of that, I told him, “I know you’re

good at this, feel free to go as hard as you want with it, I trust

you.” He did a great job, and I think it’s important for us to

stand behind everyone in our community. We certainly put

that on display that night, it’s a great activation, I think it lines

up well with our brand vision: we want to be supportive of our

community. Hopefully, we’re able to continue to make that

night even more impactful with what we do in-game and

around the game to show that everyone is welcome in

hockey. Obviously there’s a long road ahead, but I like to

think every time we have an event like that we’re making

progress.

CAROLINA HURRICANES

NEWS CLIPPINGS • May 11, 2020

How did the relationship with the Avalanche start?

You know, it just kind of happened. I think it was me goofing

off over the summer responding to one of their tweets. There

was a time our social coordinator moved on to take a job in

DC, and I was sort of just goofing off on social when nothing

was going on and Matt took the torch and kept it going.

We’ve never actually really talked to them off the books, to

be honest with you, it sort of just naturally occurred. It’s fun,

it’s something I think aligns well with both brands. I’m hoping

we can do more with it when hockey comes back in the

future, it’s just silly.

Fist-bumping at PNC to Mrazek’s hats: What I miss about covering the Hurricanes

By Sara Civian

I’ve had something marinating in my drafts since the first

week of this NHL pause, but it just wasn’t coming out right.

Maybe everything was too fresh — or too surreal — back

then. It was along the lines of the story Hurricanes website

reporter Michael Smith wrote at the time. He nailed it, so I left

it alone.

About two months into the lockdown, though, this way of life

is becoming less surreal and more normal.

I’m probably a bit late to the party, but I finally have some

semblance of a daily quarantine routine. I’m willing to bet up

to 50 percent of this routine is simply doing the dishes. When

I heard the phrase “global pandemic” back in the good old

days, I never once thought about washing a single dish.

What a fool I was.

I take my stupid little walk, I do my stupid little exercises with

my stupid little resistance bands, I mix in an occasional

shower.

I am relearning the piano, but unlike my upstairs neighbor, I

plug in my headphones.

I am drinking far less coffee and far more White Claw.

Above all else, I’m doing a lot of thinking.

I cannot believe the number of simple joys in such a

privileged life that I had been taking for granted. I got so mad

at myself about it a few weeks into all this — people are

sacrificing so much, and I couldn’t even acknowledge what I

had when I had it.

So I started a running list titled “Things I won’t take for

granted once I get them back.” When I read my colleague

Craig Morgan’s story chronicling everything he misses about

covering the Coyotes, I thought I’d publish the Hurricanes-

related items.

I miss walking into PNC Arena with my headphones off,

hoping I’d stumble into one of you. Those conversations are

always day-makers, and probably the only thing on this list I

never actually took for granted. Not once.

I miss fist-bumping all my favorite arena security employees

on the way to the press elevator. If I timed it right, I’d ride the

elevator at the same time as Stormy the Ice Hog, and we

would fist bump, too. I wonder what all of that will look like in

the future.

I miss somehow always witnessing Warren Foegele’s solo

pregame warmup. The man consistently looks like he’s

gearing up to race Usain Bolt at the Olympics. It couldn’t be

more “Warren Foegele.”

I miss my seat in the press box, and I remember how proud I

felt the first day I got to sit there. To my left is Hurricanes

media relations mogul Mike Brown and his new tradition of

announcing the temperature at puck drop. I pray to God each

day that we don’t miss a puck drop temperature of 69

degrees during this pause. To my right is NHL.com’s Kurt

Dusterberg, who is always good for a laugh about a

ridiculous play or a story about the Hurricanes before I

started covering the team.

I miss instinctively looking to my right every time the arena

plays the silly “Make some NOIiiISeE!” audio. Nine times out

of 10, John Forslund is doing something hilarious in the

booth when he hears it. Everyone knows he’s a legend

based on his professionalism and skill alone, but the John

Forslund I know is among the funniest people alive.

I miss Cory Lavalette’s steadfast dedication to grading the

Siren Sounders, Adam Gold’s stories, Chip Alexander’s low-

key hilarious one-liners that seem to come out of nowhere,

Brian LeBlanc’s postgame questions and literally everything

about Mark Armstrong. One time much of the media

contingent was standing around the Hurricanes dressing

room laughing about something, waiting for Rod Brind’Amour

to be ready for us. You’ll recall that Brind’Amour is notorious

for spending forever on the ice, so sometimes this takes a

while.

Dougie Hamilton looked at me and was like, “Are you guys

just hanging out or what? Are you gonna ask a question?”

I was like, “Dougie, I’ll go full Boston on you if that’s what you

really want.”

In that moment, I remembered how rare it is for the majority

of a beat to simply get along.

CAROLINA HURRICANES

NEWS CLIPPINGS • May 11, 2020

I miss watching Sebastian Aho and Teuvo Teravainen play

hockey together.

I miss the thrill of watching Andrei Svechnikov develop into

something none of us even know what will look like.

I miss Haydn Fleury’s perpetually sunny disposition and a

lesson he eventually taught us as he became a staple in the

lineup: Frowns per 60 don’t matter.

I miss when Jaccob Slavin would make a mistake and then

realizing the only reason I noticed was that he hadn’t done

so in 25 games.

I miss Jordan Staal’s goal-celebration face that looks like

something from “The Shining” and the fact that all of his

brothers make the exact same face.

I miss Petr Mrazek’s custom hats.

I miss Justin Williams’ return being exactly what we all knew

it was going to be.

I miss James Reimer’s postgame interviews lasting 45

minutes.

I miss catching Nino Niederreiter on a good day.

I miss the time when I realized, to my honest-to-God horror,

that I cut Brock McGinn in the airplane line. That is not a

good look. So it’s, like, 1 a.m. in Winnipeg and I’m

desperately trying to explain to him that we need to switch

places. He’s too Canadian to go through with it.

I miss the look on Tripp Tracy‘s face when he has a good

story to tell me.

I miss the media bus that took us from the plane to the city

on the road. Hurricanes host Mike Maniscalco picks a fitting

song for every drive — sometimes he’ll take suggestions if

you’re lucky. The people working behind the scenes for the

team you love are so great.

I miss learning something from Brind’Amour every single day

— whether it was about the game or life, sometimes both.

I even miss coming back to my car to not one but two notes

telling me I “park like a fucking dipshit” over the course of the

2019-20 season. No lies were told.

And as I take my stupid little walk around an empty arena

where the best party in the league should be happening, I

don’t even want to think about how much I miss you all.

Keeping up with the Canes: 10 questions with Tripp Tracy

By Sara Civian

1. Tripper! First of all, whereabouts are you and how are

you doing?

Civvvvsy! Doing great, in Michigan quarantining with my

mom — Marilyn the Caniac.

2. Have you learned any new skills or accomplished

anything you’re particularly proud of during this NHL

pause?

My biggest accomplishment is that, while I have ridden my

new Peloton like I’m going to be in the next Tour de France, I

have still managed to put on weight.

3. What do you miss the most about hockey?

Being around the guys and carving each other.

4. Which Hurricanes player would you most like to be

quarantined with?

Jordan Martinook because he got mad at me when I called

Petr Mrazek a favorite of mine in your last article.

(Editor’s note: I’m still laughing at “It’s an inside joke”.)

5. Are you doing anything to keep your broadcasting

skills sharp? Is that even something you can do?

The prep for the “checking in” Zooms I think has helped to

keep me sharp. At least I hope so.

6. I heard you’re re-watching “24” with your mom. How’s

that going?

We’re watching it as we speak. Almost through Season 5!

Reminiscing about spending several hours playing blackjack

with Jack Bauer at the Peacock Lounge at the Hard Rock in

Vegas once upon a time. Kiefer (Editor’s note: Tripp is

clearly on first-name basis, so he didn’t mention a last name,

but I will: Sutherland) is without question a massive Caniac!

7. Who is your favorite broadcaster of all-time?

John “Statler” Forslund because he rolls seamlessly with

whatever I throw at him.

8. What was your favorite moment of the 2019-20

season, pre-pause?

David Ayres night, no question — and because of the team

effort that allowed it to happen. And what a good guy Dave

is! My runners up are Svech lacrosse goals (Editor’s note:

Michigan’s Very Own Tripp Tracy did not call them

“Michigans”) and Justin Williams’ scripted shootout winner in

his first game back vs. the Islanders in front of the Caniacs.

9. Do you have any thoughts on the proposed options to

finish the season?

I saw how much the Canes had to scratch and claw to get

into a playoff spot when play was suspended, SO AS LONG

AS IT IS SAFE, I want to see their efforts rewarded by

finishing the season and awarding a Stanley Cup.

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NEWS CLIPPINGS • May 11, 2020

10. Do you regret coming back to Twitter yet?

I’ve actually really enjoyed being back on Twitter, as well as

now being on Instagram (Editor’s note: We’ve got a social

media influencer over here.) I hope the Caniacs have

enjoyed the content!

Canes Treating Pause With Offseason Mindset

By Michael Smith

"Busy" is a little different now for Don Waddell. There are no late nights at PNC Arena, and his travel schedule is, well, nonexistent. Yet, the president and general manager of the Carolina Hurricanes said he feels like he is busier now than he has ever been. "I think last week I had 17 different conference calls between the league, the hockey side, the vice presidents' calls, ticket calls," Waddell said in yet another phone call earlier this week. The uncertainty of it all - everything from the when to the what to the where - creates copious scenarios, all for which the Canes want to be prepared. There's the 2020 NHL Draft. That's happening. It won't be hosted in Montreal in late June, as was originally planned. It will likely proceed remotely, but when is the hotly debated question. "We've talked a lot about it," Waddell said. "The league is looking at what's fair to everybody." There's ongoing discussion of staging the lottery and draft in early June, prior to some sort of resolution to the 2019-20 season. That option, in itself, spawns various other questions, some more problematic than others. "I don't think you can tell me we're going to do the draft until we know what the format is moving forward," Waddell said. "I think it's a big package between the draft and are we going play regular season games or come back and play playoffs?" Take the Canes, for instance. At the time of the pause, they had accumulated a 38-25-5 record and 81 points through 68 games. They occupied the first wild card spot in the Eastern Conference. A draft lottery that assumes the standings as of March 12 would not include the Canes. But, assuming there is some semblance of a conclusion to the regular season, what if, for whatever reason, the Canes fell out of a playoff

spot? They would then miss out on both the lottery and the postseason. Holding the lottery and draft prior to concluding the 2019-20 season would make more sense, however, if the remainder of the regular season is wiped out and playoffs begin immediately. But, even that results in questions of lottery participants, given discussion to expand the playoff field this year. So many questions, yet few easy answers. "We have some opinions, of course, and some concerns," Waddell said. "We just want to make sure, at the end of the day, it's fair for all 31 teams. If we can find that common goal, that's in the best interest of the National Hockey League." Then there's free agency. It's typically a frenzy when the clock strikes noon on July 1. That, like everything else, will probably be a little different this year because no one knows when exactly the "offseason" will fall. "We're treating it as our offseason now for how we're going to make our team better moving forward. We're going through all the teams in the league to talk about free agents and trades," Waddell said. "Free agency is going to happen. Trades are going to happen. All these things are going to happen. We just don't know the timetable." Then there's the conclusion to the 2019-20 season. One option being discussed is staging games in hub cities, perhaps one for each division. Raleigh, which has comparatively lower population density and infection rates, could be a viable option. Not to mention, the Canes' new practice facility remains on target to open this summer. "Right after the league started talking about it (hub cities), I met with Jeff (Ammons) and talked about the facility and timetable," Waddell said. "I communicated to the league to

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NEWS CLIPPINGS • May 11, 2020

let them know we'd have a state-of-the-art, two-sheet rink ready to go, and we feel like our venue at PNC Arena is something that could host teams. I know the league has a lot of planning going on. Our job is to just keep them aware of where we are, and we've done that." And then there's the 2020-21 season. Even in early April, Waddell said the organization had established an internal task force to analyze various arena capacity scenarios. The Canes are also set to host the 2021 Navy Federal Credit Union NHL Stadium Series™ at NC State's Carter-Finley Stadium on Feb. 20. Waddell said planning for that is proceeding as scheduled.

Answers to some of these questions will come sooner rather than later - they have to. And the Canes will be ready for whatever is thrown their way. "We're utilizing our time, I think, very well to make sure we're prepared," Waddell said. "Nobody knows what the future is going to hold yet."

Canes Treating Pause With Offseason Mindset By Michael Smith

The COVID-19 pandemic has resulted in a myriad of cancelations, delays, postponements and pauses around the globe. But, at Wake Competition Center in Morrisville, construction remains on schedule for the state-of-the-art, twin-rink ice skating venue that the Carolina Hurricanes will call home as their new practice facility. The newest addition to the burgeoning multi-sport complex is set to open this summer. "It's moving along," President and General Manager Don Waddell said. "Fortunately, they haven't had any setbacks. They're still on target." When the partnership was officially announced in early December, the facility was buzzing with construction activity, but there wasn't much more than a bricked frame, exposed steel beams and dirt - a lot of dirt. Five months later, the 115,000 square-foot interior is taking shape, and ice is on the horizon, with floor piping and rink boards having been recently installed. The red rink will serve as the building's main sheet, where Waddell envisions the Canes practicing "pretty much all the time" as PNC Arena continues to court more concerts and

events. The red rink features around 1,000 bleacher seats (plus standing room options) and is located adjacent to the Canes' 12,000 square-feet of dedicated space that will include locker rooms, equipment space, coaches' offices, medical and athletic training areas and a players' lounge with a full kitchen and plenty of natural light, too. On the opposite side of the facility is the black rink, which features around 500 bleacher seats (plus standing room options). In total, the building will boast a capacity of around 2,000 with the goal of hosting college hockey, state and national tournaments and more. The two-floor building features locker rooms, classrooms, rec areas and offices that both separate the two rinks and overlook either ice sheet from the second floor. A restaurant and a pro shop will be located on either side of the main entrance to the building. As the thermometer climbs outside, the temperature inside the building will soon drop. Ice is coming soon. Hockey and sports, inevitably, are coming soon. A new practice home for the Canes is coming soon. "It's something we've talked about with this organization for 20 years," Waddell said. "The way this will come out is something we'll be very proud of."

Checking in with Tripp

By Tripp Tracy

Tripp Tracy hosts Jaccob Slavin, Brett Pesce, and James

Reimer on a Zoom chat.

VIDEO LINK: Part 1

VIDEO LINK: Part 2

CAROLINA HURRICANES

NEWS CLIPPINGS • May 11, 2020

Sportsnet.ca / Inside one quest to keep mental health front of mind in

sports – Sportsnet

By David Singh in Ottawa

Pressured to never show weakness, athletes struggling with mental

health issues have long suffered in silence or risked stigmatization for

speaking out. Meet the Canadian academics working to change all that.

Krista Van Slingerland has been thinking about suicide for months. She

even Googled the least painful way to go about it. It’s the summer of

2013 and Van Slingerland, a student at Carleton University, is suffering.

She was recently cut from the school’s basketball team, after three

mostly successful years, and is battling anxiety and depression, along

with a deep sense of emptiness. There’s a crushing weight on her chest

and Van Slingerland just can’t envision a way to remove it. She

desperately misses basketball and feels she has failed.

Drunk after a night out, she’s returned home to find the place empty,

none of her housemates are there. She begins to self-harm, an act that

has become increasingly normal for Van Slingerland these past few

months. Then she reaches for a crayon and scribbles “I’m sorry” on a

piece of paper, a message intended for her family. She texts a friend who

is aware of what she’s going through and breaks down sobbing on the

kitchen floor. It’s 2 a.m. and she is alone in the dark.

The thought of picking herself up and taking all the pills in the medicine

cabinet is swirling in her mind when she hears a knock on the door. It’s

the police, responding to a 911 call from the friend Van Slingerland

texted. She agrees to let the officers take her to the hospital.

Looking back on that night now, Van Slingerland is troubled by the note

she wrote. “I would 100 per cent want to say something to my brothers,”

she says. “I was not all there.

“As much as I may have gone through with it,” she adds, “I really just

wanted somebody to help me.”

Natalie Durand-Bush is sitting in on a session that her daughter is having

with a psychiatrist, because 13-year-old Keana is too young to be doing

this by herself. Durand-Bush has her mom hat on, but is also wearing a

professional one. As a mental performance consultant herself, she just

can’t help it. Overall, the psychiatrist Keana is working with has been

great, but Durand-Bush has identified one major gap: The physician just

doesn’t understand sports.

Soccer is a major part of life for Keana, an elite player. The sport didn’t

cause her recent near suicide attempt. The reason behind that was

anxiety and depression, which plague both sides of the family. But

Durand-Bush knows, better than most given her work, that when sport is

a huge part of who you are as a person and your psychiatrist just doesn’t

understand the game, it can be harmful.

As Keana’s mental condition grew worse, soccer was her one respite. It

was relief and release. When she was hospitalized following the incident,

Keana’s teammates and coaches were among the first to visit her. And

as her health began to improve, it was a steady reservoir of positivity that

was instrumental in her recovery. “I saw how sport could be part of the

solution and was a source of support for people struggling with mental

health,” Durand-Bush says. “That was the case for my daughter.”

PART OF THE SOLUTION

Van Sligerland, left, and Durand-Bush founded the Canadian Centre for

Mental Health and Sport in 2017

Those experiences were the sparks that set in motion everything Van

Slingerland and Durand-Bush are trying to accomplish today. They are

co-founders of the Canadian Centre for Mental Health and Sport

(CCMHS), a not-for-profit organization supporting competitive and high-

performance athletes and coaches. Formed in November 2017, the

centre deploys a specialized team of practitioners to work with people in

sport who are struggling mentally. “Something has to drive you and it’s

really personal for me and for Natalie,” says Van Slingerland. “That’s sort

of the fuel behind all this.”

One in five Canadians experience a mental health challenge each year,

according to a 2019 study published in the Clinical Journal of Sport

Medicine. It would be perfectly average, then, for four athletes on a roster

of 20 to find themselves struggling to perform in their sport or with daily

tasks. Still, the full scope of what Van Slingerland and Durand-Bush are

up against can’t be wholly measured by research and statistics. That’s

because athletes have traditionally suffered in silence, leading to a

skewed number of reported cases, because despite advances in wider

societal conversation around mental health, the stigma is still steadfast

throughout sport. For every Michael Phelps, Kevin Love or Robin Lehner

who publicly shares their story of mental illness, there are countless

others who choose to stay quiet.

“Athletes are revered as gods,” says Durand-Bush. “They are these

machines, these resilient, mentally tough machines that can do anything.

But oh, guess what? Anecdotally and behind the scenes, we knew that

wasn’t the case. If you look at the athletes who have come out to share

their stories, most of them are retired, because they didn’t feel safe

[opening up during their careers].”

It’s late February and a snowstorm has walloped Ottawa. The House of

Sport within the RA Centre — a sprawling multi-sport and recreation

facility near the heart of the city — is barren, save for a few employees

who made the trek to work in the near-whiteout conditions. Van

Slingerland and Durand-Bush are two such people and they’re hunkered

down with laptops in their open-concept workspace. The CCMHS is

based out of the House of Sport, along with several other organizations

that share the 36,000-square foot space, including Hockey Canada,

Jumpstart and Commonwealth Sport Canada. “I’ve never seen this place

so deserted,” says Durand-Bush.

CCMHS is essentially a side job for the 48-year-old, who is also a sport

psychology professor in the School of Human Kinetics at the University of

Ottawa and in private practice as a mental performance consultant. The

28-year-old Van Slingerland is a PHD candidate at UOttawa, whose

doctoral work involves designing, implementing and evaluating the

CCMHS.

The women became acquainted while Van Slingerland completed her

master’s; Durand-Bush was her supervisor. Once that was done, and

with Van Slingerland mulling pro basketball in Europe, Durand-Bush

made a proposal: “I said, ‘It’s always been my dream to open a mental

health centre that is specialized for sport,’” she recalls. “‘I think you’d be

the perfect candidate to study this.’”

Durand-Bush’s idea for CCMHS sprung from conversations with Goran

Kentta, a professor who started a similar centre in Sweden. The two have

collaborated for years and Durand-Bush watched keenly as Kentta

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developed a service that provided direct mental healthcare to athletes

and coaches. She invited him to be one of 20 CCMHS stakeholders —

people from the sport and mental health communities recruited to offer

their thoughts and support. “A centre like that has to be evidence-based.

It has to be driven by experts, by facts,” Durand-Bush says. “You don’t

just create that from scratch.”

“Athletes are revered as these resilient, mentally tough machines that

can do anything. But oh, guess what? Anecdotally and behind the

scenes, we knew that wasn’t the case.”

She and Van Slingerland began to design the centre in November 2017,

building it around integrated care, research and community engagement.

Those pillars, along with collaborative, sport-focused mental health care

services for athletes and coaches, have made the not-for-profit the first of

its kind in Canada, according to Durand-Bush.

The CCMHS opened its doors to clients in 2018. The centre currently has

a care team roster of 17 that includes psychologists, psychotherapists,

counsellors, physicians and researchers. They are spread across the

country and each has some background in sport. Clients must be at least

16 years old and participating in sports at the provincial, national,

international or professional levels. Retired athletes who are transitioning

out of competitive sports are also accepted.

When a potential patient reaches out to CCMHS, they first go through an

intake appointment with the centre’s care coordinator, Poppy DesClouds.

If the client’s needs are a fit for the centre, DesClouds pairs them with a

team of two to three CCMHS practitioners. The corresponding sessions

can then take place physically at CCMHS, in the Canadian city where an

athlete resides, or even remotely, through an online platform.

“One of the strengths of the centre is that it is sports-specific,” says Mike

Kostka, a former NHL player who sought help from CCMHS. “In sport,

there is a lot of bravado and being afraid of showing weakness as far as

getting help goes. But, also, being skeptical. ‘Who’s really going to

understand what I’m going through?’

“I felt at ease off the get-go,” adds Kostka, who is based in Ottawa and

was virtually paired with a CCMHS team member in Calgary. “As

opposed to [going] to a general psychologist or mental performance

consultant and you don’t know if they’re going to understand. You don’t

want to waste your time. This stuff is important. It matters … the fact that

they provide that sports-specific help puts you at ease to start.”

When Kostka decided to hang up his skates in 2018, he was at a

crossroads. Following a career that saw him play 85 NHL games split

between five organizations, the Toronto native needed to decide what

was next. He had earned an undergraduate degree in psychology from

the University of Massachusetts Amherst in 2008, before signing in the

NHL, so sports psychology seemed like a good direction to take.

He settled on UOttawa, where he is now enrolled in the Master of Human

Kinetics program, studying to be a mental performance consultant. The

first few weeks of his transition from professional hockey to being a

student again brought serious self-reflection. Kostka realized there were

some things in his mind that he needed to unpack. “One of the most

difficult pieces is establishing a new purpose,” says the 34-year-old.

Kostka’s entire life — motivation, routines, social network — was tied to

hockey. “And now that’s gone,” he says. “And you’re kind of floating

untethered, looking where to plug in. ‘Okay, I know how to work hard, but

I don’t know how to direct it.’ Or, ‘It was physical before and now I have

to use my brain in different ways.’”

The move from Toronto to Ottawa didn’t help either. In the NHL or AHL,

when he arrived in a new city at the outset of a season, he’d have 22

instant friends in the locker room, people to bond and build camaraderie

with. Contributing to that group was built into his identity. “My entire life, I

worked toward one goal,” says Kostka. “I knew what it was — I wanted to

get to the NHL or play at the highest level possible — and everything you

do is surrounded by that as your identity. As you transition out, some of

those pieces start getting chipped away and you have to question a little

bit deeper and ask yourself, ‘Without this as part of my identity, who am

I?’”

BREAKTHROUGHS OF THE GAME

Small details in the physical space itself speak to the way sport is

integrated into the DNA of the CCMHS

Kostka uses an analogy to describe how CCMHS helped him. “We were

given a hammer,” he says of his time in hockey. “We had that one tool

and we used it for everything we did. We just hammered away and just

pounded. And so, when it came to, say, performance anxiety, what do

you do? You plow through. That’s what we knew. That’s the one tool we

had in our tool kit. The great thing about this centre and what these

practitioners can really help with is building up that tool box for athletes to

go, ‘Oh, I have a wrench, I can use that to loosen the tension.’”

He says the care he received from CCMHS over the course of a few

months played an important role in helping him find his footing. That type

of aid would have benefited Ben Meisner during his time in the ECHL.

The goalie, who detailed his near suicide attempt in a 2018 article in The

Players’ Tribune, sought professional help when he was suffering from

anxiety, depression and obsessive-compulsive disorder, but was

impeded by the logistics of life in the minors.

After feeling that he’d made progress in his first session, Meisner was

called up to the AHL and could not see the therapist again until he was

sent back down. He did that, but before he could go a third time, he was

reassigned to a completely different city. The Halifax native is familiar

with the CCMHS now and says its ability to offer online, specialized help

to athletes would have been beneficial to him back then. “It would have

been unbelievable because no matter where I was in North America, I

would have known that I could have had regular services and could have

had a support system that would have had my back wherever I went,”

says Meisner, 29. “That’s huge for a lot of athletes because you look at

guys who play on ECHL contracts every year, it’s not abnormal to play on

three, four, five different teams. A lot of the time, the whole seeing

someone in person, it’s such a, ‘Why do I bother?’ Because you never

know if you’re going to be there for two days, two weeks, two months.”

Getting to a point where you receive a diagnosis and begin learning

methods to help combat your issues takes time and several

appointments, notes Meisner. It also requires effort on your part, because

there is pain associated with bringing up difficult aspects of your life.

That’s why switching to a different mental health professional in a

different city can seem unreasonable and unappealing. “You have to

uncover a lot of things you don’t want to uncover. A person like me — I

dug a hole for 20 years. It takes a lot of dirt to fill that hole back in and

when you just keep taking a spoon to try and do it and start over all the

time, it’s discouraging.”

“People don’t like to admit weakness, especially when it’s in their mind.

It’s much easier for some people when they can point to a broken leg or

something physically wrong.”

Meisner, who currently patrols the crease for EHC Freiburg in the

German league’s second division, is coming off the best season of his

professional career and was recently named the league’s goalie of the

year. His current club employs a psychologist who is accessible to

players at any time and while he would not hesitate to seek help within

his own organization, Meisner believes that’s not the case for everyone.

“There are other people who would much rather tackle it on their own,”

he says. “Because as much as [teams] always say, ‘things stay between

us,’ all it takes is for you to be chatting to the [psychologist] in front of the

coffee machine in the locker-room and the coach to walk by and all of a

sudden that little seed is there: Ben’s been playing bad. He’s been kind

of quiet. Now, here he is chatting with the psychologist. I’ve never seen

him doing that before.”

Kostka agrees: “Guys don’t want to be seen talking to them in a lot of

cases. That might be a bit of a generalization, but there is a fear of being

seen. Okay, if there is a sports psychologist or mental performance

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consultant or a psychologist, everything might be confidential, but if the

coach sees you walk into an office and talking to them, [players] might be

concerned of how that could influence a coach’s decision.”

In situations like that, both Kostka and Meisner note the confidential,

third-party aspect of CCMHS could prove beneficial and allay concerns of

wary athletes. After Meisner’s article was published, he received about

60 emails from hockey players ranging from ages 12 to 30. A common

theme he recognized was silence. It’s difficult for an athlete to admit they

are having trouble focusing or staying motivated or getting out of bed in

the morning when the teammate in the next stall is playing through a

partially torn muscle, an ankle sprain or a bum shoulder. And that’s not

just a problem limited to hockey. “People don’t like to admit weakness,”

says Angus Mugford, vice president of high performance for the Toronto

Blue Jays. “Especially when it’s in their mind. It’s much easier for some

people when they can point to a broken leg or something physically

wrong — it’s easily accepted. When people label mental toughness to

gritting your teeth and sucking it up, that’s not healthy.”

"THE FUEL BEHIND ALL OF THIS"

Keana, centre, with Durand-Bush and Van Slingerland at the centre's

opening event in 2018

Kevin Rempel was on top of the world when he returned home from

Sochi, Russia, following the 2014 Paralympic Winter Games. He’d

brought home a bronze medal as a member of the Canadian sledge

hockey team; he was in the best shape of his life; he had made several

real estate investments and bought a brand-new truck and Harley. “But I

found myself empty and over the next couple of months, started to feel

very, very depressed,” Rempel says.

He was suffering from post-Olympic depression (also known as post-

Olympic blues), which is common among athletes returning from the

Games. After devoting themselves with tunnel vision for four-plus years,

many athletes arrive home and feel lonely or purposeless. The mere act

of getting out of bed can be difficult and feelings of excitement and

anticipation are missing as the they try to reintegrate into “normal life.”

By the summer, Rempel had blown through his savings and hit rock

bottom, prompting his mother and grandmother to take him to the

emergency psychiatric ward at St. Joseph’s Hospital in Hamilton, Ont. It

was around 1 a.m. when Rempel was led into a room to see a doctor.

There was one other patient waiting to be seen — a teenager with

around a dozen fresh cuts on each forearm. “We’re in the room for 60

seconds when I hear this kid, on the other side of the wall, screaming

and yelling, ‘F— you. You told me you weren’t going to make me talk

about this.’”

The teenager kicked the door open and punched a hand sanitizer

dispenser off the wall, before security arrived to calm him down. The

doctor stood in the hallway for a moment and then walked into the room

where Rempel and his family were waiting. “He says, ‘Okay Kevin, let’s

chat,’” recalls Rempel. “From that moment, I feel like mentally, I was

fixed. What happened in that moment was that I knew that I’m not as bad

as [the teenager] was, in the sense that I knew what I did, or the things

that I’ve done to create my problem and allow this depression to happen.

I knew how and where I was responsible to turn things around. I needed

to get better so I could help people like him.”

Rempel has since become an author, motivational speaker and sledge

hockey and mental health advocate. He is also one of the original

stakeholders at CCMHS, providing continued input and feedback from

the perspective of a national team athlete who battled mental health

issues.

The link between Team Canada and CCMHS is strong — members

comprise 34 per cent of active or completed clients at the centre. The

stressors that can plague athletes as they prepare for international

competition are varied, ranging from isolation — due to long stretches

training far from home — to body image issues and weight restrictions.

The fear that Meisner and Kostka refer to about seeking help within one’s

own organization is also felt among national team members, some of

whom have paid out of their own pockets to receive treatment at

CCMHS, according to DesClouds. The centre works closely with

organizations linked to the Canadian Olympic Committee (COC) and

other sports institutions across the country, but stays at arm’s length to

maintain trust and confidentiality. “Nobody in their sport will know unless

they want us to bring [their organization] in,” Durand-Bush says. “That’s

what’s helping establish us as a different mechanism for them to get

help. Within all our national teams, you have what they call ‘integrated

support teams’ that are there for their athletes. Within those teams, you

will find practitioners like myself — mental performance consultants.

More and more, we’re seeing psychologists [and psychiatrists]. That is

awesome, but there are still athletes who are choosing not to work with

these people, for fear of this information getting back to the coach, who

has all the power.”

Thomas Hall is a national manager at Game Plan, a wellness program

for national team athletes that’s a collaboration between the COC,

Canadian Paralympic Committee, Sport Canada and Canadian Olympic

and Paralympic Sport Institute Network. He agrees that there are

instances where national team athletes don’t want their coaches to find

out they are seeking help. In those cases, Hall says the Game Plan team

will ensure them help and that no information will be revealed. Yet still,

sometimes an athlete just doesn’t want to take the chance.

“There are still athletes choosing not to work with team psychologists and

psychiatrists for fear of this information getting back to the coach, who

has all the power.”

Hall, himself a former Olympian who won bronze in canoeing at the 2008

Beijing Games, understands the situation all too well. “From the athlete’s

perspective, it’s, ‘Who’s having dinner together?’” Hall says. “If I’m on

tour, I’m in Europe and I’m hungry, and I see the psychologist is having

dinner with the coach and that coach and I are really not getting along

and I’m suffering stress about that and they are drinking wine together

and laughing, then I’m going to maybe not trust that [psychologist]. And

that has nothing to do with whether or not they would tell the truth. It’s

just perception.

“For us, it’s essential that there are third-party options out there.”

Hall speaks with Van Slingerland weekly and says the centre plays an

important role in filling gaps. Game Plan services a roster of roughly

3,000 current and former national team athletes. However, they typically

only work with athletes who have retired within the past two years.

CCMHS is also solely focused on mental health, whereas Game Plan

covers much broader ground, from mental health to career development

to lessons in how to do your taxes. If a national team athlete chooses to

stay in-house and receive help from Game Plan, there is no cost to them.

“The CCMHS is part of the sport ecosystem that supports athlete mental

health,” says Hall. “We work with them and other organizations to make

sure we don’t duplicate services and that athletes know they’re an

option.”

WHENEVER, WHEREVER

Though the centre is based at the House of Sport in Ottawa, it has staff

spread across the country. Patients can also be seen remotely.

When CCMHS held a one-year anniversary fundraiser at the House of

Sport in late 2019, it was easy to pack the place — there is widespread

support for what the centre is doing. When Van Slingerland or Durand-

Bush have a general conversation with a care team member about the

breakthrough of a client, there is validation.

There is also buy-in from some coaches, which is an essential step

toward altering the stigma of mental health in sport. “Coaches need to

know where they can get the support to support the athletes,” says Andy

Sparks, head coach of the UOttawa women’s basketball team and a

CCMHS board member. “If there’s avoidance behavior [from a coach], it

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doesn’t get to the level that it needs to [in order] to get that person back

to good mental health as quickly as possible.”

Despite the support, though, CCMHS still faces issues. Funding remains

a major concern. Everyone at the centre is essentially working a side

hustle. There is no full-time staff. Given there are already gaps in the

Canadian healthcare system’s funding of mental health initiatives for the

general population, it’s unreasonable to expect the government to

provide more for the specialized population of athletes and coaches. But

in late April, CCMHS did receive charitable status, which could entice

more potential sponsors and donors.

To Durand-Bush the CCMHS has been worth the copious amounts of

time and effort she has poured into her dream. “We are seeing success

because we’re at the table,” she declares. “We’re at the table within

many projects, many conversations about mental health and sport in

Canada. People are asking us to take part and we have to say, ‘No,’

because we have too many requests. We’re being asked to develop

webinars and workshops for parents, coaches, athletes. We are asked to

present at conferences.

“Our clients coming through the centre are satisfied,” she adds. “That, to

me, is saying this is working.”

About a year before Van Slingerland scrawled her suicide note in crayon,

she visited the health centre at Carleton. She was wearing sweatpants

that day — she pretty much lived in them during her second year in

university. She was set to meet with a campus counsellor and as she

walked in, she felt hope that somebody would finally listen to the

problems she was facing on her basketball squad. This was the first time

she reached out for help.

The response she got floored her. “Why don’t you quit basketball? It

seems like a huge stress in your life,” the counsellor told her. That

conclusion was simply unfathomable. Basketball had been everything to

her for nearly two decades — more important than school. No way was

she going to leave. She worked so hard and invested so much time to

get to where she was. And besides, she was not a quitter. Van

Slingerland walked out that day and never returned to the health centre.

She was confused and felt that she didn’t deserve help. Her life slowly

spiraled into a dark place.

The experience deeply informed Van Slingerland’s work and what she is

carrying out with the CCMHS. In her work at the centre, she has heard

several athletes recount variations of the same story. There was the time

a young, high-level athlete sought help at CCMHS. This athlete had been

through the mental health system extensively. She had seen a

psychiatrist, a psychologist; she had engaged in self-harm and had been

in and out of hospitals.

At one point during her session with a CCMHS team member, though,

she turned to her mother and said, “This is the best session I’ve ever had

with a practitioner. She gets it.”

Van Slingerland deems it the centre’s biggest success story. “That

feeling of being understood, finally,” says Van Slingerland. “Somebody

with all these clinical issues who really just needed to talk to somebody

about sport — somebody who got it.”

That young girl has progressed considerably. She is still a client with the

CCMHS and she is doing well in her sport.

The Athletic / Bourne: How players become entitled is obvious. What

they do from there isn’t

By Justin Bourne

May 10, 2020

You can see how young players in the professional ranks — players

who’ve been stars since a young age, seemingly destined for the top —

might come to feel an aura of invincibility. It’s crazy how much of an

illusion it is, but you can see how it arrives. Teams will tolerate an awful

lot if you’re awesome. Quite a bit if you’re good. Drop down to the “only

OK” level, though, and continue to behave as you did when teams

thought you might be more valuable than that, and boy, you can watch

that illusion fall apart quickly.

Yes, it’s the Brendan Leipsic incident that inspired me to have this

conversation, but I’m not talking about him here specifically. I’m talking

about the unique life of many of the players like him who are 10, maybe

15 years into having their names associated with the NHL and all the

trappings of it, even while just in their mid-20s. Up until a certain point,

everyone around them must seem like low-grade versions of Ray

Donovan, always there to help put out any small fires before they can

reach inferno status.

I’m not implying any evil or malice here from the sweeping bulk of these

quasi-enablers, either, just that the situation (and the sense of invincibility

that comes with it) is borne mostly of matter of circumstance. Because

naturally there are going to be numerous people who have a vested

interest in the success of any young NHLer based on their career

ambitions. Jobs are built around finding players who can excel at the top.

And so with every athlete who’s had big success, you’ll find a dozen

people who deserve credit … and a dozen more who claim some. Having

a part in getting a player to the top comes with personal gain for many

(scouts, managers, family and more).

None of those people want anything to take away from what that player

could be if it’s avoidable. For the player’s sake, too, but most definitely for

their own gain. Which is to say if a kid gets involved in some legal scrape

while young and immature, there are few people involved whose interest

is in nailing the moral outcome; most operate with the subconscious view

of that player as a stock and that all involved are best served if it moves

in one direction and one direction only.

And so, pseudo-invincibility. The better a player you are, the bigger the

fire all those Ray Donovans are willing to put out. The only obvious rule is

that once the fire gets too big that there’s a risk of the fixers getting

personally burned, too, that’s when they quietly slink back into the

hedges. Talent-level depending, of course.

In a more extreme recent example, the NFL’s very talented Antonio

Brown was basically — to keep with our “Simpsons” imagery here — the

Springfield Tire Fire, and half the league was gathered around trying to

figure out how to put out the blaze just long enough to use him for a few

more Sundays.

When it was determined he couldn’t be touched without some char

showing up on the next hand that grabbed for him, he was finally left to

smoulder. (And maybe just until things cool enough to grab him down the

road.)

When you’re a kid and safety nets continue to show up along your high-

wire walk to stardom, coming to feel essentially “chosen” is something of

an inevitable outcome for some. That’s going to lead to a certain type of

behaviour, and it’s not the type that’ll make many mothers very proud.

In my experience, I’ve played alongside dozens and dozens of players

like this. I’ve also seen my dad and father-in-law and their vast networks

of friends live their respective post-career lives. Being far enough

removed from my playing days, I think I can safely generalize a few

outcomes for talented kids who get so propped up that they behave as if

the world was built to be their personal playground.

Outcome No. 1, which isn’t super common: Live up to the hype, have a

lot of success and the support endures in perpetuity.

There are NHL players who — facts only here — never have to grow up.

They don’t. They played, they were awesome, they earned enough to live

in a bubble, they earn more money off their name when they’re done and

they can just kind of keep on keeping on. Disliked or beloved, little

changes. While you’d like to have that success and not come to behave

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as some entitled Big Wheel — which does happen! — not everyone can

pull it off.

Outcome No. 2, the most common: Retire immature and get a crash

course in maturity.

As a member of the Marlies’ coaching staff in 2015-17, when the Leafs

acquired some bad-money deals and buried them in the minors for

assets, we saw both sides of the coin. Entitlement was exposed when

certain players weren’t getting their way, and others showed maturity

while having been dealt the same cards.

In general, though, if you’ve played a decade in the NHL and earned all

that money, you’ve been a capital “N” hockey Name for a long time.

You’re used to certain things being done for you, to being treated a

certain way. When they turn off that spotlight and you have to figure out

what to do with your life — and suddenly that means operating in all

facets without a safety net — it can be really hard. The NHLPA is working

toward making those transition years easier for players because it can be

really hard even for players who are mature enough to expect something

different and more challenging.

For those players oblivious to the coming challenges, it can take years

before they figure out how to live for themselves. They can become

resentful and jealous of others, easily frustrated and discontent, and

learn that they have to change their mindset or life is going to continue to

feel that way.

Outcome No. 3, an uncommon but never surprising option that comes

with entitlement: Get in trouble and come to a fork in the road, have to

learn mid-career.

This is where Leipsic and his situation would fit in, where everything the

players experience in Outcome No. 2 comes to reality, only while still

playing the game. The fixers mostly disappear and a new life course has

to be chosen.

Do they want to double down on the lifestyle and attitude, believing

they’ve been wronged or that they just fell into some horrible luck? Or will

there be self-reflection and a tangible change in behaviour?

I think back to what Brendan Shanahan did with Nazem Kadri in 2015.

Here’s a 2018 Jonas Siegel headline that serves as a good reminder:

Three years ago the Leafs suspended Nazem Kadri. Today he’s a

different man.

Rather than protect him from public scrutiny and further enable him for

even just small misgivings, they forced the player to face the music in

hopes of enacting change. Here are a few paragraphs that sum up that

story:

Brendan Shanahan unexpectedly stepped in front of cameras and

microphones that Monday morning in the spring of 2015 and publicly

shamed the club’s 2009 first-round pick. The Leafs weren’t suspending

him just for being late for practice, Shanahan glumly explained ahead of

a meaningless March 9 game against the New York Islanders, but for a

pattern of behaviour that would no longer be tolerated.

“I think those mistakes are the reason I am the man I am today,” recalled

Kadri after potting a pair of goals in the Leafs’ 5-2 win over the two-time

Stanley Cup champion Pittsburgh Penguins on Saturday evening. “I think

it’s made me a better person.”

A better person and a hugely important player for the Leafs, one who

might not have lasted in Toronto were it not for that late-season blowup

— which saw Kadri, then only 24, suspended for three games.

Since then you’ve never heard a bad word about Kadri’s behaviour as a

professional in the NHL, and I think he’d tell you himself that can be

chalked up to maturity.

The money and notoriety and protection that come with playing

professional sports are bound to create some entitled players. A few

don’t ever have to change, as much as many would like them to. But the

bulk of them do, at some point, and it’s at that point that those individuals

have to decide which prong of the fork they want to continue down.

It’s never too late to change for the better, assuming you’ve got the

sense to make the right choice.

The Athletic / NHL’s Global Series 2020 becomes first event for next

season canceled

Aaron Portzline

May 8, 2020

COLUMBUS, Ohio — Jarmo Kekalainen’s triumphant return to Finland

will have to wait.

On Friday, the NHL and NHL players’ association announced the

postponement of the international games that were scheduled for next

season, making the 2020 Global Series the first event from the 2020-21

season impacted by the global coronavirus pandemic.

Boston and Nashville were set to open the 2020-21 season in Prague,

Czech Republic, making the fourth consecutive season the NHL has

played games in Europe. The two teams were going to spend their final

week of training camp abroad, too, with the Bruins training in Mannheim,

Germany, and the Predators in Bern, Switzerland.

The Blue Jackets were scheduled to play two games against Colorado in

Helsinki, Finland. The games were tentatively set for late October in

Hartwall Arena.

The league’s release suggested the games could be pushed to the 2021-

22 season. A source told The Athletic that the games would be

rescheduled if the 2021-22 season can be played without delay or

interference from the virus.

“The NHLPA and the NHL remain committed to maintaining and growing

our international presence,” read a statement in the joint release. “We

hope that our fans overseas understand the need to postpone the 2020

games, but we look forward to being back with them in 2021.”

It’s been nearly two months since the NHL “paused” the 2019-20 season

with less than one month remaining after state governments began

prohibiting mass gatherings.

But these are the first events on next season’s calendar to be affected.

The NFL last week canceled its six international games — five set for

London and another to be played in Mexico City — because of the

pandemic.

It is widely expected that the start of the NHL’s 2020-21 series will be

delayed — perhaps as late as December — as the league scrambles to

find a safe and equitable way to complete the current season and award

the Stanley Cup.

Thus, the Blue Jackets’ second European road trip will have to wait.

Helsinki has hosted NHL games on numerous occasions, but these

games would have carried special meaning for Kekalainen, a native of

Kuopio, Finland, and the NHL’s first and only European GM.

Blue Jackets goaltender Joonas Korpisalo and defenseman Markus

Nutivaara also are from Finland, as are Colorado forwards Mikko

Rantanen and Joonas Donskoi.

“We are disappointed by the postponement of our trip to Finland,”

Kekalainen said, “but look forward to having the opportunity to play in

front of Finland’s passionate hockey fans in the future.”

The game in Prague between the Bruins and Predators had extensive

local ties, too. Boston forwards David Pastrnak, David Krejci and Ondrej

Kase are from the Czech Republic.

CAROLINA HURRICANES

NEWS CLIPPINGS • May 11, 2020

The Athletic / DGB Grab Bag: A request for a June draft, roster puzzle

answers and a donut delay

Sean McIndoe

May 8, 2020

Be It Resolved

The debate over the NHL draft continued this week, and all signs point to

the event being held in June, before the season is over. That will be

strange, but so much of all of this is strange, and maybe this is just the

league making the best of a bad situation.

But whether the draft is held in June or a fall offseason or somewhere in

between, it’s almost certainly going to be very different from previous

versions. Instead of being held in an arena full of fans, with all of the

prospects, media and top front office faces in the same room, we’ll get

some sort of online version. The NFL held their draft a few weeks ago,

and while the ratings were through the roof, not everything they tried

worked.

We can learn from that; Max Bultman and Sean Gentille did a great job

breaking down some of the lessons that the NHL should be taking note

of. But I want to focus on one in particular, because it’s important.

Be it resolved: Under no circumstances should the NHL get cute with

fans virtually “booing” Gary Bettman.

The NFL tried this, sort of. Before commissioner Roger Goodell read

each pick, a screen behind him would show a selection of fans of the

team that was picking. They could cheer, boo, or react to the moments

before and after the pick.

Did it work? Not really, but you could see what they were going for. They

wanted to find a way to include the fans in a process that might feel

sterile without them, which at least makes sense on the surface. And you

just know the NHL is thinking about trying the same thing.

Specifically, you know they’re toying with the idea of having some online

fans somewhere who carry on the tradition of booing Bettman before

every pick. And you know that would involve Bettman playing along, even

egging the fans on. You can hear him already, right? “Come on, I thought

you’d be louder, is that the best you’ve got?”

No. Do not do this. It would be awful.

First of all, Bettman doesn’t have anywhere near the charisma to pull it

off. Goodell kind of tried, with predictably cringey results, and his stage

presence looks like Frank Sinatra next to Bettman’s.

But more important, fans booing Bettman isn’t some gimmick to be

winkingly co-opted. It’s something that’s been happening for 25 years

now, making it one of the few organic hockey traditions to spring up in

the modern era. Do some fans do it these days without even knowing

why? Sure. But plenty more do it because in an era marked by lockouts

and loser points and low scoring and litigation, it’s their one chance to

personally let the boss know that they’re not happy customers.

And it clearly gets to Bettman, even after all these years. That’s part of

the point. Sure, he tries to awkwardly joke about it from time to time,

usually with the same tired line about warm welcomes. But he still gets

rattled, and it shows.

So of course, this is the part where some consultant will step in and

suggest that the NHL can see this draft as an opportunity to control the

message and own the moment or whatever else, by having a few fan

plants on a Zoom call that Bettman can playfully interact with. See, they’ll

be saying, we’re in on the joke! Please clap.

Don’t do this. It will be a) lame and b) a transparent attempt to smash a

corporate stamp onto what’s still largely a grassroots message and c) so,

so lame.

Fans boo Gary Bettman because they don’t like him. Fair or not, right or

wrong, that’s why it happens. If the NHL doesn’t appreciate that, they

could try actually listening to some of their customers from time to time.

Or they could stop insisting on Bettman being the league’s public face at

these sorts of events. Or they could just shrug, accept it, view this year’s

draft as a rare chance to skip the hostility, and just announce the picks.

But if somebody suggests forcing Bettman into an “aw shucks” comedy

routine he’d hate every second of, maybe read the room and take a pass.

The last few weeks’ three stars of comedy

The third star: Kyle Dubas – You’ve probably seen the ongoing series

where TSN is picking all-time rosters for the Canadian teams, based on a

series of overly complicated ground rules. Needless to say, I’m on board.

But when it came time to try to put together a Maple Leafs roster that the

franchise’s notoriously chill fan base would be good with, the current GM

had thoughts.

NHL roster puzzle answers

Earlier this week, we had some fun with an NHL puzzle. I posted four all-

time rosters and asked you to try to figure out what rules they were

based on. And lots of you did, with varying degrees of success. (Also,

thanks to everyone who replied with the same “people who’ve never

been in my kitchen” joke. All seven hundred of you. Great stuff, truly.)

If you missed the piece the first time around and it sounds like something

you’d want to take a crack at, go check it out now before you read any

further. Otherwise, here come the answers …

Team 1

Plenty of you guessed that this team had something to do with draft

position (since there were a lot of first and second overall picks) or the

salary cap (since most of these guys carry a big hit). Nope. Instead, it

was something simpler: A roster built out of stars who’ve played for every

NHL team, but with each team represented only once. I figured that Ryan

Miller would be the giveaway here, and for a few of you he apparently

was.

Team 2

This one was a bit trickier, especially since it contained 25 names. That

should have been a hint, especially combined with the note about there

also being “one unavoidable exclusion.” That clued a few of you into

realizing we were dealing with a category of 26, which led to the

alphabet. Some of you noticed that the last names covered every letter

except X, but that didn’t go far enough. The answer is that each letter of

the alphabet shows up once and only once in both the first and last

initials of the names listed. (Except for X, because no player with a last

name starting with X has ever appeared in the NHL. An unavoidable “ex”-

clusion, get it?)

Team 3

This one was straightforward, and from the sounds of it was the easiest

of the four. If you were looking for a clue, you might find it in the fact that

the roster is almost entirely guys from the league’s earliest era and then

mostly skips ahead to the ’80s and ’90s, plus Ilya Kovalchuk. It’s the best

roster I could come up with featuring players who played for teams that

no longer exist.

Team 4

And finally, the toughest roster – both in terms of making it (which was a

nightmare) and solving it (which a few of you did). There was a big clue

right in the description, where I mentioned “starting with the one forward

who’s playing out of position.” That was literally what you had to do: Find

the guy who was out of position – Phantom Joe Malone, a center who

was slotted in at right wing – and start with him.

CAROLINA HURRICANES

NEWS CLIPPINGS • May 11, 2020

From there, you could use teammate connections to link your way

through NHL history. Malone played with Newsy Lalonde in Montreal,

who played with Big Train Conacher in New York, who played with Babe

Siebert for the Maroons, and so on. Each new player played with one

(and only one) more, with the connections always moving forward

chronologically.

But you probably figured all that out on your own.

Obscure former player of the week

Did you catch that part in the last section about there not being any X

players in NHL history? You know we can’t let something like that go

without mining it for an obscure player. No, there hasn’t been an X

surname in the NHL (although there have been a few to make it in junior,

college and Europe). But what about first names? Surely, there has to

have been an Xavier or two?

Yes, actually – one or two. One if you’re looking at the league right now,

where Xavier Ouellet has already staked his claim as the best X-man in

hockey history. And two if you’re willing to reach back a couple of

decades for this week’s obscure player, Xavier Delisle.

Delisle was a center who made his name with Granby in the QMJHL,

including a breakthrough 120-point season in 1995-96. That caught the

eye of the Lightning, who took him in the sixth round of the epically weird

1996 draft. He went back to junior, where his numbers dropped but

stayed impressive, then spent a season in the AHL before debuting in

Tampa with two games late in the 1998-99 season. He barely played, but

did earn his first NHL shot on goal against Martin Brodeur, which was

kind of cool.

It was back to the minors for 1999-2000, after which the Lightning didn’t

extend his contract. He signed on with the Canadiens and made the

team to start the 2000-01 season, dressing for the opener against the

Devils and beating Brodeur for his first NHL goal. In all, he’d play 14 NHL

games that season, recording three goals and five points.

That would be it for his brief NHL career; he’d spend a few more years in

the minors and then head to Germany, where he’d play until 2006. In

addition to being the first X-name in NHL history, he’s one of just three

players (along with Brandon Davidson and Chris Higgins) to wear No. 88

for the Canadiens. He doesn’t appear to be involved in hockey anymore,

but might be able to sell you a house.

Classic YouTube clip breakdown

Today is the anniversary of one of the strangest nights in NHL history. It

was 32 years ago that hockey fans settled in to watch Game 4 of the

Wales Conference final between the Bruins and Devils. It had been a

good series so far, with the upstart Devils trailing 2-1 after a controversial

Game 3 that had seen coach Jim Schoenfeld chase referee Don

Koharski down the hallway in a postgame tirade. What would Game 4

have in store?

It took longer than expected to find out. With thousands of fans in the

building and many more at home, the scheduled start time came and

went. We waited. And waited some more. It quickly became apparent

that something was very wrong. And TV viewers in Canada waited for

somebody to explain what was going on.

Our clip begins with a disturbingly young Ron MacLean in midsentence.

He’s been talking to fans, and presumably had to deliver some bad news:

We don’t have any referees. The assigned officials have just walked off

the job and the league is scrambling to find replacements.

Yes, it’s the Yellow Sunday game, although the yellow part is getting

ahead of ourselves. But what you’re watching is the confusing fallout of

the infamous Have Another Donut incident that saw Schoenfeld berate

and (maybe) bump Koharski. I broke that one down in this space years

ago, but it led to two days of appeals, legal wrangling and an AWOL

league president. It was a whole thing.

By the way, that last link includes an interesting nugget I’d never seen

before: That the Devils’ appeal was based on an argument about a

previous suspension to Brendan Shanahan. Let’s add that to the pile of

supporting evidence to my theory that Shanahan shows up as a central

character in every ugly hockey moment because he is secretly a super-

villain.

So back to May 8, 1988. It’s game time, only there’s no game. What’s

going on?

We’ll find out in a moment, but first we get a dramatic pan across various

fans. Tag yourself, I’m the bored lady eating ice cream. Special shoutout

to the one fan who waits until the exact moment her husband is on live

television to lean over and pick something out of his eyebrow.

We then cut to the only two people who could be trusted to explain the

situation to a confused and frightened Canadian public: Harry Neale and

Bob Cole. They’re about to engage in an age-old television tradition

known as “winging it to kill time.”

I miss the days when being a sports broadcaster meant wearing an

awkward headset that featured a big red clown nose on the end.

Harry tells us about New Jersey fans lining up to buy tickets to the final.

Remember, this is 1988, back when the Devils were considered a joke –

they were only a few years removed from Wayne Gretzky calling them

Mickey Mouse, and this was the first year they’d ever made the playoffs,

let alone a deep run. We all thought it was funny that they were even still

around. This scarred the entire organization so much that they vowed to

get their revenge by eventually developing an impenetrable defensive

system that would ruin hockey forever.

Bob tries to build off Harry’s point by noting that the area’s other two

teams, the Islanders and Rangers, are already out. It makes sense, kind

of, before he gets sidetracked by a story about a figure skating show

featuring Katarina Witt. Look, it was 1988, we were all sidetracked by

Katarina Witt.

Harry pretends to pay attention, but if you watch closely you can see him

going through his mental Rolodex of Edgar Allan Poe quotes to find one

that fits. He can’t, and instead decides to ramble a bit about what the

actual Prince of Wales might think. He strikes a casual pose while he

does, and shifts his footing a bit, which leads to the highlight of the entire

clip.

Bob completely no-sells Harry’s joke, instead staring at the floor. For a

second you think he may have just zoned out due to boredom, but no. It

turns out Harry has been stepping on his headset cord, leading Bob to

threaten to hire somebody to beat him up. This is live television, by the

way. I love these two and would pay extra money for a channel where

they were still broadcasting games together to this day.

Bob gets us back on track by passing on the good news that the league

says the game will start in five minutes, then immediately calls B.S. on

that. He’s apparently right, because in the background we can hear the

public address announcer say something that results in all the fans

immediately booing. I can’t make it out, but it’s either “The game is

delayed” or “Hey let’s all practice what we’re going to do to Gary Bettman

in seven years.”

“So if you don’t have any more jokes or stories, Colie, this is going to turn

into a very boring – ” and then our clip cuts off, which suggests that Colie

indeed did not have any more jokes or stories.

The epilogue here is that the game did eventually take place. And it

began with what became an iconic scene: A replacement referee taking

the ice, followed by two amateur linesmen wearing yellow jackets instead

of stripes. They’d take a lap to a chorus of boos, almost colliding at one

point. The game turned out to be a bit of a gong show, although the

replacement officials got through it without any disasters. The Devils won

the game but the Bruins went on to take the series.

Be it resolved: If the NHL stays on pause for another few weeks or

months or longer, let’s make Harry Neale and Bob Cole go on live TV

and just ad lib through the whole thing until it’s over.

CAROLINA HURRICANES

NEWS CLIPPINGS • May 11, 2020

Sportsnet.ca / Korean soccer gives NHL first glimpse of what return could

look like

Eric Francis

May 8, 2020, 3:53 PM

The credo that players aren’t to shake hands with one another before or

after a game is an easy one for the NHL to adopt.

But no spitting or talking at close proximity to one other?

Live, televised pro sports returned to action Friday with Korea’s top

soccer league kicking off with a series of rules, restrictions, additions and

omissions the NHL is sure to be taking note of for the possibility of an

unlikely return this summer, if not the fall or a year from now.

The seats at Jeonju World Cup Stadium were empty, covered by flags of

support, and a message for television viewers that read, ‘Stay Strong.’

Recorded crowd noise was piped in at times to break eerie silence

previously disrupted by the occasional shouts of players. A lone

broadcaster called the game from an off-site studio, unable to provide

much in the way of insight.

Team-branded face masks were worn by the substitute players, coaches

and a fourth official on the sideline.

No one wore masks on the pitch.

Fist-bumps replaced handshakes at the conclusion of the stilted, 1-0 win

by Jeonbuk.

No, Calgary Flames GM Brad Treliving did not tune in for the world’s first

glimpse at sports’ new reality, but suffice it to say, there’s plenty of

interest in the return to action in various sports.

“Certainly the league is paying attention,” said Treliving.

“We’re all trying to stay on top of all the different sports and leagues

worldwide to see all the regulations involved in coming back. As you see

people coming back, it’s not going to be perfect. You’re going to learn

from what goes well and what doesn’t go well. Steal what information you

can and share it.”

Treliving said last week he believes the key to any return for the NHL will

be testing – something that needs to be more widespread before

anything can move forward.

All 1,100 K League staffers and players were tested and cleared last

week, followed up by players having their temperatures taken before

kickoff.

If the NHL is somehow able to adopt the hub-city playoff formula it’s

contemplating for resumption of the season this summer, players would

have to be regularly tested.

At this point, it’s far from a possibility given the priority the public

healthcare system takes over allowing specialized groups to secure

rampant access to testing.

North America lags behind Korea in that capacity. Korea’s testing

capacity has limited the country to fewer than 300 fatalities due to the

novel coronavirus. In the U.S., more than 1,000 are still dying daily,

which is why there is still plenty of time between now and when the NHL

could possibly resume.

In the meantime, Treliving is optimistic the NHL’s member clubs are

getting closer to allowing their facilities open for small groups of players

to start skating and working out.

“Our medical team is preparing for what could take place,” said Treliving.

“It won’t be, ‘open the doors’ and everyone comes in. Whether you’re in

small groups, it’s ‘what testing has to take place?’ Not only before, but on

a regular basis. How do you keep people separated to a certain extent

prior to going on the ice.”

The Ontario government eased restrictions on professional sports teams

Friday, allowing them to open their training facilities.

Alberta has yet to follow suit.

The Raptors will open their athletic facilities with limited access Monday,

following in the footsteps of MLS, which already opened the door for

individual player workouts outdoors.

The NBA’s guidelines for practices allow only four players at a time in the

building, while the Raptors will only allow one.

Treliving has said his club is fully prepared to adhere to provincial safety

guidelines and protocol allowing no more than 15 people to gather at any

time. Calgary city officials have decreed that ban will stay in place until at

least the end of August.

Flames goalie Cam Talbot just drove his family from Alberta to Ontario

for the summer, giving an indication of how unlikely many feel the league

can cobble together a summer conclusion.

Once given clearance, players would start to return to the cities in which

their teams are situated and start skating in small groups of five or 10.

Of course, anyone returning to Calgary from overseas or the U.S. would

be subjected to a 14-day quarantine first, as pointed out by Prime

Minister Justin Trudeau.

Again, chances of a conclusion to this season are a long shot.

Yet, the league’s prerogative is to continue to look at models that could

see them play in August, September or October, pushing the start of next

season to as late as December.

Elliotte Friedman reported the NHL and NHLPA agree 45-to-55 days will

be needed between the end of the playoffs and the start of the 2020-21

season.

Sportsnet.ca / How a hockey analyst is helping experts in the fight

against COVID-19

Mike Shulman

May 8, 2020, 11:29 AM

It’s an understatement to say there can be a lot of noise online.

Disinformation and misinformation flood the social media channels we’ve

become increasingly dependant on in a socially distant world.

But amid the cacophony, sometimes the founding collaborative spirit of

the Internet reemerges.

David Yu — team lead of hockey analytics at Sportlogiq, a Montreal-

based, AI-driven advanced stats company that works with most NHL

teams — is the author of one of those recent precious moments.

He isn’t an epidemiologist. Nor is he an expert in infectious diseases.

But the soon-to-be 33-year-old hockey analyst has created a powerful

tool, the COVID Projections Tracker, which has provided those in the

field a way to find flaws in the model widely used by U.S. health care

providers, media outlets and government bodies — including the White

House — to make crucial decisions related to the novel coronavirus

pandemic.

The website tracks the daily changes in projections of cases and deaths,

among other metrics, produced by the aforementioned University of

Washington’s Institute for Health Metrics and Evaluation (IHME) model,

as well as that of the Los Alamos National Lab.

Yu — who moved from China to Winnipeg when he was six and whose

partner’s family hails from Wuhan — was inspired to pitch in when cases

of the virus started to spike in Italy.

CAROLINA HURRICANES

NEWS CLIPPINGS • May 11, 2020

He initially used his abilities to create the online platform VolunteerAtlas,

which aimed to connect Canadian volunteers with those in need — such

as the elderly or immunocompromised — so they can get supplies or

groceries.

But when he realized there were others with more software development

expertise working on similar offerings, he shifted his efforts.

“I’m really trying to just make it easier for the people that are on the

frontlines of — whether it’s epidemiology or volunteer co-ordination — for

them to do their jobs,” said Yu, who completed five years of a PhD in

biology before changing focus. “I could have maybe tried to build models

and things like that, but I think (experts are) actually inundated with

people that are helping, but not really helping. And so my goal was

always to, rather than to try and build something that was better than

theirs, build something that would help them do their jobs.”

And that’s exactly what he’s done with the COVID Projections Tracker.

After doing some initial graphing of the data, which was publicly released

in late March, Yu noticed that some of the hardest-hit U.S. states had

seen their projected death counts drop suddenly. He then reached out

via Twitter to prominent University of Washington biologist Carl

Bergstrom — who is not affiliated with the IHME model.

The sudden shift in projected death counts was something Bergstrom

hadn’t seen before, and he encouraged Yu to keep looking into it. So the

long-time Winnipeg Jets fan — who is used to analyzing aspects of

hockey such as pace of play, faceoffs and passing — leveraged his data-

science and data-visualization talents to develop a platform that could

help Bergstrom and other experts make definitive assessments.

It's been all COVID all the time for a while, but excited to present our

comprehensive analysis of pass difficulty, value and tendencies in

hockey at #ISOLHAC this Saturday

Team effort with @pauly_p14 @ConnorJungle & @SamForstner

Kudos to @alyssastweeting for organizing https://t.co/BwcT4wbvi0

— David Yu @ (@yuorme) May 5, 2020

Bergstrom compared Yu’s tool to forensic analysis. Only, in this case, it is

being performed on a model rather than a crime scene.

“It’s been a very useful resource to … get a better sense of what [the

IHME model is] going to be good at predicting and what it’s not going to

be good at predicting,” said Bergstrom, who studies infectious diseases

and misinformation. “It turned out [the model was doing] a reasonably

good job of — better than I was expecting — predicting the peak of the

curve in most U.S. states, for example, but it did a dismal job of

predicting what happened after that.”

In particular, the COVID Projections Tracker made it plain that the IHME

model projected deaths to decrease as quickly as they rose when the

virus spread initially — even though that hasn’t been and isn’t likely to be

the case. That’s a troubling fact given how prevalent the model has been

to date.

“Just based on how much the White House and (U.S. President Donald

Trump’s) administration cites this model, clearly, they go to it as a source

of truth for their outlook on the future,” said Yu.

Now, Yu’s tool has helped people see the need to stop over-relying on

the IHME model — which researchers have recently updated to better

account for its faults — and start looking to others.

“It just helped us see clearly that the model was getting things wrong in a

systematic, understandable way,” he added. “And so I think it gave me a

lot more confidence to be critical of that model’s ability to predict what

happens after the curve.”

1. A short thread about symmetric death curves curves and the

@IMHE_UW model.

Throughout, I'll use a great new tool from @yuorme:

https://t.co/FUHfJCr9qq

This allows us to look at how the predictions of the IHME model have

changed since it was released in late March.

— Carl T. Bergstrom (@CT_Bergstrom) April 15, 2020

It’s a feat of remarkable data wrangling and coding from an unexpected

source in a moment when experts need all the help they can get.

“I think it’s a really great example … like this is a situation where there’s

so much talent out there and we need all hands on deck, and we’re

learning in real-time how if we get all hands on deck, we can collaborate

and not talk over each other and make forward progress,” said

Bergstrom. “And this was one of those cases where it really worked

beautifully.”