Here’s how quarantined Canes skaters returned to Raleigh from Canada, Minnesota
The Canes are back.
Six Carolina Hurricanes skaters who’d been under quarantine away from Raleigh after testing positive for COVID-19 in the past week made it back Thursday in time for the holidays.
Sebastian Aho and Seth Jarvis had been marooned in Canada after testing positive in Vancouver, along with a Canes staffer, while Ian Cole, Steven Lorentz, Jordan Staal and Andrei Svechnikov were in Minnesota, where the team stopped Tuesday before a game against the Wild was postponed.
On Thursday, the Canes were allowed to pick up all the players and and return them to Raleigh to complete their league-mandated quarantine under the NHL protocols.
Canes owner Tom Dundon arranged the private flight, Canes president and general manager Don Waddell said. Aho, Jarvis and massage therapist Mike Maresca were to be transported by an emergency ambulance to Seattle on Thursday to be picked up by the flight.
But there was a snag. There was a holdup for three hours at the U.S.-Canada border as the the final details were hashed out, finally allowing them to leave and be home with their families, especially for the Christmas break.
“That’s the key, especially this time of year,” Canes coach Rod Brind’Amour said Thursday. “You want to be home. That was a big concern.”
Assistant general manager Darren Yorke worked things out at the U.S. border, Waddell said, adding Yorke “did the heavy lifting.”
“We thought it would be an easy process,” Waddell said. “Three hours later they were still there trying to talk their way into it. I told the players, ‘Don’t leave the border, just sit there.’ We had to explain they weren’t going to touch any other human beings, that they’d go right to a private airport and get on a private plane, stop for fuel, pick up some other COVID players, land back in Raleigh and be sent right to their houses.”
The plane arrived at RDU at 8:44 p.m.
The Hurricanes face the Detroit Red Wings Thursday night with 16 skaters — 10 forwards and 6 defensemen. Three of those players were called up Thursday morning from the AHL’s Chicago Wolves.
This story was originally published December 16, 2021 at 6:06 PM.
