TRIUMPH OVER VIRUS SEEMS POSSIBLE FOR ARRIVING WORLD JUNIOR SQUADS
With everyone now enclosed in the bubble, there has yet to be a positive COVID-19 test
So far it's a shutout.
Zero tests against.
The IIHF appears to somehow have managed to open the bubble for the Edmonton 2021 world juniors without a positive test just as the NHL did through all 81-games of Stanley Cup playoffs here in NHL Hub City I. But the IIHF, claiming “protocol,” has yet to actually announce that.
After a plethora of positive coronavirus pandemic tests at training camps of the 10 teams, the IIHF shoehorned eight European teams and organizational staff onto three too-small, shortrange planes that required fuel stops in Iceland and Labrador to get here Sunday.
So far, after three sleeps, the teams have appeared to keep COVID off the board.
Considering the camps, those flights without social distancing, the travel days from hell involved and the time it can take for the coronavirus to kick in, is it too soon declare a triumph?
I think that's what “protocols” means. There is plenty of paranoia involved here. I believe the IIHF and Hockey Canada don't want to boast until they're in the clear.
Getting on their planes was like a huge hurdle considering where they've been the last few weeks. And getting out of quarantine
Dec. 18 will be like scaling a great wall. I think they want to wait until everyone is out and negative.
It was said that with the setup awaiting the NHL'S 24 playoff teams in Toronto and Edmonton that the key would be getting the teams into the bubble healthy rather than keeping them healthy after they arrived. And that turned out to be true.
After 33,394 coronavirus tests, the NHL'S $100-million bubble turned out to be one of the greatest success stories in sports history with zero positives while major league baseball and NFL and U.S. college football in particular were a mess.
Unlike the NHL, which provided daily updates, the IIHF didn't do that for openers, although just before midnight Monday one finally responded to a day of requests for facts from your correspondent and sent the following:
“Everybody who boarded the planes have been successfully tested at least three times during last week. Testing will be continued in Edmonton and there haven't been positive test results since the arrival,” he said.
I shared that with USA general manager John Vanbiesbrouck.
“That's great news,” he said. “We are all wondering about each other and how the results have gone.
“We were the first team in as far as we know. We flew directly from Detroit and arrived Sunday at 7:30 p.m. Our testing was at the airport. It was very well planned.”
Canada had to shut down camp in Red Deer for 14 days of total team quarantine due to two positive tests that were produced after a handful of two-a-day practices and two intrasquad games. Defencemen Matthew Robertson, Mason Millman and Daemon Hunt and forwards Ridly Greig and Xavier Simoneau were sent home as “unfit to play” immediately coming out of quarantine.
Sweden lost head coach Tomas Monten and assistants Nizze Landen, Anders Lundberg and Adam Almqvist as well as four players in William Eklund, Karri Henriksson, William Wallinder and Albin Grewe.
The Swiss lost forwards
Jannik Canova, Yves Stoffel and Kevin Linderman. Austria had to replace Thimo Nickl due to a positive test. Germany lost forwards Elias Linder, Lucas Reichel and Nino Kinder. The Americans lost three players from Boston University who were not allowed into their seven-day camp quarantine because of testing protocol and two from the QMJHL, one because of a positive test and the other due to close contact.
When it comes to testing, Finland so far has a perfect record.
No positives during league play, none entering training camp. Perfect getting on to the plane. And clear through quarantine.
General manager Kimmo Oikarinen on his cellphone told me about the travel ordeal with the Russians and Swedes.
“The aircraft was pretty small and we had to leave our luggage in Helsinki and have it shipped on a separate flight. Our flight over the ocean actually left four hours late. We were supposed to leave at 1 p.m. and we didn't leave until 5 p.m. We didn't land in Edmonton until midnight. It was a pretty uncomfortable experience,” he said of refuelling stops in Iceland and Goose Bay.
“For us it was a 27-hour travel day. We were just exhausted.”
Still, they did their arrival testing at the airport.
“We didn't lose anybody. Not one. We've tested negative all the time. I am very proud of our group the way they've handled everything. I think the whole country of Finland has handled it pretty well. We have been testing the players the whole season.”
Oikarinen said he believes his team has arrived here with their helmets screwed on straight when it comes to a world junior with no fans in the stands in the same building where they played all those Stanley Cup games.
“They're all talking about how this is once in a lifetime and how we're going to make history because, at the IIHF level, it's never been done before. We're going to play somewhere that we'll never forget and it's going to be an opportunity for all of us.”