Looking for quarantine answers
The logistics of staging a shortened 2020-21 NHL season are finally the front-burner issue.
While the fire between the NHL Players Association and league owners still rages to resolve significant salary deferral and escrow issues, that heat has been turned down temporarily to deal with the moving target of training camp and season commencement dates.
Part of the pay-clause pause is planning for an all-Canadian division. And part of that is adjusting to a strong second wave of the pandemic that has shut down NHL training facilities in Montreal and Winnipeg.
In the latest hopeful NHL scenario, players would report for camp Jan. 1 and a season ranging from 48 to 56 games would start Jan. 15 and end with the Stanley Cup awarded the first week of July. That would allow at least a two-week buffer period if there are positive COVID-19 test cases and games are postponed.
Then again, much could change in the coming weeks. Camps could shift to mid-January and play not start until Feb. 1.
“We're prepared on the logistics side,” Vancouver Canucks general manager Jim Benning said Sunday. “We check in every couple of days with the B.C. Ministry of Health and the rules and regulations could change with quarantine and when we start camp.
“We realize things could change a week, two weeks or a month from now. We have the process underway with work visas for players who need them and when we do get the green light, we're ready to go. It's a lot of work in a short period of time to get all our players back, but we did it before going into the Edmonton bubble.”
However, there is one flashing caution light.
How the Canucks contend with the federal 14-day quarantine period for players returning to Canada from Europe and the U.S. depends on where provincial health protocols are next month. The Canucks could revisit the Phase 2 concept of a tiered Return to Play protocol that was in place before their July camp.
Or, they could lobby the health ministry to work in concert with provincial and federal governments in the hopes of conducting a cohort group quarantine for all players during camp.