Boring but safer. How the Hurricanes are coping with NHL’s new COVID protocol changes.
Sebastian Aho of the Carolina Hurricanes owns a house in North Raleigh but rarely ventures out.
“I try to stay at home as much as I can,” Aho said on a recent media call. “I try to cook as much as I can and spend time with my girlfriend, play some PlayStation and stuff.
“It’s pretty boring but it is what it is.”
That’s the way the National Hockey League wants it: boring, but also safer during the COVID-19 pandemic.
The Hurricanes have had COVID-19 issues that affected six players this season. That seemed a little excessive at the time, and the Canes had some games postponed and rescheduled, but the NHL COVID-19 protocol list on Friday included 18 New Jersey Devils players, almost an entire roster, and 12 Minnesota Wild players.
This past week, the NHL and NHL Players Association approved new, tighter league restrictions in an effort to combat further spread of the coronavirus, attempt to alleviate COVID issues and hopefully keep the season on track.
One is a stay-at-home measure for players except to attend practices and games, exercise outdoors, perform essential activities or deal with family and other emergencies. The directive also includes other household members, who are urged to stay home.
The league has conducted daily, lab-based PCR testing for COVID-19. But the NHL also has begun providing each of the 24 U.S. teams with point of care (POC) rapid testing to be conducted on game days to all players and the team personnel who work around the bench areas during games.
The Canes and their staff went through rapid testing Thursday before the game in Dallas against the Stars and will again Saturday.
Coronavirus testing and protocols in the NHL
Asked on his Friday media call how much lead time before a game he will be informed if a player tests positive and must be held out, Canes coach Rod Brind’Amour said, “Well, that’s a good question. I don’t know. No idea.
“It just goes day to day. I get told go here for a test, go there for a test and go to the rink and try to do your job. That’s basically how it goes. Then you get up the next day and hope you get good news and you keep going.”
Rapid testing results can be available in about a half-hour, the NHL says. The PCR tests generally take 12 to 24 hours for the results. Either way, the wait creates anxiety.
Change will continue to be constant during this unusual, challenging season played in a pandemic. All team meetings are now virtual. New locker room configurations must be devised to keep players properly spaced. Players and staff have been told to wear KN95 facemasks.
“We’ve just got to figure it out,” Brind’Amour said Friday. “We knew there were going to be curveballs every day and that’s kind of how it goes.”
Clusters among teams lead to schedule changes
The Stars were hit early when 17 players tested positive for COVID-19 before the season began, causing some quick NHL schedule adjustments. The Canes got through training camp with no problems, then had captain Jordan Staal go on the NHL COVID protocol list on Jan. 15, a day after the Canes’ first game, at Detroit.
Staal later said he was not sure how he contracted the virus, but he soon was joined on the protocol list by defenseman Jaccob Slavin and forwards Teuvo Teravainen, Jordan Martinook, Warren Foegele and Jesper Fast. Like Staal, they were put in quarantine and isolation.
“No one wants to be ‘that guy’ and clearly that was me for the most part bringing it into the room,” Staal said on a media call Jan. 26, when he first returned to practice.
The Canes have everyone back and playing, but center Vincent Trocheck said games on the road can have the feel of being isolated.
“The road has been a bit different than it was,” Trocheck said Friday. “You can’t really leave the hotel and you’re kind of locked in your room.”
It’s not a “bubble” but close to one, at least on the road. The NHL wants it, and needs it, that way.
