Bubble has burst on pandemic plan
With five American teams on pause, league is failing to replicate last summer’s success
That little coronavirus halo the NHL earned over a summer of COVID-free hockey has vanished.
The number of players sidelined because of pandemic protocols — which does not necessarily mean they have contracted the virus — continues to grow. A number of teams have had games postponed. It’s starting to look like some teams might not get all 56 games in, with the league quietly reminding people that it used “points percentage” to determine the final standings last season, and may well again.
Colorado, Buffalo, Minnesota, New Jersey and Vegas are currently on pause. Dallas didn’t start the season on time. Carolina has had its season interrupted.
So far, 88 players have appeared on the COVID list. The league says less than half that number have tested positive, and fewer still got sick. Some are there because of quarantining after changing teams, like Pierre-Luc Dubois in Winnipeg.
Over the summer, the league and the players association seemed to have thought of everything. They locked everybody up tight in Toronto and Edmonton and the virus couldn’t find a way in. They were proactive.
This time around, they’re more passive. The players didn’t want to be locked in again. As a result, when the players are home, they’re like the rest of us: advised to keep to themselves, but not required. Inevitably, the virus was going to find a way in.
And hockey, at least according to a study by the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, is ideally suited for the virus to spread. That study was published in October and looked at how one infected player who played a recreational game in Tampa affected eight teammates, five opponents and one rink staff member. In all, 13 of them ended up getting sick.
The conclusion: “The ice rink provides a venue that is likely well suited to COVID-19 transmission as an indoor environment where deep breathing occurs, and persons are in close proximity to one another.”
It further cited an Italian study estimating the rate of SARS-CoV-2 emission by infectious persons based on viral load in the mouth, showing that “during heavy exercise, a high viral emission rate can be reached during oral breathing.” The higher proportion of infection among teammates “might result from additional exposures ... in the locker room and on the player bench, where players sit close to one another.”
This mirrors what happened to the Sabres. They had zero players out before facing the Devils on Jan. 30. Now they have four, as well as 61-year-old coach Ralph Krueger. The Devils, who had two players on the list prior to arriving in Buffalo for that game, now have 16.
So, what are we to make of it?
á It took the league until Thursday to remove the glass from behind the benches, improving air flow in close quarters during games.
á It took until Thursday to ask teams to put air purifiers in the bench area.
á It took until Thursday for the league to say it’s considering a combination of rapid screening antigen testing (considered less accurate, but with results in 15 minutes) on top of existing daily PCR tests (which take a day to process). Doing both had been considered too expensive.
á It took until Thursday to reduce the amount of time players can spend with each other prior to a game (now one hour and 45 minutes). Some players weren’t happy about that, being the creatures of habits they are.
When NHL officials were proactive in the summer, they looked like COVID heroes, showing the rest of us a path through the pandemic.
Now they’re reactive, simply scrambling to keep the season going even though the league should have known better how to handle things the second time around.
In some ways, the NHL is up against it.
They need — at least in their minds — to get the Stanley Cup awarded before the Summer Olympics get underway on July 23, because of broadcast commitments. But they don’t really “need” to play at all, do they?
They’re choosing to play, to fulfil TV and sponsorship contracts, to keep their fan base occupied, to keep employees employed. The players are choosing to play, albeit at a reduced rate of pay, because that’s what players do.
In the summer, they were a prime example of the right way to battle COVID-19. That was good for the league.
Now, for whatever reason — bungling, taking their eyes off the ball, maybe greed — they’re making nothing but mistakes. And that’s bad for everybody. Scan this code to read Kevin McGran’s weekly Breakaway Blog mailbag.