from Luke Fox of Sportsnet,

Under the leadership of Steve Mayer, executive vice-president and chief content officer, that has been the NHL’s mantra: Let’s make the next one bigger than the last one!

Now, quarantined inside his New Jersey home office, Mayer is faced with the realization bigger might not be smart or safe, let alone possible....

SN: Was there a period of shock when the season hit pause?

SM: When it actually happened, there was a moment of: ‘Wow. What are we doing? This is really serious stuff.’ The first few days, especially after we announced our pause and other sports are all, one by one, suspending the seasons, we took a step back. In some ways, it helped us formulate a plan. We sort of took it easy, was respective what was going on. We were really sympathetic, and we only amplified our players’ messages that were positive, reassuring. We felt the players’ voice was important, especially. Remember, those first few days, not everybody was listening (to social distancing advice). You have kids on the beach in Florida, and it felt like people still weren’t taking it seriously. But we felt our players could speak to those people. Connor McDavid gave an early message that was really powerful: ‘Hey, be smart, this is going on. Social distance. wash your hands.’ Mitch Marner did the same. So, we just respected that.

more Q & A...