The Los Angeles Kings have had a couple of players land on the COVID-19 protocols this season, but the Minnesota Wild’s recent outbreak makes them the second team in the West Division to have a coronavirus outbreak force postponement of their schedule. The Vegas Golden Knights were the first, suspending team activities as of last Thursday.
The Wild added five players to the COVID-19 protocols on Wednesday. The team traveled to Denver ahead of their two-game series on Sunday.
It seems clear that transmission is happening during the games, evidenced by the Buffalo Sabres, who were forced to suspend their upcoming games after playing against the New Jersey Devils, who were unknowingly in the midst of an outbreak.
In total, the NHL has seen 90 players so far land on the COVID-19 protocols — which also cover travel quarantine, close contact tracing and other circumstances that are more precautionary — and has been forced to reschedule 22 games, just three weeks into the 2021 season.
With fewer resources than the NHL, the National Women’s Hockey League saw an outbreak of COVID across multiple teams that forced a shutdown of their condensed bubble season.
There’s still a lot that needs to be done to protect players if we’re insisting on hosting sports during a pandemic.
Read more about it linked below.
Kings Things
- ICYMI: Kings making the playoffs? Seems like a joke… [Jewels From The Crown]
- Spotlighting Achievements of LA Kings Female Employees [NHL.com]
- Power Project Continues to Mentor Young Women Through Hockey [NHL.com]
- Kings’ 3 Stars of the Month – January 2021 [The Hockey Writers]/
Hockey Things
- The NWHL COVID shutdown is another reminder of how risky sports are right now [USA Today]
- Transcript: NWHL media availability on the suspension of the 2021 season [The Ice Garden]
- Zdeno Chara’s hockey sticks sent to New Jersey man’s house [ESPN]
- Doug Armstrong named GM of 2022 Canadian Olympic team [NBC Sports]
- Minnesota Wild postpone games through Tuesday [ESPN]
- Duncan Keith’s viral Corsi joke raises interesting point about value of NHL’s proxy stats [Chicago Sun Times]
- Why the NHL should change its scoring system [NBC Sports Philadelphia]
- Rangers will be 1st NHL team to host PWHPA game [TheScore]
- Most NHL teams using 2 goalies to get through pandemic play [NBC Sports]
- 2021 NHL Awards Watch: The way-too-early rundown of Hart, Norris, Calder, Vezina and the rest [ESPN+]/
Scores & Recaps
- Detroit Red Wings 1, Tampa Bay Lightning 5
- Boston Bruins 4, Philadelphia Flyers 3 (OT)/
Click on a team name to find a recap on their SB Nation site!
On the Schedule
- Ottawa Senators at Montreal Canadiens, 4 PT/7 ET on TSN2, RDS, TSN5, RDS
- Vancouver Canucks at Toronto Maple Leafs, 4 PT/7 ET on TSN4, SNP
- Nashville Predators at Florida Panthers, 4 PT/7 ET on FS-F, FS-TN
- Washington Capitals at New York Rangers, 4 PT/7 ET on NHLN, MSG, NBCSWA
- Dallas Stars at Columbus Blue Jackets, 4 PT/7 ET on ESPN+, SNE, SNO, FS-O, FS-SW
- Carolina Hurricanes at Chicago Blackhawks, 5 PT/8 ET on NBCSCH, FS-CR
- Arizona Coyotes at St. Louis Blues, 5 PT/8 ET on FS-MW, FS-A
- Calgary Flames at Winnipeg Jets, 5 PT/8 ET on TSN3, SNW/