LIVE BLOG: More cases expected as COVID-19 tightens grip on NHL

Zach Laing
Zach Laing
LIVE BLOG: More cases expected as COVID-19 tightens grip on NHL
Credit: John E. Sokolowski-USA TODAY Sports

UPDATE: 5:05 p.m. est — The Florida Panthers have added four players to the COVID-19 protocols: Sam Bennett, Radko Gudas, Brandon Montour and Carter Verhaeghe.

UPDATE: 4:15 p.m. est — The Toronto Maple Leafs and Ottawa Senators will be playing at 50% capacity for the foreseeable future. The Ontario government has announced they are introducing capacity limits province-wide affecting the NHL games.

UPDATE: 4 p.m. est —The NHL will be rolling out enhanced COVID-19 protocols until at least Jan. 7, Sportsnet’s Elliotte Friedman reports.

Those will include measures similar to what the league undertook in the 2020-21 campaign.

UPDATE: 1:05 p.m. est — The Detroit Red Wings and Nashville Predators have added members of their organization to the COVID-19 protocols. Detroit added both Robby Fabbri and Michael Rasmussen.

The Predators, meanwhile, have added six players and six members of its traveling party.

Mikael Granlund, Ryan Johansen, Matt Luff, Michael McCarron, Phillip Tomasino and Ben Harpur were all added, as well as head coach John Hynes, assistant coached Dan Lambert and Todd Richards as well as goaltending coach Ben Vanderklok.

UPDATE: 11:40 a.m. est — Seventeen members of the Calgary Flames have been placed into COVID-19 protocols Wednesday morning as the outbreak in Calgary continues to grow.

According to the team, players Rasmus Andersson, Byron Froese, Johnny Gaudreau, Erik Gudbranson, Trevor Lewis, Jacob Markstrom, and Tyler Pitlick, as well as coaches Ryan Huska, Kirk Muller and Darryl Sutter all have entered protocols. On top of that, seven support staff have entered protocols.

It’s the single largest number of members from a single team to enter protocols at once.

The Ontario Hockey League is having COVID-19 issues, too. The Erie Otters team has suspended all activities after 13 players tested positive for the virus.


UPDATE: 11:00 a.m. est — The Boston Bruins have another player going into COVID-19 protocol, as captain Patrice Bergeron has joined teammates Brad Marchand and Craig Smith after a positive test. The Bruins lost 4-1 to the Vegas Golden Knights on Tuesday night and are scheduled to play the New York Islanders on Thursday.

Tuesday was far from a good day in the NHL.

The league was forced to postpone games between the Carolina Hurricanes and Minnesota Wild and the Calgary Flames and Nashville Predators due to large outbreaks in both clubs.

The Flames added three more players to their COVID-19 list bringing the total to six and a staff member, while other teams had players join, too. The Vancouver Canucks added Luke Schenn and Juho Lammikko before their come from behind win over the Columbus Blue Jackets, while defenseman Tucker Poolman was pulled from the ice mid-game.

Boston added Brad Marchand and Craig Smith to the list, while the Philadelphia Flyers had to pull Morgan Frost mid-game due to COVID concerns.

The Canes, meanwhile, added another four players to protocols while the Edmonton Oilers had forward Ryan McLeod and bench boss Dave Tippett test positive, too.

According to our own Frank Seravalli, the Nashville Predators are expected to be facing multiple cases involving their coaching staff and have cancelled practice today.

While all of this is going on, us here at DailyFaceoff will be updating this article all day long as the league continues to navigate a very fluid situation.

Zach Laing is the Nation Network’s news director and senior columnist. He can be followed on Twitter at @zjlaing, or reached by email at zach@oilersnation.com.

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