NHL suspends season due to coronavirus

The NHL season is officially on hold.

Less than 24 hours after the NBA suspended its season due to one of its players contracting the coronavirus, the NHL followed suit Thursday and halted operations until further notice.

A statement from NHL Commissioner Gary Bettman read, in part: "Following last night's news that an NBA player has tested positive for coronavirus - and given that our leagues share so many facilities and locker rooms and it now seems likely that some member of the NHL community would test positive at some point - it is no longer appropriate to try to continue to play games at this time."

The statement went on to say that the league is hoping to "resume play as soon as it is appropriate" so that the Stanley Cup can be awarded. If play resumes it's possible the postseason could run into July.

What this means is that the Blackhawks almost certainly will not play their scheduled games for at least the next two weeks.

Illinois Governor J.B. Pritzker said at a news conference Thursday afternoon that he asked all of Chicago's major sports owners to cancel all of their games or play without spectators until May 1.

"All of the owners that I spoke with told me that they completely understood and were more than willing to comply with this guidance," Pritzker said. "I want to thank them, for putting the health and safety of the residents of our state above all else."

A Hawks spokesman respectfully passed on a request to speak with a player, coach Jeremy Colliton, GM Stan Bowman and/or President and CEO John McDonough.

The AHL - the league in which the Rockford IceHogs and Chicago Wolves play - also suspended operations, as did the USHL, where the Chicago Steel plays.

Here's what Duncan Keith said after the Hawks' 6-2 victory over San Jose at the United Center on Wednesday: "I really don't know what to think to be honest with (you). This is a first for us to be in this situation. You kind of have to leave it up to some of the people in charge to make those decisions on what they feel is best and have faith that they know what they're doing.

"You never want to see anybody - let alone an athlete or an NBA player - have to go through it. Seems to be more and more people seem to be getting affected by it."

The NBA's decision to suspend its season came after Utah's Rudy Gobert tested positive for COVID-19 on Wednesday.

If no more regular-season games are played, it creates a conundrum in terms of how to determine which teams qualify for the postseason.

Anything and everything is reportedly on the table, including:

• Determining playoff teams based on points percentage.

• Allowing four more teams into the postseason, which would create a play-in round for the 7-10 seeds.

• Another suggestion was to give the top four teams in each conference byes, and make the 5-12 seeds play a best-of-three series.

• Then, when there are eight teams remaining in each conference, make all playoff series best-of-five until the Stanley Cup Final, which would remain best-of-seven.

If 24 teams are allowed into the playoffs, the Hawks (32-30-8) would actually qualify at the 12th seed in the West. If all seeds were done by points percentage - and the regular season was declared over - that means the Hawks would play a best-of-three series against Connor McDavid and the Edmonton Oilers.

For now, though, we wait.

Hopefully, play can resume - perhaps in a few weeks, perhaps in a month or more - and then we'll find out exactly how the NHL wants to proceed with its season.

• Follow John on Twitter @johndietzdh for updates and breaking news