Axios Sports: NHL preview — Baseball's deception — Stadium vaccine hubs

1 big thing: 🏒 Hockey is here | Wednesday, January 13, 2021

Open in app View in browser     Axios Sports By Kendall Baker ·Jan 13, 2021 👋 Good morning! Let's sports. 🏀 Headline: For at least the next two weeks, NBA players must quarantine in their homes except for basketball and essential activities. Also: No more handshakes. Today's word count: 1,947 words (7 minutes).     1 big thing: 🏒 Hockey is here Graphic: Andrew Witherspoon/Axios The NHL's abbreviated season begins tonight, with the coronavirus already casting a shadow of uncertainty over the 2021 campaign. Driving the news: 27 players from nine teams tested positive for COVID-19 during training camp. 17 were on the Stars, who have had their first three games postponed. Looking ahead: Barring any cancellations, the NHL plans to cram 868 games into 116 consecutive nights. Format: The league has realigned into four divisions, including an all-Canadian group. To limit travel, the 56-game regular season and first two playoff rounds are exclusively divisional play. East: Bruins, Capitals, Devils, Flyers, Islanders, Penguins, Rangers, Sabres Central: Blackhawks, Blue Jackets, Hurricanes, Lightning, Panthers, Predators, Red Wings, Stars West: Avalanche, Blues, Coyotes, Ducks, Golden Knights, Kings, Sharks, Wild North: Canadiens, Canucks, Flames, Jets, Maple Leafs, Oilers, Senators Storylines: (Almost) no fans: The Stars, Panthers and Coyotes are the only teams that will start the season with fans in attendance, albeit limited numbers. The battle for Canada: A Canadian team hasn't won the Stanley Cup in 27 years. They'll fight amongst themselves to break that curse, with the North Division featuring plenty of rivalries — and lots of cross-country road trips. Sponsors everywhere: The NHL sold corporate sponsorships for each division (Scotia North, Honda West, Discover Central, MassMutual East) and teams will have advertisements on their helmets for the first time. Legends in new colors: Longtime Bruin Zdeno Chara is now on the Capitals, and longtime Shark Joe Thornton is now on the Maple Leafs. Weird. New offside rules: A player's skate will no longer have to be in contact with the blue line to be considered "onside" during a play. The "plane" of the blue line will now extend upward, like a goal line in football. Homeless Sharks: The Sharks don't currently have access to their home rink due to restrictions on gathering in California's Santa Clara County. They'll play their first eight games on the road. Tonight: Penguins vs. Flyers, 5:30pm ET (NBCSN) Blackhawks vs. Lightning, 8pm (NBCSN) Blues vs. Avalanche, 10:30pm (NBCSN) Coming tomorrow: NHL power rankings     2. ⚾️ MLB's spiral of deception Illustration: Eniola Odetunde/Axios   Baseball's recent scandals have nurtured an aura of uncertainty that fundamentally alters how we watch and understand the sport, Axios' Jeff Tracy writes. Driving the news: Longtime Angels visiting clubhouse manager Brian "Bubba" Harkins was fired last March for providing an illegal pine tar mixture to both Angels and opposing pitchers. Harkins has since named various star pitchers who've requested his mixture over the years, including Gerrit Cole, Justin Verlander and Max Scherzer. The grip-improving practice began as a safety measure, as better control means fewer hit batsmen, but it has since evolved into a way to increase spin rate — a huge competitive advantage. The state of play: According to 2020 NL Cy Young winner Trevor Bauer, upwards of 70% of MLB pitchers use some type of illegal, foreign substance. The backdrop: Flouting pine tar rules is a tale as old as time, but it's also part of a larger trend of suspect practices that have served to break the trust between baseball and its fans. Sign stealing has long been accepted, but the Astros' tech-enabled system was a bridge too far. How many teams operated somewhere along that continuum before Houston was exposed? Rumors of juiced baseballs have persisted for years — with studies suggesting it's far more than a rumor — yet the league insists it never altered the ball. The big picture: Scandals are sport-agnostic, but MLB seems to stand alone regarding the murkiness that surrounds its rule book and general governance. Are home runs on the rise because of the launch-angle revolution or a juiced ball? Are strikeouts increasing because batters sell out for the long ball, or because pitchers weaponize foreign substances to enhance spin rate? It's almost as if there's a tacit agreement; one in which players search for an edge to make this impossible game marginally easier, while the league turns a blind eye — so long as it hews closer to gamesmanship than cheating. Either way, the swirling uncertainty leaves a lot of room for fans to draw their own conclusions (see: everything written above). Food for thought: Can you imagine if a star QB said 70% of his fellow signal-callers were using deflated footballs? Or if rumors persisted that the NBA had secretly enlarged the rims to promote more scoring? The bottom line: Consider a baseball's journey in a given at-bat. It starts in the hand of a pitcher who may have doctored it. It travels to a batter who may have gotten a sign from a teammate. It then flies off the bat, perhaps farther than the swing merited, due to a fundamental change at the factory level. Is this what we want?     3. 🏟 Stadiums being used as vaccine hubs Illustration: Eniola Odetunde/Axios   In the fall, America's sports stadiums became voting centers and COVID-19 testing sites. Now, they're being used for another purpose: vaccine distribution. The state of play: Thanks to their size, accessibility and sprawling parking lots, sports venues can handle large groups of people and long lines of cars, making them an ideal distribution partner for cities. Houston: Nearly 4,000 people were vaccinated Saturday at Minute Maid Park (Astros). Los Angeles: Dodger Stadium will provide shots to as many as 12,000 people per day this week. New York: Citi Field (Mets) will become a 24/7 "mega" vaccination site by the end of the month, New York City Mayor Bill de Blasio said Tuesday. Boston: Gillette Stadium (Patriots) is the state's first mass vaccination site. Phoenix: A parking lot outside State Farm Stadium (Cardinals) has been transformed into a 24/7 drive-thru vaccination site. San Diego: A "super station" has been constructed at Petco Park (Padres), where the goal is to vaccinate 5,000 healthcare workers per day. Miami: Hard Rock Stadium (Dolphins) has doubled as a vaccination hub, though it closed on Monday for the CFP National Championship.     A message from Axios Market news worthy of your time     Get a daily look at the news and trends dominating the worlds of global business and finance. Sent every weekday to your inbox by our markets editor Dion Rabouin. Why it matters: We highlight the stories that matter and share crucial economic insights. Stay informed in just a few short minutes. Subscribe for free     4. 🏈 Playoff preview: Bills vs. Ravens Graphic: Axios Visuals   Four Divisional Round games; four (now three) days until Saturday. It's NFL preview week. The Divisional Round continues Saturday evening at Bills Stadium as the second-seeded Bills host the fifth-seeded Ravens, Jeff writes. Kickoff: 8:15pm ET (NBC) Lines: BUF -2.5 | O/U 50 Attendance: ~6,700 How they got here: The Bills (13-3) had one of the most impressive seasons in the league, losing only to the playoff-bound Titans, the dominant Chiefs and the Hail Murray. The Ravens (11-5) navigated one of the worst outbreaks in the NFL and took two-thirds of the season to remember it's not a sin to rely on the rush, averaging 267.4 yards on the ground across their final five games — all wins. Personnel: Buffalo is built on an elite passing offense while Baltimore's strengths are its punishing ground game and lockdown defense. Worth noting: The Ravens ranked first in rushing yards and dead last in passing. The Bills boast one of the league's best QB-WR tandems in Josh Allen (will likely finish third in MVP) and Stefon Diggs (led NFL in receptions and yards). The Ravens have reigning MVP Lamar Jackson and a dominant defense led by CB Marlon Humphrey (NFL-best eight forced fumbles), CB Marcus Peters (four INT) and DT Calais Campbell (Pro Bowl). The intrigue: Similarly to how Packers-Rams features the league's best offense and best defense, this game pits the second-best offense (Bills) against the second-best defense (Ravens).     5. 🇺🇸 Video appears to show ex-Olympian in riot Klete Keller (R) and the other members of the U.S. 4x200 relay team after winnning gold at the 2004 Olympics. Photo: Pierre-Philippe Marcou/AFP via Getty Images   Klete Keller, a two-time U.S. Olympic swimming gold medalist, was identified by former teammates and coaches as being among the rioters who stormed the U.S. Capitol last week, NYT reports. Keller competed in the 2000, 2004 and 2008 Olympics, where he anchored the 4x200 freestyle. In 2004 in Athens, he famously held off Australia's Ian Thorpe to help his team — which featured Michael Phelps — win gold. Watch: A video posted on Twitter appears to show the 6-foot-6-inch Keller towering over a crowd that was pushing and shoving police officers. The backdrop: Keller, 38, was an outspoken supporter of President Trump according to his social media accounts, which have since been deleted. Keller had worked in recent years as a real estate agent in Colorado Springs. In 2018, he revealed that he was "homeless" and living out of his car.     6. ⚽️ Philly is winning the development game Brenden Aaronson. Photo: Scott Taetsch/Getty Images The Philadelphia Union, who won the 2020 Supporters' Shield before earning substantial transfer fees for two homegrown stars, represent the best of MLS' present and future, Jeff writes. What's happening: The Union sold Brenden Aaronson and Mark McKenzie — both named to last season's MLS Best XI — for $6 million each to European sides RB Salzburg (Austria) and KRC Genk (Belgium), respectively. Those fees are dwarfed by the MLS (Miguel Almirón, $27 million) and American records (Christian Pulisic, $73 million), both set in January 2019. Yes, but: They represent an important shift in the MLS landscape as proof of concept that the league's budding youth academy system works. How it works: For MLS, "homegrown" is not just a buzzword — it's an important classification. Since 2007, MLS youth academies have evolved from experiment to institution, with teams finding and developing their own talent pipeline. Homegrown players are those developed by the academy and signed by the club. The league usually takes a percentage of transfer fees, but in 2018 changed the rule so homegrown player fees go entirely to the club. The big picture: Academies are a costly endeavor, but when done properly they create an investment cycle with major benefits to both club and country. Take Aaronson, who joined the Union's academy at just nine when it was nothing more than a weekly training session. Union coach Jim Curtin — then working at the academy — saw Aaronson's potential but knew it would have to be honed. The traditional U.S. system, which focuses more on exposure than development, might have gotten Aaronson to MLS on talent alone; but the academy's emphasis on training helped form the 20-year-old wunderkind now embarking on his European sojourn. The bottom line: The Union, who spend more running their academy than any other team (~$6 million annually), doubled their return on just two of what could be a steady stream of transfers. Seems like a sound investment.     7. 📸 Photos 'round the world Photo: Carmen Mandato/Getty Images HOUSTON — Disgruntled star James Harden said the Rockets are "just not good enough" after the team's second blowout loss to the Lakers, calling the situation in Houston "crazy" and "something that I don't think can be fixed." Why it matters: It's the closest Harden has come to going public with the trade demand he reportedly made this offseason. Photo: Cliff Hawkins/Getty Images HONOLULU, Hawaii — Feast your eyes on another week in paradise. After kicking off 2021 in Maui, the PGA Tour travels to Honolulu for the Sony Open at Waialae Country Club. Go deeper: Hole-by-hole preview (PGA Tour) Photo: Kirill Kukhmar/TASS via Getty Images NOVOSIBIRSK, Russia — Ice speedway racing is a wild sport in which competitors race motorcycles — equipped with studded tires and no brakes — on frozen tracks. 🎥 Watch: Ice speedway racing over a frozen lake (Red Bull) Photo: Francois Nel/Getty Images ABU DHABI, U.A.E. — Aryna Sabalenka (right) won the Abu Dhabi WTA Women's Tennis Open, the first tournament of the 2021 season. On a roll: The world No. 10 extended her career-best winning streak to 15 matches and has now won three tournaments in a row.     8. Jan. 13, 1962: 🏀 Wilt scores 73 Wilt Chamberlain in 1962. Photo: Bettmann Archives/Getty Images 59 years ago today, Wilt Chamberlain scored 73 points and grabbed 36 rebounds for the Philadelphia Warriors in a 135-117 win over the Chicago Packers. Context: This came less than two months before Wilt's historic, 100-point explosion as part of a season filled with statistical near-impossibilities. Numbers: Wilt averaged 50.4 points and 25.7 rebounds and missed just eight total minutes all year thanks to a fourth-quarter ejection one night. Wild stat: In the 32-game span between (and including) 73 and 100, Wilt topped 60 points 11 times. That's one more than Kobe Bryant and Michael Jordan combined for in their entire careers, or 15% of all 60-point outings in NBA history. Single-game scoring leaders: 100: Chamberlain 81: Bryant 78: Chamberlain 73: Chamberlain (2x); David Thompson 72: Chamberlain 71: David Robinson; Elgin Baylor 70: Chamberlain; Devin Booker 🎥 Watch: Wilt Chamberlain's 1961-62 season     9. 🏈 College football trivia Photo: UA Athletics/Collegiate Images/Getty Images   Since 2005, every D-I college football national champion has been located within 600 miles of Atlanta. Question: There have been seven champions in that span. Can you name them all? Hint: They represent four conferences. Answer at the bottom.     10. 🎥 Dunker of the night Giphy Bryce Williams had two highlight-reel dunks during Oklahoma State's 75-70 upset win over No. 6 Kansas. Watch both.     A message from Axios Market news worthy of your time     Get a daily look at the news and trends dominating the worlds of global business and finance. Sent every weekday to your inbox by our markets editor Dion Rabouin. Why it matters: We highlight the stories that matter and share crucial economic insights. Stay informed in just a few short minutes. Subscribe for free   Talk tomorrow, Kendall "Used to be a Harden fan" Baker Trivia answer: Alabama (6x), LSU (2x), Clemson (2x), Ohio State, FSU, Florida, Texas Invite friends to follow Axios Sports Use your personal link to track how many readers you bring into the community You currently have 00 referrals. Share with a friend or use your personal referral link https://www.axios.com/referral/sports?code=BbTjEdwGLRoN For questions email referralsupport@axios.com. 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