Still plenty of ifs
Access to family a primary concern for players in potential return to the ice this summer
Nick Foligno outlined it best last week when he signalled the possibility of a fight at some point between players and the National Hockey League.
For context, the Columbus Blue Jackets captain was speaking along with his general manager Jarmo Kekalainen about the league’s return-to-play format for the 2019-20 season.
“If somebody’s going to tell me I can’t see my family, there’s going to be a fight at some point,” Foligno said during the 30-minute recording from the club’s public relations department.
While last week as an important step toward returning to the ice for the NHL/NHLPA-approved 24-team playoff format, it was still only a small one when it comes to actually getting there.
Foligno’s concern is one of many both the league and its players will undoubtedly have to sort out in the not-sodistant future. We’re around six weeks away from the window opening where teams could be summoned back for training camps, and two months out from the season potentially restarting again.
What happens between now and then will decide whether we get there or not.
Foligno isn’t the only player with a young family at home. In Winnipeg, several players have children they’d have to leave and that could be up to 10 weeks from the beginning of the qualifying round to the last day of the Stanley Cup Final, were the Jets to make it that far.
Two teams will make it that far, and asking players to sacrifice that amount of time away from their families will likely be met with fierce opposition from some.
It’s also important to remember here that the players need to sign off on whatever plans are made before any pucks hit the ice.
The plan is going to have to work for the players first and a lot of stars are going to have to align for it to do so.
The league, and its owners, are going to have to realize that their players are, indeed, humans.
For Canadian teams, just getting their players back on the ice above the 49th parallel is already an ongoing issue.
Both federal and provincial rules prohibit cross-border travel without a 14-day self-isolation period. Aside from essential worker exemptions, discretionary travel is not allowed.
What that means, for the moment at least, is that players returning from abroad to their Canadian cities must self-isolate for 14 days upon arrival.
Earlier this week, Jets forward Andrew Copp sufficiently summarized what is likely the consensus opinion among most players who aren’t residing in their team cities at the moment.
“They’re going to deal with that with European guys, with U.S. guys, so I don’t think it’s fair to ask the Canadian teams to have their players come sit in their apartments for two weeks and the American teams just get to Phase 2 and skate all day,” Copp said, speaking to media in Winnipeg on a Zoom chat.
Copp was referencing Phase 2 of the return-to-play format, which allows for voluntary workouts at team facilities with plenty of restrictions in place.
Those could begin as early as this coming week. Any player returning today to
Canada would miss the first two weeks of that due to The Quarantine Act. And the federal border rules are in place until June 21.
The NHL has said it’s been in dialogue with all levels of government in Canada, and it seems likely exemptions would be in place prior to training camps beginning at some point in July — assuming the feds play ball with the league.
One wonders why the league is even bothering with Canada to begin with when it comes to hub cities, and why the federal government, and provincial governments underneath, would even consider making exemptions to anyone other than essential workers.
Both Ottawa and the provinces have expressed their concern over the reimportation of the virus. The U.S. is the epicentre of COVID-19 at the moment.
Why risk it?
At the moment, it’s just another issue in a long line of them the NHL has to sort out.
The rest of that line includes such topics as player safety, including testing (and if players would be on the hook for any of those associated costs), quarantine proto
cols if someone were to get sick, sanitation procedures, and basic human rights.
There are also very real implications of what mass testing NHLers could mean for local jurisdictions.
NHL commissioner Gary Bettman said earlier this week that any hub city picked to host several teams will have to have that testing capacity available where it doesn’t have a local impact.
But the way this virus has evolved, it’s nearly impossible to predict what could happen in any hub city, no matter how good their epidemiology is heading into it.
You can create a bubble, you can put the players in that bubble and then you simply cross your fingers. The reality is even fierce mitigation can’t fully alleviate the risks in this scenario, and one case could easily become a cluster, if not a full-blown outbreak.
Players will surely want to know how that is going to be handled if it comes to pass. Likewise, they’re going to want to know what expanded insurance coverage and medical benefits are there if they do become infected.
The NHL itself was very explicit with respect to one reality of COVID-19 in their phased return to sport protocol released last week.
“A range of clinical scenarios exist, from very mild to fatal outcome,” the plan said in the first paragraph of the protocol itself.
Foligno, who’s become quite vocal on any potential return to play, spoke to TSN on Saturday about any return being potentially voluntary among players.
“I think it has to because that’s just human rights,” he told TSN’s Mark Masters, who asked how players might react if some of their teammates opted out. “If you don’t feel safe to return, I think there needs to be some sort of way for those guys not to be vilified. No one’s going to look at you (unfavourably) for not wanting to go back, and I don’t think they should be.”
Again, some context here is needed.
Foligno’s daughter Milana has dealt with a congenital heart defect since she was born and his son Hudson had a serious case of pneumonia just over a year ago that required him to be in intensive care at a Columbus hospital after one lung completely failed.
Underlying conditions already exist in the NHL, from diabetes to asthma. Underlying conditions are also one of the risk factors in a case of COVID-19 ending up as a severe outcome.
NHLers are generally fit human beings, and healthy ones at that. But some deal with underlying conditions and some of their family members do as well.
The main concern here comes down to obligation.
Should a player be forced to return to work for a non-essential service amid a global pandemic?
“I’ve taken time away and been with my family for things that are bigger than hockey, (and) this is obviously bigger than hockey, so I would respect anyone that doesn’t feel comfortable (enough) to come back,” Foligno told TSN. “I also respect the guys that do want to come back. If they feel safe enough and are good with the answers (health officials and the league) are giving, I look at both sides, and I think that’s the right thing to do. But I’m sure there will be something built in to at least respect some guys who don’t feel quite as comfortable, and we’ll support those people all the way.”
Again, we must remind ourselves that players are humans with plenty at stake away from the game, should they or their family members become infected.
The good news, at least out of Phase 2, is that the players felt they were heard.
“I think (our voice has to be heard) because we have to agree to anything in terms of return to play,” Copp said. “Whether it’s issues with families or travel or hotels or testing or any of that sort of thing, there’s still lots to discuss and lots to work on. So, we’ve had a good relationship with respect to this, to the virus, and I think that’s going to have to continue in order for us to play. I think that’s the plan for both sides is finding a way for this to work.”
Last week’s agreement and the subsequent announcement was the proverbial tip of the iceberg. There’s a lot that needs to be smoothed out moving forward, far more impactful issues with real-life consequences if something goes awry.
Last week’s Phase 2 plan was done through diplomatic means (although that, too, became heated at times according to TSN’s Bob McKenzie.)
The next two could be waged on a battlefield where the heat could burn down any chance of returning to complete this season.
If somebody’s going to tell me I can’t see my family, there’s going to be a fight at some point.
Nick Foligno