from John Shipley of the PioneerPress,

No one wants to continue playing hockey this season more than Eric Staal; he just has a hard time imagining it.

“The whole thing is still difficult for me to kind of fathom and understand,” the Wild center said Thursday.

The Wild center was nearing the end of his 17th NHL regular season when the 2019-20 campaign was put on hold March 12, and he has seen a lot, returning from two lockouts and leading a relatively new team from North Carolina to a Stanley Cup in 2006. But from the restart plans he has seen floated in media reports — empty arenas, hub cities — he has his doubts about playing again this summer.

“That momentum and those moments of memory are with fans and with people and with excitement,” Staal told reporters on a video conference. “To go through the playoff run with nobody in the building is going to be really weird and different. To me, it’s hard to kind of wrap your head around it.

“Obviously, if that’s the route we go, and it goes, you just figure it out and you do it. I don’t love it personally, but there’s lots of things in life you kind of deal with as you go.”

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