Former NHLER Fehr gets family home just in time
Meanwhile, four Nets players test positive for coronavirus, including Durant
With a pandemic closing international borders and shutting down travel, former NHLER Eric Fehr feels lucky to have got his wife and three young kids out of a coronavirus hot spot and back home to Manitoba.
Even if they are experiencing symptoms and can’t get through to health officials to see if they should be tested.
The longtime Washington Capital from Winkler was playing in Switzerland when COVID-19 started claiming victims.
“It was not a good feeling,”
Fehr told the Winnipeg Sun on Tuesday. “As we were waiting for the season to cancel, and we could see the stuff in North America gaining speed on shutdowns and quarantines and stuff like that, we knew some flights would start getting cancelled.
“When we tried to book our flights; there were no flights available for three days. We just barely made it.”
Fehr and his family — wife Rachel, along with a six-year-old daughter Ellie and sons Ben and Theo, aged three and one — finally got out of Geneva and back to Manitoba on Sunday.
All that after a two-week delay to the Swiss National League season, a few games without any crowds and a boat load of stress as he and his fellow imports scrambled to get home — at all hours.
“One teammate, Tommy Wingels, heard a report from Trump at 3 a.m., our time, that they were closing the (U.S.) borders at midnight the next day,” said Fehr, 34. “So he booked a flight at 3 a.m. and left a couple hours later. Things happened really fast for the people from North America over there.
“Now Switzerland is on a lockdown, as well as France, Spain and Germany — everything around Switzerland is locked down completely, so there’s really nowhere to go.”
Another teammate, Shaun Heshka of Melville, Sask., had three potential flights cancelled and didn’t get his family out on time.
Another, who didn’t have kids, chose to stay in Geneva.
“Once you have kids, it changes everything,” Fehr said.
Switzerland has mobilized its army to fight the virus amid reports its hospitals could be overwhelmed in 10 days if it keeps spreading at its current rate.
Fehr and his wife have self-quarantined the family in their Winkler home, but can’t get through to an overtaxed Health Links line to determine if they should be tested.
“My wife and I have been calling since we landed, just to double-check because we have the sore throats and the cough, and that is one of the symptoms,” he said. “Everybody has good energy and there’s no fevers or anything. You just want to know for sure.”
As happy as they are just to be home for the first time since the hockey season began, Fehr and his wife worry about what’s to come.
Based on what they saw in Europe, it’s only going to get much, much worse here.
“I think things are going to start getting crazy,” he said. “Being in Switzerland ahead of the curve here, I’m kind of seeing right now what was happening in Switzerland three weeks ago. I’m happy they’re shutting a lot of stuff down ahead of time. Switzerland took a little bit longer and it really spiralled out of control. So hopefully, we’re able to contain it a bit better with the shutdowns we’ve had.
“And hopefully people actually respect the quarantines and stay away to try to prevent it from spreading.”
Fehr spent parts of 15 seasons in the NHL.
From the NBA: Kevin Durant is one of four Brooklyn Nets players who have tested positive for COVID-19, according to reports.
The Nets said one player has symptoms of the virus and the other three are asymptomatic.
“All four players are presently isolated and under the care of team physicians,” the team said.
Three other NBA players are known to have tested positive for coronavirus: Utah Jazz allstars Rudy Gobert and Donovan Mitchell and Detroit Pistons forward Christian Wood.
In their statement, the Nets said the organization is contacting recent opponents and others known to have had contact with the players and is working with state and local health officials.
Statewide, New York has the highest number of confirmed coronavirus patients in the United States with more than 1,500.