TSN: Martin Biron and Craig Button discuss if NHL stars should sit out preseason games to avoid injuries like NHL players do. The segment was recorded after Drew Doughty’s injury but before the outcomes were known, and before Patrik Laine’s injury on Saturday.
** NHLRumors.com transcription
Gino Reda: “Joined by Marty Biron and Craig Button. That nasty looking Drew Doughty injury put the NHL preseason under the microscope again. The CBA says the NHL teams have to decorate at the very least eight veteran players for each single preseason game. But seeing what happened to dowdy guys, does the league need to vary this rule to guard its stars, Marty?
Biron: “Well, I feel it’s a freak incident, right? It’s not like Doughty wasn’t playing hockey and didn’t get hit from behind. He went for a puck and was attempting to finish a check and he got hurt.
NHL Rumors: Toronto Maple Leafs, and the Los Angeles Kings
I don’t think you have to change the rule of eight veterans per game, because you continue to have to decorate a, you recognize, good lineup, but I feel they played too many preseason games. When you have got six to eight preseason games after which you have got an 82-game season, it’s an excessive amount of. Must be three or 4 preseason games. That’s it.
Within the 2012-13 season, that was a lockout-shortened season, after which the COVID season, where there was no preseason games in either considered one of them, there’s not one player that complained. ‘Oh man, I actually wish that we had preseason games so I can get going.’
Coaches complain, right? Owners complain because they didn’t get the gates and the cash that they get in preseason. But no players complain that they weren’t ready for Game one because they didn’t play a preseason game or two.
But I feel you bought to shorten the preseason and perhaps you add a pair of standard season games. The NFL did it, they usually found a sweet spot. So I feel there’s more to be done.
However the eight veterans you continue to have to decorate and line up that fans are coming to see, and that’s why I feel that ought to stay.
Button: “I’m going to preface this primary, Marty, I really like you for a lot of reasons, and that is just another excuse I really like you. Because I agree with you, 100%. Not 99, 100%.
The players are so well conditioned. They’re fit throughout the season. They arrive into training camp and all they wish to do is prepare, prepare for the regular season. We all know that the regular season has loads more importance from Game one than it did in previous years. So those players, those veteran players, wish to rise up and running.
They wish to, they usually know that an 82-game schedule is long and hard. We speak about difficulty of schedule. We speak about what number of back-to-backs, and three in fours.
Well, why don’t we alleviate a bit little bit of that early preseason pressures on playing and permit those players to seek out their moments? To your point, they’re going to are available in and practice. You’ll be able to get comfortable with contact and every thing that goes with it, but they’re able to go from Game one.
And I do know that there’s some economics to this with the preseason, but at the identical time, I’d prefer to see a discount within the preseason games. And understand that an injury that happened to Drew Doughty. It happened to Aaron Rodgers in his first game with the Latest York Jets. What are we going to do? Take out the primary game of the season when anyone gets hurt, it happens, and it’s unlucky.
There was nothing nefarious or evil in regards to the in regards to the play. It was only a play that went bad for Drew Doughty. Hopefully, it’s not any, anything that’s going to essentially impact the Los Angeles Kings for a very long time.
Reda: “Okay, guys, I understand, though I agree fully with you. Players are actually coming in able to play, and rosters are just about set for probably the most part. Possibly two or three guys on the very most attempting to earn jobs.
But isn’t this really only a money grab? I mean, Marty, with HRR and the players getting some money even from the preseason games. Are players, are owners, are teams, willing to sacrifice dollars for the security of their players, Marty?
Biron: “Well has or not it’s right, you recognize, just like the preseason gates and all the cash goes only to the owners, right? The players don’t have anything when they appear at HRR from preseason.
So while you move forward, you may reduce the variety of preseason. No person’s gonna complain about it. And now what can also be essential to note is that, you get into camp, you have got your medicals, you have got your fitness training, you practice for 2 days and, boom, you have already got a preseason game. Like no one desires to play in the primary week.
Sidney Crosby hasn’t played a game yet. Evgeny Malkin hasn’t played a game yet (hit was recorded on Friday, each played on the weekend). You recognize, you take a look at the veterans, Connor McDavid played. The one reason he played this since the Oilers and the Flames did the split-squad game, if not, like they might have ran out of players, so he needed to play a game.
But the celebrities don’t wish to play. They will probably want to get the last preseason game and right into the regular season, and at the tip, the NHL, the NHLPA, are going to have to sit down down, since it comes right down to the separation of the cash. What goes to the owners, what could come to the players, and if it is smart.
Nevertheless it makes more sense to me, as a former player, to say, I don’t care if there’s one or two preseason games. I only care in regards to the regular season.
Button: “And Marty, the owner, shouldn’t care. And I’d prefer to hear one owner of the National Hockey League say, ‘You recognize what, we’d like the revenue for the preseason games, and I’m not frightened about losing considered one of my key players in the course of the regular season which may impact my ability to make the playoffs, where the money cow is basically significant.’
What could Patrik Laine’s injury mean for the Montreal Canadiens?
That’s where the main target ought to be, Gino, and that, to me, is that there’s not an argument economically for this.
