NHL MVP Connor McDavid calls the idea of potentially having to quarantine for up to five weeks in China following a positive COVID-19 test “unsettling” as the NHL’s participation at the 2022 Winter Games remains up in the air.
The Edmonton captain and one of three players already named to Canada’s provisional Olympic team spoke Tuesday as coronarivus cases and postponements continue to rise across the league.
“It’s obviously going to be a very fluid situation,” McDavid said before Edmonton hosted the Toronto Maple Leafs. “There hasn’t been a ton of information come out, and then there’s that three-to-five week (quarantine) thing … it’s kind of been floating around. Obviously, it’s unsettling if that were to be the case when you go over there.”
The NHL skipped the 2018 Olympics in South Korea, but committed to Beijing as part of the extension to the current collective bargaining agreement signed with NHL Players’ Association. As recently as last week, Commissioner Gary Bettman said the plan was to go, but the NHL has until Jan. 10 to nix the plan without financial penalty if COVID-19 causes enough of a disruption to its season.
“I’m still a guy that’s wanting to go play in the Olympics,” McDavid said, according to The Canadian Press. “But we also want to make sure it’s safe for everybody. For all the athletes, not just for hockey players.”
The International Olympic Committee has said an athlete who tests positive for COVID-19 in China will need to produce two negative results 24 hours apart. If they’re unable to do so, the quarantine period could last from 3 to 5 weeks.
Vegas defenseman Alex Pietrangelo – named alongside McDavid and Pittsburgh captain Sidney Crosby as provisional members of the Canadian squad – said he was not sure if he will be going to China because of the potential of being away from family in a long quarantine. Golden Knights goaltender Robin Lehner, a Swede, has already said he will not go.
Medical experts for the league and players’ association have a previously scheduled meeting set for later this week to review COVID-19 protocols. All but one NHL player – Tyler Bertuzzi of the Detroit Red Wings – is believed to be fully vaccinated, though the league is currently only recommending booster shots.
Asked if the increase in positive tests and postponements were giving him flashbacks to March 2020 when the sports world and much of society ground to a halt, Calgary GM Brad Treliving wouldn’t go quite that far.
“I don’t think anything is going to feel like that,” he said. “That was a cold slap (to the face).”
The NHL went to every Olympics from 1998 through 2014 before declining to send its players three years ago. Owners have always been lukewarm on the Olympics for a number of reasons, including the disruption to the league calendar.
COVID-19: The Carolina Hurricanes became the latest NHL team hit by a coronavirus outbreak as four more players were placed in the COVID-19 protocol, prompting the league to postpone their game at Minnesota.
The call came a little more than five hours before the scheduled start time in St. Paul, where several Hurricanes were lined up for testing in the arena hallways before their morning skate at Xcel Energy Center. The NHL did not immediately announce a rescheduled date.
The Hurricanes became the fourth NHL team this season to have games postponed due to a COVID-19 outbreak. Last month, Ottawa had three games postponed and the New York Islanders had two postponed.
Including opponents, 11 of the 32 teams have been affected by at least postponement so far. The NHL has recommended but not mandated booster shots for its players and team personnel.
Calgary’s games on Monday at Chicago, on Tuesday at Nashville and on Thursday at home against Toronto were called off.
For the Hurricanes, forwards Jordan Staal, Andrei Svechnikov and Steven Lorentz and defenseman Ian Cole were placed in the protocol and must remain in Minnesota for “the time being.”
The team had to leave leading scorer Sebastian Aho, forward Seth Jarvis and an unidentified member of the training staff in Vancouver, where the three of them entered the protocol following a 2-1 loss on Sunday. Aho was scratched from the lineup against the Canucks because of what was announced as an illness.
That meant six players and one staff member entered the protocol in a 24-hour period. Hurricanes defensemen Tony DeAngelo and Brett Pesce also went in the COVID-19 protocol on Nov. 30 and have missed the last seven games.
STARS: Ben Bishop’s 2 1/2-year saga with an ailing right knee is ending with him believing he did everything possible to get his career going again.
He is still not quite at peace with the fact that he couldn’t.
Bishop, a former UMaine goalie, confirmed what Stars GM Jim Nill said three days earlier: The 35-year-old’s playing days are done because of a degenerative issue in the knee.
“I guess one of the hard things is, I get out there and I still feel pretty good in some of the practices and you still feel like you have the skill to play in this league,” said Bishop, whose last NHL game was in the 2020 playoff bubble in Canada 15 months ago. “But then when your knee tells you you can’t, it’s tough.”
It’s not officially a retirement because Bishop is under contract through next season and will still be around the team. But the three-time Vezina Trophy finalist won’t be in net again after last week’s one-game rehab attempt with the AHL’s Texas Stars yielded eight goals and even worse news afterward. The knee was swollen again.
TUESDAY’S GAMES
PENGUINS 5, CANADIENS 2: Evan Rodrigues scored his ninth goal of the season and added two assists to lead Pittsburgh over visiting Montreal.
Rodrigues, who has been thrust into a higher-profile role due to injuries, matched a career high of nine goals set during the 2018-19 season, when he needed 74 games to reach the total. He hit it in just 28 games this season.
Kasperi Kapanen, Mike Matheson, Brian Dumoulin and Brian Boyle also scored for Pittsburgh, which won its fifth straight.
FLYERS 6, DEVILS 1: Cam Atkinson had three goals and an assist to lead host Philadelphia.
Travis Sanheim and Oskar Lindblom each had a goal and an assist, and Justin Braun also scored for the Flyers, who won their third game in a row after losing 10 straight. Philadelphia improved to 3-2 under interim coach Mike Yeo, who took over Dec. 6 when Alain Vigneault was fired.
P.K. Subban scored for the Devils, who have lost three straight and 7 of 8.
LIGHTNING 3, KINGS 2: Mathieu Joseph scored with 1:35 left in overtime to give Tampa Bay a win at home.
Tampa Bay’s Andrei Vasilevskiy made 28 saves to win his 62nd game in 2021 regular-season and playoff games, tying Marc-Andre Fleury’s 2009 NHL record for a calendar year set with Pittsburgh.
Victor Hedman and Taylor Raddysh also scored for the Lightning. Steven Stamkos had an assist and moved within a point of becoming the 118th player to reach 900 points.
Drew Doughty and Viktor Arvidsson scored, and Jonathan Quick stopped 27 shots for the Kings.
SENATORS 8, PANTHERS 2: Josh Norris scored two goals and Anton Forsberg made 33 saves to lift visiting Ottawa over Florida.
Nick Brown scored two late power-play goals, and Drake Batherson had a goal and two assists. Tim Stutzle, Dylan Gambrell and Austin Watson also scored for Ottawa. Connor Brown had three assists.
Sam Reinhart and Jonathan Huberdeau scored for the Panthers, who lost at home for only the second time this season. The Senators have won 5 of 6.
RED WINGS 2, ISLANDERS 1: Alex Nedeljkovic made 33 saves and host Detroit ended a three-game skid.
Dylan Larkin got his team-high 11th goal and Michael Rasmussen also scored for the Red Wings.
Anders Lee scored and Ilya Sorokin made 37 saves for the Islanders.
SABRES 4, JETS 2: Rasmus Dahlin scored twice and visiting Buffalo snapped a seven-game losing streak.
Anders Bjork and Jeff Skinner also scored for the Sabres, who are 1-5-2 in their last eight games. Tage Thompson and Victor Olofsson each had two assists.
Ukko-Pekka Luukkonen made his fourth straight start and stopped 32 shots as the Sabres began a three-game trip.
Pierre-Luc Dubois had a goal and an assist, and Nikolaj Ehlers also scored for the Jets. Connor Hellebuyck made 23 saves in Winnipeg’s first game of a three-game homestand.
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