It’s hard to fathom how the NHL could potentially justify having the Calgary Flames return to play as early as Saturday night.
Surely their home game against Columbus will soon be added to the list of postponements around the league that grew by one to nine Tuesday.
In a series of announcements that are starting to feel eerily similar to what ultimately shut down all of pro sports in March 2020, the Flames kicked off a lengthy list of new players placed in the NHL’s COVID-19 protocol Tuesday.
With Milan Lucic, Sean Monahan and Noah Hanifin all testing positive, the Flames have nine players who are ineligible to leave isolation until at least the afternoon of Dec. 21.
Three Flames games have already been postponed through Thursday, and more are surely in order.
This is not to suggest, as some have, that the league should consider shuttering because seven more teams added names to the list of COVID-19 protocol list on Tuesday alone.
While daunting, this virus has proven to require localized responses.
Editor’s Note: The COVID-19 situation, in the NHL and around the world, is constantly evolving. Readers in Canada can consult the country’s public health website for the latest. For readers in Alberta, province-specific resources are available here.
In Calgary, you can’t ask a team that has almost half its roster out with the virus to return to play after just one skate Friday.
That’s assuming a Friday skate is even possible, which is pretty presumptuous at this time.
The team’s facilities have been closed and the players have been told to stay away other than to get the daily test that has everyone in the organization and city bracing for more bad news.
If any more Flames players test positive later Tuesday or Wednesday, Saturday’s postponement is clearly the very next announcement.
The league knows that and doesn’t need to rush to pull the pin just yet.
The NHL did well to postpone three Flames games already, and there’s little doubt they’ll do the right thing again here soon.
While a compressed schedule due to potential Olympic involvement puts understandable pressure on the NHL to avoid postponements, how well is the league served by featuring a shorthanded, depleted roster on Hockey Night in Canada that would see the cap-strapped Flames play with just three forward lines?
Asked if he could picture that game happening, Flames GM Brad Treliving shrugged.
“We’re keeping the picture small,” he said. “I don’t want to make any proclamations about what’s going to happen tomorrow, let alone Saturday. We have to prepare. The lesson for all of us at this time is you take the information you have, you make the best decision you can and you move forward. We know games are postponed until Thursday and we have to plan accordingly until we have more information. Certainly there’s challenges, but we’ll see.
“It’s Tuesday. In today’s world, what I’m finding, Tuesday-to-Saturday seems like an eternity right now. We’ll see what happens today, tomorrow and as we get closer to Saturday.”
There was plenty of talk Tuesday connecting dots between teams the Flames have played and the growing list of players on them who have since tested positive for COVID-19.
While it’s a fool’s errand to try determining the source of every player’s infection, the list is an interesting one.
Carolina visited the Saddledome Thursday and now has Sebastian Aho, Seth Jarvis, Jordan Staal, Andrei Svechnikov, Ian Cole and Steven Lorentz in protocol.
On Saturday, the Bruins came calling and now Brad Marchand and Craig Smith are also in protocol.
Carolina went on to play in Vancouver Sunday, where Canucks Luke Schenn and Juho Lammikko are now in isolation.
The Hurricanes’ game against Minnesota slated for Tuesday night was postponed five hours ahead of time due to Carolina’s infections.
The Oilers, who also hosted both Carolina and Boston this week, placed Ryan McLeod in protocol Tuesday.
“Could you have in-game transmission? Sure, that’s possible,” said Treliving. “You go through this process and you’ve seen everybody is dealing with it throughout the league and you can’t pinpoint where it has come from or where you’ve got it from. We haven’t done that yet.”
There has been some frustration voiced by people with American-based clubs over the lag time in Canada between taking tests and getting the results, a frustration shared by every Canadian.
A detailed look at the timelines surrounding the Flames’ horrific weekend shows three players who played for the Flames Saturday did so while infected. The results from their Saturday morning test were revealed as the players were sleeping Saturday night. Had they received them earlier, they obviously wouldn’t have played.
“I don’t think it’s a problem,” said Treliving of the lag time drawing criticism. “You can have test results back in 30 seconds, and you can get a test result that doesn’t necessarily mean you haven’t had exposure prior to getting that test result. Once this thing started you do your best to try to limit it.
“I don’t think there’s any perfect situation or way to go about it. Our medical staff and doctors do the best they can to keep the players safe.”
No one is criticizing team doctors, that’s for sure.
Treliving’s priority continues to be the well-being of all his players and their families, as daily testing continues.
He happily declared Monday all positive players were asymptomatic and believed on Tuesday it was still the same.
He said it hasn’t been determined if the affected players have the Omicron variant, as further testing was needed for that.
“We’re sort of dealing with this on an hourly basis,” he said, well-aware of a raft of NHL players, NFL players, and NBA players who have been entering their league’s COVID-19 protocol the last 36 hours. “At what point is it determined getting them together you’re not putting them at further risk for spread? It’s too early to say. That will be determined by doctors.”
And so, the target remains Saturday.
“That’s the plan right now,” he said. “As we learned the last couple years you stay limber and nimble and prepared to pivot. We’ll see how the rest of the week unfolds. Nothing other than that at this point.”
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