The coronavirus isn’t the first major influenza to break out and disrupt major sporting events. More than a century ago, the NHL faced a similar issue with an outbreak of the Spanish flu causing the hockey league to cancel the Stanley Cup Finals. The NHL Playoffs are nearing and so far, the league hasn’t altered its postseason plans. NHL fans are anticipating the postseason and debating which team will lift the Stanley Cup. Fans can visit Bet365 and get a bet bonus before wagering on the team they believe will win the Stanley Cup. 
In 1919, the Spanish flu caused the ice hockey league to cancel the season’s championship game between the Seattle Metropolitans and the Montreal Canadiens. The Metropolitans, a long-lost ice hockey club which closed its doors in 1924, represented the Pacific Coast Hockey Association while the Canadiens were the NHL’s representative.
Remarkably, the two hockey clubs played the first five games of the Stanley Cup Finals in 1919 before the series was finally canceled. Locked at 2-2-1 after five games in the finals, Game 6 of the series was called off after players and coaches from both teams contracted the Spanish flu. Montreal Canadiens defenseman Joe Hall died just days after Game 6 was canceled due to issues related to the influenza. The Stanley Cup has both the Seattle Metropolitans and Montreal Canadiens names engraved on it followed by the words “series not completed”.
The Spanish flu was the first of two pandemics that involved the H1N1 virus. The other was the swine flu in 2009-10. The Spanish flu pandemic lasted from January 1918 to December 1920 with a reported 500 million people around the world infected.
As the NHL nears the postseason in 2020, it can look back on a history in which only twice previously that the Stanley Cup Finals were canceled. Other than the 1919 edition of the Stanley Cup Finals, the 2004-05 season was the only one to be called off. Rather than a disease like in 1919, the 2005 Stanley Cup Finals were canceled due to a player lockout after a strike prevented the season from being played.
The NHL is not the only sports league effected by the coronavirus. In Europe, the Champions League and Europa League soccer tournaments’ games are being played behind closed doors as fans in many countries are barred from attending. The Italian Serie A could be canceled altogether due to cities around the peninsula being on lockdown.
One step that has been taken by the NHL to combat the spread of the coronavirus is to ban journalists from locker rooms. The NHL and other sports leagues around the United States have been heavily criticized by California governor Gavin Newsom. Sports leagues in the US have been condemned for thinking with their wallets and not with fans in mind.
If the Stanley Cup Playoffs or Stanley Cup Finals are canceled, then there is precedence. But in time of a nationwide panic having the normalcy of the NHL Playoffs could be good for both the US and Canada to cope with the conornavirus.
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