The American Hockey League announced Thursday that it was suspending the 2019-20 season indefinitely due to growing coronavirus concerns.
So, where did everyone go?
The Wilkes-Barre/Scranton Penguins shut down all activities at the AHL Penguins’ front office and practice facility, the Toyota SportsPlex. All players and other team personnel are expected to remain in the Wilkes-Barre area for the time being, and are finding their own ways to stay occupied -- and in shape -- while they wait to find out whether their season will resume.
Late Sunday night, the CDC announced new guidelines that recommends no gatherings of more than 50 people until mid-May. Already, the ECHL, the next-tier-down league in which the Wheeling Nailers play, has canceled its season outright.
On the day of the shutdown, the Penguins were scheduled for an 11 a.m. practice at the Toyota SportsPlex. Coach Mike Vellucci, without any direction from the AHL, called off practice, then met with the team to brief the players on the situation. Hours later, the league made its decision.
"We saw the night before that the NBA had been postponed," Pierre-Olivier Joseph told me this weekend. "We were like, 'Are we next?' We didn't know what was going on. The next day, we went to the rink, and it all started from there."
"The coaches told us in the locker room that the league would probably be suspended," Jan Drozg said. "I found out from my agent first, then everyone started posting on social media. It was pretty quick."
"The coaching staff told us they didn't really know what was going on," Chase Berger said. "It didn't seem like the right move to practice at the time, so we went home and found out that everything had been suspended. Since then, it's just been waiting around, trying to stay in shape and stay healthy."
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With the Toyota SportsPlex shut down, players are working to stay in shape from home.
"We were told by the team to just hunker in, so that's what we've been doing," Thomas Di Pauli said. "I think it's important to listen to what the team tells you to do, and do your part in helping to not spread it. What we've been doing is pretty much just home workouts for the most part."
"Our strength coach is good, Mike Joyce," Berger said. "He sent us some workouts we can do from outside or in our apartments. We've got some things we can try our best to do, but at the end of the day when you're not skating, it's kind of hard."
All season, Casey DeSmith has been gathering groups of players together to play disc golf, so some are staying active that way, too.
"Me and Casey and some other guys have been going to play disc golf pretty much every day," Almari said. "We play a couple of rounds. That's something you can do, it gets you like five hours off the day."
When they aren't working out, guys are doing what they can to occupy their time without coming into contact with large groups of people.
"There's not much to do," Drozg said. "It's smarter to stay in the apartment because of the situation right now. I don't do nothing special. I talk to my family a lot, watch movies."
"It's just hanging out," Niclas Almari said. "Playing some cards with friends, that's about it."
TV seems to be a pretty popular way to pass the time.
"A lot of Netflix," Johnson laughed. "I'm trying to read some books, just pass the time. It's tough when you can't really go out and do much."
"Me and my roommate (Ryan Scarfo) have watched like 10 of those Planet Earth documentaries," Berger said. "Just letting them roll."
With a lot of takeout food.
"If there's a lockdown on (restaurants), we might starve," Berger added with a laugh. "We're going to have to get to the store if Chipotle and those things close."
Others are taking a different approach.
"I've been reading a bit and studying languages, focusing on Spanish right now." said Di Pauli, who already speaks English, Italian and German. "I'm kind of fluent in it but I want to be even more so. I'm not a big TV guy. I've just been using this time to learn new languages."
Joseph is pretty much an expert at being quarantined by now. At the start of the season he missed a month's worth of games after contracting mononucleosis, and had to be isolated from his teammates for a few weeks. I asked him if he's been able to give any advice to his teammates during this time.
"You just have to stay happy," Joseph laughed. "It's hard to stay inside. Keep your smiles. I've been there already, this is nothing for me."
Coronavirus has brought nearly all sports leagues to a stop across the world. While leagues like the NHL and AHL hope to be able to resume play this season, the ECHL, some European leagues, and NCAA hockey have ended their seasons early without crowning a champion. Berger, who graduated from Penn State last season, feels for his former teammates, some of whom had their senior seasons and collegiate careers come to an unexpected early end.
"I talked to those guys and I think they're just in shock," Berger said. "They're really disappointed. I feel really bad for the seniors who want to pursue a national championship, I think they had a great team. But also the free agents that were hoping to sign after the season or at least get a (tryout contract). Now with all the college free agents being free agents at once it's slowed that down, and I think all of them are nervous about what the future might bring as far as signing and that stuff. It's a lot to take in, I feel bad for them."
Adam Johnson left Minnesota-Duluth as a sophomore in 2017, but he still has friends playing college hockey.
"They've been saying how much it sucks, they're really upset about it," Johnson said. "Especially the school I went to, they won the last two national championships so they were really looking forward to win another one. I think it was a big heartbreaker for them."
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Di Pauli, who grew up in Italy and still has friends and family there, has been closely following the situation back home. The country, which has recorded 17,660 infections and 1,266 deaths from coronavirus, has been on lockdown for the past several days. Unlike in America, Italians as a whole are taking the restrictions seriously and remaining separated from others as much as possible. Social media is also flooded with videos of Italians on their balconies, singing and playing music to keep spirits up:
Sicily has figured out this whole self-isolation thing.#COVID19 #CoronavirusPandemic pic.twitter.com/93whPVtQcR
— John Nichols (@NicholsUprising) March 13, 2020
"Italy is huge with tourism, so that's why they were hit so hard," Di Pauli said. "I think they've done a great job with realizing the problem and getting on top of it right away. As soon as there was an outbreak, they shut down everything. I think they're handling it amazingly. They're listening, staying in their houses. And as Italians do, they try to make every bad situation sort of good. The singing, all that, it's beautiful. It's a beautiful way to still be together when you can't be together."
After seeing how Italy is now handling the outbreak, Di Pauli is concerned with the response from Americans. On St. Patrick's Day weekend, Americans were still parading in the streets, and packing themselves into bars and restaurants.
"I think that's extremely irresponsible, to be honest," Di Pauli said. "If you look at Italy, it can get bad if you don't jump on it right away. It's serious, people should listen to ways on how to deal with it. You might not affect one person, but you might be a carrier. You might have a good immune system, but your grandma does not. You're being selfish in that aspect."
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One thing that seems unique to America in responding to the coronavirus is the unnecessary hoarding of supplies like toilet paper.
"Everything's gotten so crazy," Berger said. "You just sit back and laugh when you go to Wegmans and there's no toilet paper or water. This thing is kind of getting out of control."
"It's crazy," Johnson said. "A lot of people and empty shelves. It's weird to see."
"People have been piling up the toilet paper," Almari laughed. "It's seems like the world is ending."
"It's World War III out there for toilet paper right now," Joseph said.
At least one of the Penguins doesn't have any plans to stockpile during the shutdown.
"Last time I checked, you can't eat toilet paper," Di Pauli laughed.
The Penguins currently sit fifth in the Atlantic Division, one spot and seven points out of a playoff spot with a 29-26-3-5 record and 14 games left on the original schedule. If the AHL does eventually resume its season, it's not clear how that would play out. The players are just hoping to be able to play again this season.
"I think we're just ready for whatever," Johnson said. "Whatever they tell us is what we're going to go with."
