Here We Go Again

With NHL training camps ramping up for the start of the abbreviated NHL season in a week's time, the Dallas Stars announced today that six players and two staff members tested positive for COVID-19, prompting the team to close its facilities and the NHL to cancel or postpone games for the Stars until January 19 at the very earliest. It's not surprising with players congregating from all over the world who have contracts with the Stars that we'd see an early positive test in this process. After all, it happened with the World Junior Championship squads, and it likely will happen again in NHL circles. What is surprising is that the NHL, who has shown the effectiveness of a bubble situation once already, seemingly throws caution to the wind once again when trying to make a buck.

"But Teebz," I hear you saying, "it's just one of thirty-one teams, so chill out." I could chill out nicely if it wasn't for the fact that Dallas' first three games - a back-to-back on the road against the Florida Panthers and the first of a two-game set on the road against Tampa Bay - weren't been postponed. These games likely can be worked into the remaining schedule, but it makes one wonder how the Stars, Panthers, and Lightning will be affected as this shortened, compressed schedule moves forward. Injuries and fatigue could play serious roles in the outcomes of these games.

Complicating matters further was the announcement just hours after the Stars' news that the Columbus Blue Jackets were holding players out of practice due to COVID-19 protocols. For Columbus, this is the second time they've flirted with COVID-19 at their practice facility as they reportedly had "several players" test positive for COVID-19 back in November. You would think that November incident would have given the Blue Jackets some better insight on how to mitigate this kind of outbreak, but apparently they learned nothing.

Remember that the NHL set up two bubbles, tested and tested and tested and tested some more, and saw no positive results when players entered those two bubbles. Remember that they had a very successful Stanley Cup Playoff tournament where the Lightning were eventually crowned as champions with a grand total of zero positive tests within those bubbles, even with minimal team movement when they consolidated the bubbles.

That same process should have been used to prepare the short training camps for the players, but it's pretty clear that the teams and the NHL, by proxy, learned nothing from being prepared. They all watched Sweden and Germany lose players for portions or all of the IIHF World Junior Championship tournament by not being more prepared and giving camps ample time to set up and establish a quarantine. They all watched Canada pause its camp for a quarantine after Hockey Canada brought the players together early for selection camp.

And that led to this classic comment today from Carolina Hurricanes coach Rod Brind'Amour stated in a media confernce call:

"It's bound to happen. Every college hockey program has had it. Almost every team that's got going, every avenue, has had it or experienced it. You hope you don't. But it’s certainly not unexpected."

Are you actually serious with that statement, Rod?

Look, I get Rod Brind'Amour is just a head coach, but that comment is an admission of defeat. He's admitting that it's going to happen, so let's just get it over with because it's inevitable that players and staff are going to contract the virus. I know that the NHL is dead-set on playing the games, but what does it say about the business of the NHL that one of its most respected coaches has all but resigned himself that he or someone around him is going to get the virus? What does it say about the NHL about being a good community partner in its thirty-one communities that they know they're going to contract and likely spread the virus within those communities because, as Rod stated, "almost every team has had it or experienced it"?

While the NHL will stress it's doing everything possible to ensure the safety of the players and staff under its watch, once again we failures to even do the basics when it comes to putting camps together such as recommending and enforcing ample, extended time for quaratines before camps start in order to prevent things like cancelling three games for the Stars to start the season. The examples of why this would have been good are literally sitting right in front of the NHL and its teams, and they chose to ignore these examples of smart planning just as the IIHF ignored them.

Don't get me wrong - I'm excited to have NHL hockey back. I love this game because of the excitement, the passion, and the dazzling play on the ice, but I really hate the business of hockey this year. I know I'm beating a dead horse here with my pleas for some sort of sanity, but this isn't how I wanted the NHL to start its season and it's certainly not how I want Rod Brind'Amour to feel about his chances going into this season.

Hopefully, once things get going, the NHL will land on its feet and not experience the same weekly announcements that Major League Baseball undertook and the National Football League are undertaking with respect to players missing weeks of practice and games due to COVID-19 exposure. But Rod Brind'Amour is right: it seems inevitable, and you just hope it doesn't happen to your team.

That's not exactly the mindset I want to watch hockey under for the 2020-21 season, but it's going to be that mindset because the NHL couldn't do some very easy things to ensure better safety and a better season. if this feels like deja vu, here we go again.

Until next time, keep your sticks on the ice!