Tourney on thin ice as COVID cases mount

The world junior hockey championship is fighting to stay alive as teams around the world scramble to adjust their rosters and protect themselves after multiple positive COVID-19 tests.

Troubling developments are coming in waves in advance of a tournament scheduled to begin Dec. 25 in Edmonton.

The Swedish Ice Hockey Federation announced Tuesday that head coach Tomas Montén and a fourth player have now tested positive for the virus.

On Monday, three American players tested positive and were removed from training camp. In Germany, two players there have tested positive.

This, after Team Canada just emerged from a 14-day quarantine in Red Deer after two positive tests on Nov. 23 and promptly sent five players home because they were ruled “unfit” under return to play protocols.

And, as if this troubling sundae needed a cherry on top, International Ice Hockey Federation president Rene Fasel announced on Tuesday that he has also tested positive for COVID-19, along with IIHF general secretary Horst Lichtner.

This is hardly the kind of lead up that tournament organizers were hoping for. In fact, it's kind of scary and makes you wonder if the tournament itself is in danger.

Hockey Canada and organizers in Edmonton are soldiering ahead, confident they can still make this work despite the anticipated hiccups.

“We're focused on our own group and remaining healthy to get to Edmonton on Dec. 13,” said Team Canada executive vice president Scott Salmond. “But, based on what we've been through, it would be unrealistic to think that other (countries) weren't going to go through it.

“We probably expected that. And other countries did, as well. And now they're working through the process.”

Any positive test from here on in means the person is not allowed to compete in the tournament, but nobody is in the secure Edmonton bubble yet.

Teams from overseas still have to wrap up their camps and make their way to Alberta on charter planes. If one player on that plane tests positive on arrival, it could, at the very least, mean a 14-day mandatory quarantine for all close contacts. On an airplane, that could be everyone. If they are tested on the 13th and the tournament starts on the 25th, the math doesn't add up.

All the visiting players will be tested multiple times before they get on the planes, but so were the Canadians when they arrived in Red Deer and they still came down with two positives a week into camp.

“It's difficult, you hold your breath every day and hope not only for our sake, but others, that they can get to Edmonton on the 13th and we can have a really strong competition,” said Salmond.