EDMONTON, Alberta – The wait for the Wild to officially resume its season has been a long one.
Not only did the team last play March 8 – four days before the league paused the season due to the coronavirus pandemic – but its matchup with Vancouver is also the last of the qualifiers to get underway.
Puck drop on Game 1 is 9:30 p.m. Central Time.
That game will be the third of the day at Rogers Place, with the action kicking off Sunday with another qualifying-round series between Arizona and Nashville (the Coyotes won 4-3). The middle clash is a round-robin tilt between St. Louis and Colorado.
Before that game and while Arizona-Nashville was ongoing, the vibe surrounding the bubble in Edmonton was subdued – definitely quieter than Saturday afternoon when there was more activity on the streets in the lead-up to the Oilers-Blackhawks opener.
I walked around downtown this afternoon, and the setup for players in the bubble is elaborate.
Gates crisscross streets, blocking roads, but there are guards posted up to open them up every once in a while to allow cars and foot traffic through. There are outdoor walkways around the hotels that players and personnel inside the bubble use to get around and even though there are banners covering the fencing, you can still see people walking.
The sidewalk in front of Rogers Place isn't blocked off, and there was actually a screen in the Ice District (the downtown area that houses the arena) that was showing the Coyotes-Predators game.
