Seattle Coronaviruses

The National Hockey League is expanding into Seattle, Washington with a new team for their 2021-2022 season, for which they have yet to announce the nickname or team colors. The reason for this is inexplicably the Coronavirus pandemic and the suspension of the 2019-2020 NHL season.

The NHL Seattle expansion team has not announced its nickname, with general manager Ron Francis saying April 3 it hopes to do so "sooner rather than later." The team was hoping to unveil its logo and colors in February or March, Leiweke said at the Board of Governors meeting in December.

But when the NHL season was paused March 12 due to concerns surrounding the coronavirus, Francis said NHL Seattle needed to first consider the health and well-being of the community.

"We know there is a lot of people who are super excited about the name," Francis said. "We hear you. We're excited about it as well. We also know at the same time there's a lot of people in our community experiencing some challenges. We certainly want to be very respectful and sensitive and think about when is the right time to share our name with everybody."

The fact is that the hardest part of this pandemic for many people has been the suspension of their favorite sports leagues, and any information about a new team, far from being any kind of burden, would probably be a welcome distraction.

Unless their name is literally the Seattle Coronaviruses, there's no need to be "respectful and sensitive" to people's feelings when this could only be welcome news. It's obvious that the NHL simply doesn't want the news of their new team to be overshadowed by the Coronavirus, but it's something that hockey fans, especially those in Washington, are likely looking forward to and would probably bring a measure of joy in a difficult time.