It’s official. Edmonton’s time as an NHL hub city has come to an end.
The Stanley Cup was awarded to the Tampa Bay Lightning at Rogers Place on Monday night, marking the first time the trophy has been awarded in the Alberta capital since the Edmonton Oilers won it in the spring of 1988.
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Coronavirus: Bubble won’t be back for 2020-21 NHL season
With that, the players, staff and coaches of both teams will now head home, marking more than two months inside either the Edmonton or Toronto NHL bubble.
Video posted to social media showed members of the Lightning — with the Stanley Cup in tow — already at the airport Tuesday morning.
Waiting to board! The #StanleyCup is coming for you Tampa ✈️ @TBLightning | @keeperofthecup pic.twitter.com/QLobTHqEKM
— Hockey Hall of Fame (@HockeyHallFame) September 29, 2020
The bubble model proved effective in finishing up the 2019-20 NHL season while keeping the spread of COVID-19 at bay. The NHL reported Monday that in its ninth week of return to play, no positive COVID-19 tests were reported.
While it may not have led to a great boost in economic activity, Edmonton’s mayor said the city should be proud of the way it came across during the NHL post-season.
“Certainly, I think it reflected well on the city. It was a COVID-free, effective bubble and that just shows the integrity of all the planning that went into it,” Don Iveson said Tuesday morning.
“The jobs that were created, though not astronomical, were certainly helpful to our hoteliers, and the building showed off great. I think Edmontonians can be proud of having hosted and it’s opened up more opportunities for us with the World Juniors and we’ll see what it means for the next NHL season.”
The success of Edmonton’s NHL bubble means more tournaments will be hosted in the city. Earlier this month, the International Ice Hockey Federation announced that Rogers Place in the city’s downtown will play host to the 2021 world junior championships in a similar bubble approach, without fans in attendance.
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Alberta’s chief medical officer of health said Monday the success was due in part to advanced planning and really close collaboration between the organizing group and public health.
“We were able to set out protocols that would protect public health, as well as providing advice to what would keep the players and staff in that tournament safe,” Dr. Deena Hinshaw said.
“I think that the ability to have a strict bubble that was enforced, combined with testing that was done — I think those were all things that worked well. The ability of private pay testing to have those tests not a part of our public system and not contributing to any of the wait times in the public system were helpful.
“Our number one priority for any event will be that it would not jeopardize the public’s health, but also that we’re able to utilize the information we have about COVID-19 to structure a safe playing environment for everyone who’s involved.”
The NHL and Players’ Association are set to meet within the next two weeks to discuss the possibilities of what the 2020-21 season could look like, but there’s no desire to stage it entirely within quarantined bubbles.
“Certainly not for a season, of course not,” NHLPA executive director Don Fehr told The Associated Press on Sunday.
“Nobody is going to do that for four months or six months or something like that. Whether we could create some protected environments that people would be tested and they’d be clean when they came in and lasted for some substantially shorter period of time with people cycling in and out is one of the things I suspect we will examine.”
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Coronavirus: Bubble won’t be back for 2020-21 NHL season
The Oilers Entertainment Group said Sunday it would take about two days after the final game to dismantle the bubble.
–With files from The Associated Press