LOS ANGELES — Last year, the National Hockey League regular season was abruptly halted, like virtually everything else, by the COVID-19 pandemic, following games played on March 11, 2020, when the Los Angeles Kings defeated the Ottawa Senators, 3-2, at Staples Center in Los Angeles.
As reported in this space on July 3, 2020, prior to the 2020 NHL Draft, it wasn’t just the NHL that halted play. Indeed, sports around the world ground to a screeching halt not long after.
As detailed in that story, with no hockey being played anywhere, amateur scouting staffs for NHL teams faced the challenge of completing their prospect evaluation work without being able to scout players in person after that dreadful date.