Every Sunday at Peng to the Point, we talk about the world away from the San Jose Sharks.

Hamby Shore was the first NHL player to die in a pandemic.

This week, 102 years ago, three-time Stanley Cup winner Hamby Shore succumbed to the influenza epidemic of 1918. The Ottawa Senators fan favorite was just 32.

The Province, October 14, 1918.

Seven months later, the Montreal Canadiens’ Joe Hall caught influenza during the 1919 Stanley Cup Final, dying just four days after the cancellation of the series.

Shore and Hall were just two of the about 50 million who died because of this pandemic.

There’s two reasons why I’m bringing this up: First, to commemorate Shore’s October 13, 1918 death. Second, as a reminder as professional and college sports in North America hurry back to action.

And sure, the COVID-19 pandemic is not the influenza epidemic of 1918. Though looking at raw mortality numbers — over 1.1 million dead worldwide because of the coronavirus, per John Hopkins, may not paint the full picture of its deadliness compared to 1918.

But anyway, sports are going to push forward — in its halting, start-and-stop manner — as it did 102 years ago.

Our sport of choice is a prime example of this.

The 1919 Stanley Cup Final was canceled after five games, but otherwise, the league completed its 1918-19 and 1919-20 seasons.

This year, the NHL regular season was shortened, but six months later, the 2020 Stanley Cup Final was completed in a bubble.

Commissioner Gary Bettman hopes to begin the 2020-21 campaign in January, three months after the customary October opening night.

So sports isn’t going away — but neither is the coronavirus.

The 102nd anniversary of Shore’s death is a stark reminder: Athletes, as young and healthy as they are, can very much be vulnerable to COVID-19.

A recent — admittedly small-scale — study suggested that individuals who have experienced COVID-19 are more susceptible to myocarditis, a potentially fatal inflammation of the heart muscle. Essentially, heart damage may be a price to play for some athletes.

Auston Matthews and Connor McDavid are among the NHL superstars who are known to have tested positive for COVID-19.

There’s of course a lot we’re still learning about the novel coronavirus. The myocarditis study is hardly conclusive.

But remember Hamby Shore: One successful playoff bubble doesn’t mean the NHL is immune to the still-raging pandemic.

Every Sunday at Peng to the Point, we talk about the world away from the San Jose Sharks.

Cathy Andrade without ice? She’s like a fish out of water.

“Besides my maternity leave [in 1999], this is pretty well the longest time that I’ve been off the ice since…I don’t know,” the power skating coach told San Jose Hockey Now. “I’ve been coaching for over 35 years. This is the longest break I’ve had in a long time.”

Andrade runs Cathy’s Power Skating out of Solar4America Ice in San Jose, where the San Jose Sharks practice. Andrade has been teaching power skating in the Bay Area to all age levels since 1992 and has worked privately with Sharks like Joe Pavelski and Kevin Labanc. Because of COVID-19 protocols, this is the first week since March that Cathy’s Power Skating has been on the ice.

“A year ago, I was working five, six hours a day doing private and semi-private lessons. Right now, there’s only an hour, two hours a day that are even available to us,” Andrade said, “It’s only a fraction of what we were able to do. We went from being able to potentially coach eight hours a day to one or two hours.”

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Day 1️⃣ after 6️⃣ month break…getting the rust off the wheels ▶️ using 🏒 stick as a level ⚖️ to establish balance & posture for quick reactive movements, without bad habits like counterbalancing by dropping shoulders! ☑️ edges ☑️ posture ☑️ rotational sequence ☑️ crossovers ☑️ outside edge punch ▶️ note that it’s the right inside edge that allows the movement range for the left hip to get the deke💥 . . . #edges #crossover #deke #hockeyplayer #hockey #californiahockey #balance #strong #playerdevelopment #hockeygram #powerskatingdrills #hockeyskills #usahockey #hockeytraining #minorhockey #development #powerskatingcoach #skatewithpower #stridemechanics #powerskating #learning #skating #coaching #makeyourextrahourcount @extrahourtraining #gettheleadingedge @cathyspowerskating

A post shared by Cathy's Power Skating (@cathyspowerskating) on Oct 2, 2020 at 10:49am PDT

Like so many small businesses, Andrade has faced unprecedented challenges over the last half-year. For example, it will be the first year since 1998 that Power Hour, her signature power skating program, won’t see the light of day.

“I usually do it in the spring,” Andrade said. “That affects the [six or so] coaches who work with me.”

Andrade noted that Cathy’s Power Skating applied for, but did not receive a SBA Paycheck Protection Program loan. Her husband Randy Andrade’s Extra Hour Training, an off-the-ice hockey training facility also located in San Jose, also did not receive a loan. Another Andrade business, unrelated to hockey, did. Like most small business owners, the Andrades don’t know why one business received a loan, while the others didn’t.

That’s not Cathy’s Power Skating’s only challenge.

“In this climate, you can’t really plan beyond this week,” Andrade pointed out. “Right now this ice time, they’ve just offered it up as a two-week [trial]. I’ve had last week and this [coming] week. I don’t know until they release it.”

Andrade isn’t complaining — this is everybody’s reality now.

“It’s ever-changing. You have state regulations. You have county,” Andrade observed. “You have to really stay on top of what you’re doing. You have to kind of re-invent yourself almost every few weeks.”

Luckily for Andrade, she’s not the only one with a hunger for ice. Her limited lessons are all booked. She’s grateful to Solar4America Ice for being as accommodating as they’ve been and to the parents and students loyal to Cathy’s Power Skating. And she hopes the players who have essentially missed an entire off-season of training haven’t missed out on too much.

“Power Hour occurs in the off-season and the spring because it’s a perfect time for skill development,” Andrade said. “The off-season is when players should be working on things like stride mechanics and elevating the edge work.”

Every Sunday at Peng to the Point, we talk about the world away from the San Jose Sharks.

It’s impossible to compare eras.

But yesterday, my colleague Jimmy Murphy from Boston Hockey Now threw this out there:

Joe Pavelski the third-best American player ever?@BOSHockeyNow @sjhockeynow

— MurphysLaw74 (@MurphysLaw74) September 27, 2020

My initial reaction was there were at least 10 Americans that I could think of who I’d start a franchise with over prime Joe Pavelski.

However, Pavelski’s case to be a top-15 all-time American player might be stronger than you think.

After some spirited online debate, I identified three standards to compare between eras: Prime, Career, and Playoff.

And with the help of Hockey Reference’s Stathead, I actually had some measures to try to compare eras.

So who are the greatest American skaters? And where does Pavelski stack up?

But before we get going: To Brett or not to Brett?

Every significant American goal-scoring record is owned by Canadian-born Brett Hull, who represented the United States in international competition. You name it — Hull has the most single-season, career, and playoff goals of any American.

It’s because of Hull that every American NHL record has to be categorized as American-born, to simply give everybody else a chance.

Case in point:

The Big Pavelski pic.twitter.com/SV9nH8BSVz

— Sheng Peng (@Sheng_Peng) September 27, 2020

Pretty good, right? Well, Pavelski is still 42 playoff goals away from catching Hull.

For the purpose of this debate and to include the best of the best, I’m making the executive decision to include Hull.

Prime

Including Hull, there have been 20 American 50-goal seasons:

Hull owns five of the top-seven spots. For what it’s worth, every one of these 20 campaigns occurred from 1984-1997, a mostly high-scoring period of time in the league. Pavelski’s career-high 41-goal 2013-14 campaign is tied for just 41st among top American goal-scoring campaigns.

That 41st, however, becomes far more impressive when we use Hockey Reference’s Adjusted Goals metric:

Pavelski’s 2013-14 rises to tied for 21st on the list.

These adjustments for era matter.

Patrick Kane, for example, shows up just twice in the top-10 list for single-season assists by an American forward. His career-high 66 assists in 2018-19 is fourth all-time.

But using adjusted assists, Kane suddenly dominates, taking five of the top-10 spots. His 2018-19 also shoots up to second behind Pat Lafontaine.

Here’s a comparison, by the way, of top-10 points by an American skater, raw and adjusted:

All these adjusted stats suggest that Hull is the dominant American scorer, Pat Lafontaine and Kane are the dominant playmakers up front. We also get a good sense of how unstoppable John LeClair was in the “dead puck” era.

So that was the statistical portion of the argument. Subjectively, which American skaters, in their primes, are clearly ahead of Pavelski?

From these lists, Hull, Lafontaine, Kane, and LeClair jump out. For his strong two-way play and leadership, both Pavelski strong suits, coupled with otherworldly skills, Mike Modano can’t be denied. Among defensemen, it’s hard to dispute American Norris Trophy winners Chris Chelios, Brian Leetch, and Rod Langway. Three-time Norris Trophy runner-up Mark Howe deserves mention. Auston Matthews is simply too special a player right now, even at just 23 years old.

After this elite top-10 though, perhaps we can start to debate Pavelski. But it would be a fierce debate: Up front, prime Keith Tkachuk, Tony Amonte, Bill Guerin, Kevin Stevens, Joe Mullen, Bill Guerin, Phil Kessel, Zach Parise, Neal Broten, Jack Eichel, Phil Kessel, and Doug Weight are very much in this tier of the conversation. In the back-end, Phil Housley, Ryan Suter, Dustin Byfuglien, and John Carlson, among others, are in the discussion too.

Career

We’ll focus on regular season careers here.

The 36-year-old Pavelski actually shows well here.

Pavelski’s 792 points is 20th among all Americans. But let’s look at adjusted all-time points:

Pavelski finds himself just outside the top-15 now and a lot closer to Hall of Famers Lafontaine and Mullen. Tkachuk, Weight, Amonte, Guerin, and Kessel’s careers suddenly start to look more impressive.

Meanwhile, Pavelski’s 369 goals is 13th among all American skaters. Once again, however, his adjusted figures are more impressive:

Pavelski has suddenly joined the 400-goal club, moving ahead of Lafontaine.

Do we start to have the argument that Pavelski can be a top-15 all-time American skater?

Playoffs

If we don’t yet, this is where Pavelski absolutely shines.

Unfortunately, Hockey Reference doesn’t have adjusted post-season stats. But we can do some quick-and-dirty math to approximate adjusted playoff figures — basically, I extrapolated regular-season adjustments and applied them to playoff goals.

Here’s your new top-six among Americans in post-season goals:

Obviously, Pavelski is still sitting pretty.

And here’s something truly striking. Among the top-13 all-time American regular season goal scorers, Pavelski is the only one whose goal-scoring pace increased in the playoffs, albeit marginally:

Now that’s impressive.

Top-30, Top-20, Top-10?

Prime Pavelski is a clear top-30 American skater. Factoring in his longevity, top-20 seems reasonable. Do his post-season exploits get him into the top-10 debate?

I’m not sure — but if you had to win a Game Seven with all U.S. skaters, Pavelski would be a sure-fire pick. Besides production, you’ll also get inspiring leadership and reliable two-way play.

We’ll see if Pavelski can keep adding to his illustrious playoff legacy tonight.