Cancelled Via COVID

As Jenna and I highlighted on The Hockey Show last night, we're nowhere close to being out of the woods when it comes to the coronavirus pandemic situation. We went over the calamity in Vancouver combined with the AHL's Utica Comets just getting out of their own pandemic lockdown. We talked about the AJHL shutting down six teams for fourteen-day quaratine periods since April 1, and pointed out that both the Quebec Remparts and Gatineau Olympiques were in the midst of positive tests while the three teams they played over the past were all quarantined for fourteen days as well due to contact tracing. The NCAA saw the UMass Minutemen affected despite them winning last night, and William Nylander of the Toronto Maple Leafs is sitting out for seven days due to his contact tracing. Hockey is getting hit with the third wave in a big way and now another event has been cancelled.

The PWHPA was taking its two American squads to St. Louis for a pair of games this weekend after the Blues committed to supporting the PWHPA, and it seemed like we were going to get more women's hockey on TV as NBC Sports committed to airing one of the games. That is, until late last night when the PWHPA put out the following statement about the games this weekend.

Just as men's hockey has been affected, we've seen the NWHL's playoff bubble destroyed by COVID-19 and now a PWHPA weekend event has been cancelled by the virus. Emily Kaplan released a video today stating that we aren't close to the finish the line, and I happen to agree wholeheartedly as the new variants become more dominant. We're seeing outbreaks happen across North America again, and it's pretty obvious that the PWHPA got far too close to one of those new outbreaks based on the news today.

As Jayna Hefford stated, the PWHPA will return to St. Louis in the future as the organization looks to continue to build strong relationships with the teams who have thrown their support behind the women. While I'm still hoping for the Jets to come out and pledge their support, the PWHPA is getting good traction with NHL teams in the US which should, in theory, only strengthen the chances of the Women's NHL beiung founded with the PWHPA being heavily involved.

In any case, the pro women's games are on hold until a future date when things get a little less virus-y and everyone remains healthy. Here's hoping none of the players have contracted the virus and we're being overly cautious just to be safe.

Until next time, keep your sticks on the ice!