Ducks, NHL ride wave of uncertainty amid COVID-19 postponements

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The Ducks assigned defenseman Jacob Larsson and close helping Buddy Robinson to their AHL squad successful San Diego to bolster the Gulls’ roster for Saturday’s crippled against the San Jose Barracuda astatine Pechanga Arena. The program was for them to instrumentality successful clip for the Ducks’ signifier Sunday morning.

Whether they and their Ducks teammates question Sunday day to Edmonton to look the Oilers connected Monday remained precise overmuch up successful the aerial arsenic of Saturday afternoon, amid a question of players investigating affirmative for COVID-19 and the shutdown of 5 teams’ activities.

The Ducks’ crippled Tuesday against the Flames successful Calgary was postponed by the league Friday. Games against the Oilers connected Monday and Canucks connected Thursday successful Vancouver besides are successful jeopardy. The Oilers person had 5 players positive manager Dave Tippett placed successful protocol.

Edmonton’s crippled Saturday against the Kraken successful Seattle was inactive scheduled to beryllium played, however.

The Canucks, who person six players and adjunct manager Jason King successful the protocol, had location games Saturday against the Toronto Maple Leafs and Sunday against the Arizona Coyotes postponed by the league. The Maple Leafs crippled Sunday successful Seattle besides was postponed.

Calgary has the astir players presently successful the league’s protocol with 19. Plus, the Flames person an further 13 coaches and unit members connected the list. Florida and Nashville are adjacent with 8 players each. The Kings person two: defenseman Drew Doughty and goaltender Cal Petersen.

So acold this season, close helping Jakob Silfverberg is the lone player, manager oregon unit subordinate the Ducks person placed into the protocol. Silfverberg quarantined astatine location for 10 days and sat retired for six games past month. He wasn’t definite however helium got the microorganism and helium didn’t person superior symptoms.

The NHL connected Saturday postponed each of the Boston Bruins’ and Nashville Predators’ games done astatine slightest Dec. 26. On Friday, the league postponed each games for the Flames, Panthers and Colorado Avalanche done astatine slightest Dec. 26. No constitution dates person been announced.

Postponements were made by aesculapian groups from the NHL, the players’ relation and the idiosyncratic teams, according to a connection released by the league.

In summation to announcing postponements for the Bruins and Predators connected Saturday, the NHL and the players’ national besides issued new, enhanced information measures for each teams, including wearing N95 oregon KN95 masks alternatively than the cloth assortment portion indoors and restricting indoor eating portion traveling

The caller measures are scheduled to tally done Jan. 7, and past volition beryllium re-evaluated.

“Given the accrued fig of affirmative cases successful our league wrong the past 2 weeks, and changing societal realities with the caller omicron COVID-19 variant, the NHLPA and NHL person collectively agreed that each clubs shall beryllium required to travel enhanced preventive and detection measures,” the league said.

The spike successful cases astir the league and the postponement of truthful galore games person led to wide speculation that the NHL volition determine against sending players to the Winter Olympics successful Beijing successful February. The league could usage the three-week Olympic interruption to reschedule postponed games.

It’s believed the NHL would see an extended COVID-19 interruption for each of its teams lone arsenic a past edifice successful bid to halt the dispersed of the coronavirus and to let for teams with aggregate players successful the protocol to trial antagonistic aft a 10-day quarantine and past to resume signifier safely.

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