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Now that the league is ready to begin what it hopes will be a normal, uninterrupted season, reporters and TV camera operators, recorders and notepads are expected to return and wait by the players’ booths after practices and games are over. .
The way it used to be – and the format it was developing – was news to Zegras.
“I didn’t even know it was a thing to be completely honest,” the outgoing 21-year-old said with a smile. “I just thought you were going to this other (press conference room).
“That’ll be a nice wrinkle.”
A number of the game’s stars shared their thoughts on the reopening of locker rooms with reporters during last week’s NHL/NHLPA Player Media Tour outside Las Vegas.
Some were excited about the switch to the old rules.
“It’s great,” Winnipeg Jets center Mark Scheifele said. “I’m a big face-to-face person.”
“You look back at the past in the NHL,” added New York Islanders teammate Matthew Barzal. “Guys doing interviews on exercise bikes with the crowd in their stall dressing room.
“It just seems very personal and a bit more in-depth.”
Meanwhile, others were less enthusiastic.
“I don’t mind those press conference rooms,” Florida Panthers wing Matthew Tkachuk said.
“I won’t be able to wander around the room as much,” joked Dallas Stars goaltender Jake Oettinger, who like Zegras has never met reporters at his booth.
“You guys might get hit with duct tape.”
League rules call for locker rooms to be open to members of the media five minutes after the first player leaves the ice at the end of practice. There is a similar immediacy after games.
“Nothing in our (COVID-19) protocol (prohibits) the media from entering the locker room,” NHL deputy commissioner Bill Daley said of the upcoming season. “We expect to return to our pre-pandemic rules.”
The NFL and Major League Baseball welcomed reporters back into the locker room this year. The NBA’s 2022-23 media policy has not yet been released, but a league spokesperson told The Canadian Press in an email: “It’s safe to say that locker rooms will once again be part of media access.”
Maple Leafs sharpshooter Auston Matthews, the first player to reach 60 goals in a decade last season, was helpless about what is often a crowded Toronto locker room.
“I like it when I untie my skates,” he said, “and the cameramen are jockeying for position.
“It’s the best.”
Chicago Blackhawks wing Max Domi, who spent two seasons with the Montreal Canadiens in an equally intense media market, is eager to get his reporters back.
“It’s much better,” he said. “I’m sure, no offense, a lot of (players) would probably disagree with that. If you’re going to have an interview, you might as well go face-to-face with someone. You have a different relationship.
“You become very friendly because you’re in the room after practices and games every day.”
He added the conversations on the sidelines and away from the limelight are where journalists probably get their brightest stories.
“This is the best time to talk to a hockey player,” he said. “When there are no cameras.”
But like Matthews, Domi had some problems.
“These (camera) guys are savages because they don’t care,” he said with a smile. “They just sit (in front of your locker).
“I was like, ‘Are you gonna move bro?’
Ottawa Senators captain Brady Tkachuk said there will be an adjustment period after more than 30 months apart between player and reporter.
“As soon as you get off the ice, there will be people around your stand,” he said. “It will be different, but it will be nice to get that relationship back.
“Sometimes you miss the connections, but when things don’t go your way, you’re glad it’s not in your face.”
Calgary Flames wing Jonathan Huberdeau, who was acquired from the Panthers in this summer’s Matthew Tkachuk trade, arrives on the Canadian market just in time to open the locker room doors after a decade in Florida.
“I’ve never had that in my life,” he said. “It will be a different experience.”
Leafs defenseman Morgan Rielly said having reporters up close is an opportunity to voice opinions on the most important topics in sports in a back-and-forth setting.
It is also one of the last pieces of the post-pandemic NHL puzzle.
“It’s cool in Toronto … if you’re familiar with the game, you get a chance to give your opinion on things,” he said. “It’s a good sign that things are coming back. I hate the “back to normal” cliché and all that stuff.
“But it’s the truth.”
This report by The Canadian Press was first published on September 20, 2022.
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Follow @JClipperton_CP on Twitter.
Joshua Clipperton, The Canadian Press
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