QMJHL Playoff Series In Jeopardy

For weeks now, Jenna and I have been mocking the QMJHL on The Hockey Show for its insistence on completing its season, including playoffs, for what appears to be reasons of pride. Pride, as we know, is one of the seven deadly sins, and, while I'm not a religious person at all, you just hope that no one gets truly sick or worse from the QMJHL'S insane decisions to play out the season. With four playoff series underway in Quebec after having moved the Maritimes Division Final out of PEI and New Brunswick, it seems that one playoff series may be over before it had barely started as COVID-19 seems to have reared its ugly head again in the QMJHL.

According to reports out of Quebec today, the Rimouski Océanic are being investigated by Quebec Public Health authorities as there's a possible outbreak among team members. Rimouski, who is playing the Val d'Or Foreurs in their third-round series, has had their series halted until this investigation is resolved, leaving both the Océanic and Foreurs in limbo for their series as they wait for tests to be returned.

UPDATE AT THE BOTTOM OF THIS ARTICLE! SCROLL DOWN!

If the test returned show positive results for COVID-19, the two teams will be shut down for fourteen days for precautionary reasons in order to get through the COVID protocols. If the tests returned show negative results, the series will be resumed with the Foreurs leading 2-0 following a 6-2 win on Friday and a 3-0 win last night.

Assuming there is a positive result returned, the fourteen-day quarantine period will essentially end the playoffs for these two teams as they wouldn't be able to resume their series until May 23, nearly a week after the three other series had finished. Of course, if there is a larger outbreak through contact between players, that May 23 date would be pushed back even further.

With only three winners advancing from the four series in that scenario, there would likely be a three-team mini-tournament played between the remaining teams to determine who wins a rather meaningless President Cup. With Charlottetown up 2-0 over Acadie-Bathhurst in the Maritimes Division Final being played in Shawinigan, they're halfway to a berth in whatever the final format will be. Chicoutimi holds a 1-0 lead over Quebec while Blainville-Boisbriand leads 1-0 over Victoriaville in the other two series.

Does it really matter to anyone if these kids finish the playoffs if Rimouski and, by contact tracing, Val d'Or are eliminated via COVID-19? The QMJHL has battled COVID-19 all season and lost on a number of fronts with three teams playing less than 30 games, an entire province in Nova Scotia preventing its teams from participating in the playoffs, and both New Brunswick and PEI preventing the league from holding the Maritimes Division Final there? What's the point of all this besides pride at this point?

Like the little bomb blowing up at the top of this article, this COVID-19 situation with Rimouski could blow up the playoff dream of having a of "final four"-style tournament for the QMJHL to crown a winner very easily. With no other options available, I can't see the QMJHL asking the three teams who win the other series to wait for Rimouski and Val d'Or to finish up in what has been an already-crazy season of delays and schedule changes.

Rimouski, who finished the season 13-22-4 and had already eliminted Shawiningan - fifth-overall in terms of points percentage - in the opening round of the playoffs, would now technically eliminate the second-overall team in Val d'Or in the second round despite having only played two games in said round assuming that the series is cancelled. Normally, any fifteenth-overall team by points percetage taking out two of the top-five teams would be the stuff about which underdog legends are written, but this year sees it as a footnote on QMJHL that has been ravaged by the pandemic. Health and safety be damned, though, because the QMJHL will finish this season despite all the hardships it has put its teams and players through over the course of this mad, mad season.

Let me be clear as I wrap this up: I hope the tests come back negative because no one should have to suffer through the effects of COVID-19. If they do come back negative and the teams resume play, it won't stop me from criticizing the QMJHL's idiotic pride to complete a season just as it won't stop me from chastising the teams who aren't more careful in ensuring their own COVID-19 safety. However, if tests come back negative, it needs to be said that a close call such as this one should serve as a lesson to the teams and players of the QMJHL.

That lesson? No one has ever choked when swallowing one's pride.

MONDAY UPDATE: As per the QMJHL, the test returned were negative for the Océanic, so this series will resume on Tuesday with the Foreurs leading 2-0 in the series. All officials working the series will be able to resume their duties as well.

Until next time, keep your sticks on the ice!