Twenty-one months later, it’s time to shut it down again.
For the conclusion of one season, the entirety of an abbreviated one and the beginning of this one, the NHL has successfully been able to navigate this new COVID landscape, thanks first to its postseason bubbles and then the combined deterrents of vaccines and strict rules of behavior.
Whether we’re seeing the impact of the Omicron variant or just bad luck with breakthrough infections in a league that’s almost unanimously vaccinated and boosted against COVID, the latest waves of positive tests are starting to create a competitive imbalance.
Two dozen players across the league have gone onto the COVID-19 reserve list in the past few days, including six Carolina Hurricanes. That prompted the postponement of Tuesday night’s game at the Minnesota Wild and cast doubt on a three-game homestand starting Thursday.
It came after the Calgary Flames postponed a trip south of the border amid a rash of positive tests. The Hurricanes played in Calgary on Thursday. Sebastian Aho felt under the weather and didn’t play against the Vancouver Canucks on Saturday. By Monday, Aho, Seth Jarvis and a trainer were all quarantining in Vancouver. By Tuesday, four more players tested positive and the game was off.
Whether the Hurricanes got it from the Flames or vice versa, there was some kind of Typhoid Mary deal going on at the Saddledome, and it’s clear that whatever worked for the NHL for the better part of two years isn’t working now.
Fortunately, because of the widespread vaccination, Hurricanes coach Rod Brind’Amour said the affected players haven’t been symptomatic. The risk here is less to their health than it is further spreading the virus. But there’s also a competitive balance issue the NHL has to address.
With first Ethan Bear and then Brett Pesce and Tony DeAngelo testing positive, the Hurricanes played one game without the entire right side of their defense, then spent their entire swing through Canada without Pesce and DeAngelo because they weren’t allowed to cross the border. It’s a testament to the Hurricanes’ talent that they went 3-1-0 during that trip, but they might have gone 4-0-0 with Pesce and DeAngelo.
For a team like the Hurricanes, one of the very best in the NHL, those two lost points may matter come June if it means playing a Game 7 on the road that would otherwise be at home. Look how much that mattered in 2006.
And it’s not just the Hurricanes: The Islanders are without Mathew Barzal, one of more than a dozen players to go on the COVID list on Tuesday.
It’s time to hit the pause button, let teams on the road bubble-up at home and take advantage of an unexpected break in the schedule. With what appears to be a non-negotiable three-week quarantine in China for any positive test during the Olympics, the odds of NHLers still going to the Winter Games are infinitesimal at best.
Better to pull the plug now and move the next 10 days or two weeks of games to the open space in early February, to take a break and see if this current wave of positive tests subsides.
The NHL has been able to stay just enough ahead of COVID to award a pair of Stanley Cups without an asterisk on either, but the current pace of positives is going to make a mockery of the season, with teams icing half-full rosters and players stuck for weeks in foreign hotel rooms.
It’s been a good run, and there’s no reason it can’t be a good rest of the season, but there’s nothing wrong with taking a moment now to give it the best chance when it really matters.
