The number of Vancouver Canucks on the NHL's Covid Protocol List is continuing to grow.
The list went from seven players on Friday to 14 on Saturday, then up to 16 on Sunday.
Here's who has been affected so far (and remember, just because a player is on the list, it does not necessarily mean that he has tested positive):
• Forwards: Travis Boyd, Adam Gaudette, Jayce Hawyrluk, Bo Horvat, Zack MacEwen, Marc Michaelis, Tyler Motte, Antoine Roussel, Brandon Sutter
• Defensemen: Jalen Chatfield, Alex Edler, Travis Hamonic, Quinn Hughes, Tyler Myers
• Goalies: Thatcher Demko, Braden Holtby
TSN's Darren Dreger is reporting that one more name will be added to the list on Monday.
Various reports have also mentioned that three members of the coaching staff and two players from the taxi squad have also tested positive.
Elliotte Friedman of Sportsnet mentions that in this rundown of the situation — which is undated, but appears to be from Sunday. The video is definitely worth watching.
While lots of uncertainty still remains, Friedman addresses some key issues.
First — what lies ahead?
Because of how quickly the virus ripped through the team, Friedman says the NHL is essentially treating the group as if everyone has or could test positive. There will be no team activity until there are at least a few days with no additional positive cases — and since we've got one more name being added to the list on Monday, that clock has not yet even started.
So — injured players are not allowed to use team facilities. There won't be a practice on Tuesday, as had originally been targeted, and the team certainly won't be getting back into game action on Thursday in Calgary.
Friedman says it could be as long as two (more?) weeks before they get back on the ice. If that's the case, they'd pick up on Apr. 19, with nine games lost, and with a little over three weeks remaining in the season as originally scheduled.
He says nothing has been decided yet as far as how to proceed from here. Will the league still try to get everybody to 56 games? Will they extend the end of the regular season for the North Division only, and let their playoffs start later? That's all still to be determined.
By the end of this week, the Canucks will have missed one game against the Oilers, two against the Jets and three against the Flames. I suppose the good news for the schedule-maker is that, at this point, those teams have all played a good number of games. Calgary's at a division-high 39, even after missing last Wednesday's game against the Canucks (and is still stuck at 35 points after three straight losses). Edmonton and Winnipeg have each played 38 despite having also lost one game each against Vancouver this weekend.
The NHL has had three other outbreaks of this magnitude earlier this season.
• The Dallas Stars were hit during training camp and started the regular season nine days late, on Jan. 22. During a preseason media availability, Bill Daly said that 17 players had been affected.
• The New Jersey Devils were off for 15 days, from Feb. 1-15. They'd had a couple of players on the list before playing a weekend back-to-back set against the Buffalo Sabres — where the games were played early in the day, before test results came back.
Three players were on the list on Jan. 29; that number grew to four after the game on Jan. 30, and to six after the game on Jan. 31.
By Feb. 2, they were up to 14 names, and Buffalo saw two names added to its list.
The Sabres ended up being shut down for 14 days, from Feb. 1-14. Their list ended up peaking at nine names — and then-coach Ralph Krueger was also confirmed to have tested positive. The Devils peaked at 19 names on Feb. 8.
As a result of this major outbreak, the league instituted a number of additional safety measures, including
same-day rapid tests for its U.S. based teams.
According to the Associated Press report on Feb. 11, "The league says it is working with its seven Canadian-based teams to have a similar rapid-testing system in place based on availability." I have not seen any confirmation that this came to pass, although
Patrick Johnston of The Province has reported that the Canucks have had their PCR nasal swab tests turned around more quickly this week, in an effort to stay on top of the situation.
When asked why the Canucks were allowed to continue their practice after Adam Gaudette was pulled following his positive test last Tuesday, then take the morning skate on Wednesday, Friedman said it was probably because the situation in Montreal hadn't escalated 10 days earlier. In that case, one player tested positive and one was isolated as a close contact, but the virus didn't spread further.
Friedman says the strain that affected the Canadiens was the European variant, while the Canucks have been hit by the Brazilian variant.
So while the timing of the Canucks' Mar. 20 game in Montreal suggested that perhaps that's where the virus was acquired, it's looking more and more like this is a different variant. In that case, I don't think the two scenarios could be linked.
And now, we're seeing that this Brazilian variant is proving to be much more aggressive — and not just among hockey teams.
As Patrick also mentions here — it's noteworthy that Jayce Hawryluk is a confirmed positive case. He
also tested positive for the virus a year ago, as part of that first wave of Ottawa Senators that was hit after their road trip to California.
So much for the idea that it only strikes once.
Dreger also posted a scary report on Sunday about the symptoms some of the players were experiencing — and that family members were also being impacted.
Later in the day, Ben Kuzma pushed back, but Dreger doubled down.
I believe the discrepancy in the numbers comes down to the two taxi squadders — who don't appear on the official list, but who are, obviously, part of the team.
On Sunday,
Kuzma reported that "The few Canucks that have had worse symptoms, according to the training staff, are said to be feeling better and just one player has had an IV administered."
Former Sportsnet 650 host Andrew Walker also shared some insight on Sunday.
Kuzma mentions in his article that Bo Horvat was feeling better on Sunday, and he has been quite active on his Instagram Stories as he turns 26 on Monday. Not exactly an optimal way to celebrate a birthday!
As we come out of the long weekend, I expect we'll be hearing much more about this Brazilian variant, especially here in B.C. The provincial government did issue a press release on the weekend with more record-setting total case numbers on Friday and Saturday.
As I said in the last blog, the most important thing here is to hope that everyone who has been impacted has a full recovery — and takes all the time that they need to get better.
Hopefully, this outbreak is also an important learning experience for the Province of B.C., and for the NHL. I think the league had hoped it was through the worst of it, especially with the vaccination process going so well in the U.S. But we're not out of the woods yet.
I'll close with one good bit of news. The Utica Comets finally got back on the ice on Monday!
The Comets are set to get back into game action on Friday, on home ice against the Rochester Americans. They're also set to have fans in the building for the first time since the AHL was shut down in April of 2020, at 10 percent capacity.
Friedman says that, depending on how things go in Vancouver, players from the Comets could be summoned to the Canucks over the next week or so.
Vancouver Canucks Blogger • 
Join the Discussion:
»