Flyers

Report: NHL to Close Media Access to Dressing Rooms per CDC Recommendation

By Russ Joy

Published: Mar 7th, 2020 · 1:57 PM EST

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The Corona Virus sucks. It’s turned the maestro into the Bubble Boy from Seinfeld, caused nationwide panic, and now looks as though it’ll change media availability for the forseeable future. Per Sportsnet’s Elliotte Friedman, the NHL is set to become the first of numerous leagues -with the NBA, MLB, and Major League Soccer to follow- to implement a Centers for Disease Control recommendation to ban media from dressing rooms as a means of media availability, opting instead for such interactions to occur in the formal press conference area:

https://twitter.com/FriedgeHNIC/status/1236355989580001280?s=20

Depending on which side of the COVID-19 debate you fall, this might seem like a nothingburger or the signal of the end of days. From a fan’s perspective, this shouldn’t change all that much in how players are presented via the NBC Sports Philadelphia telecast. As it stands, they typically show a couple of questions asked in a given scrum, with some players’ availabilities not being shown at all. The same can be said for head coach Alain Vigneault’s press conference, which is why I livestream the presser in its entirety on Twitter.

From a media member’s perspective, the announcement is a bummer on a few levels. Entering the dressing room after a game allows us to get a vibe for the team’s takeaway on their performance, but more importantly it allows us to have off-the-record conversations with the players. Those conversations are a critical element to adding validity or dispelling rumors. In doing so, that helps any reporter build trust and rapport with players. Will it fundamentally change how I cover the team? No. It just means those lines of communication will have to be established and conducted through different mediums.

The real shame is we won’t get to see Anthony SanFilippo’s mug making international news on TSN’s Sportscentre with Jay and Dan:

If the NHL upholds this media availability ban in the locker rooms, we're going to miss out on beautiful moments like this: https://t.co/312kOetsKY

— Russ Joy (@JoyOnBroad) March 7, 2020

And me, I guess:

It’s another edition of everyone’s favourite segment… NHL Scrum Lurkers!!! 👀 #JayAndDan pic.twitter.com/LjOQ3m2eXc

— JayOnSC (@JayOnSC) February 21, 2020

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