Merry Christmas!
I hope you had a great day and were able to spend time with those you love.
For me, it was low key, here in the winter wonderland of downtown Vancouver. And even though there was a bit of fresh snow overnight, I was able to get out for a careful run on the seawall on Boxing Day morning, before Day 1 of World Juniors begins.
As we get set for the first game of the day, between Finland and Germany at Rogers Place in Edmonton at 11 a.m. PT, the IIHF has just released a
Covid testing report.
Most importantly, they announced that a player on Team Austria has tested positive, without mentioning the date. But they said that player is in isolation and the rest of the team is in quarantine while contact tracing is being conducted.
By luck, Austria is one of two teams that isn't scheduled to play on Day 1. The report says that, for now, the club is on track to be able to play its first scheduled game on Monday, against Finland.
Following up on the cancellation of the pre-tournament game between Switzerland and Czechia on Dec. 23, the federation has announced that one Swiss player tested positive and has been placed in isolation. The Swiss team is now out of isolation and has resumed practicing; their first game is also on Monday, against Russia.
I suspect it won't be until Canada's game against the Czechs at 4 p.m. PT that we get a good look at what 50% capacity will look like, with no eating or drinking allowed in the arenas.
In Red Deer, the action kicks off with Russia vs. Sweden at 1:30, which I think should be very interesting. That's followed by the Slovaks trying to grab an early upset over the Americans at 6:30 p.m.
As for the NHL — clubs are reconvening on Sunday, and the Canucks have a practice scheduled for 2 p.m. at Rogers Arena, with a Zoom media availability afterward.
As I'm sure you heard, the NHL made the decision on Christmas Eve to postpone its 14 games that were scheduled for December 27, including the Canucks' scheduled home game against the Seattle Kraken.
This is something of a disappointment for me, as I'd been scheduled to cover that game and the one against the Ducks on the 23rd for Canadian Press. But I also wasn't super psyched about being in an arena with 9,000 people, with positive test results skyrocketing everywhere.
I hate the fact that the Canucks may have lost that positive momentum that they got from Bruce Boudreau's arrival. And I'm very curious to see how the team's test results come back on Sunday. I hate to even bring this up, but if you recall, it was the Canucks' five-day break last season, with the players out and about in the real world, that kicked off their big outbreak at the end of March.
That being said, it was heartwarming to see that Vasily Podkolzin and his wife made it up to Whistler. And it looked like Elias Pettersson and Nils Hoglander spent the holiday hanging out together.
Of course, arguably the best Canucks sighting of the season was Bruce Boudreau, who gamely took on this Cameo assignment:
I saw a follow-up, too...
The Twitterverse is starting to share stories of teams with players entering Covid protocol on Sunday. One that has jumped out at me so far is Tampa Bay:
The Lightning were Covid-free when they beat the Vegas Golden Knights 4-3 in Vegas in the last game before the holiday break back on Dec. 21.
The Dallas Stars played the second-last game, beating Minnesota 7-4 on home ice last Monday. They've also got a list of players newly added to the protocol list.
It looks like Omicron is going to continue to wreak havoc on rosters. So Elliotte Friedman is reporting that the league is now looking to establish some new relief structures to help teams get through this.
The Abbotsford Canucks are set to get back to work this Thursday and Friday, with back-to-back road games in Winnipeg against the Manitoba Moose.
With their Monday game against Seattle scrubbed, the next scheduled games for the big club are a three-in-four set in the road — Wednesday in Anaheim, Thursday in L.A. and Saturday in Seattle.
From what I can see, the Ducks were Covid-free before Christmas. The Kings had four players in protocol — Drew Doughty, Phillip Danault, Cal Petersen and Quinton Byfield. Only Byfield was added less than 10 days before the Canucks' scheduled game on Dec. 30, and that was on Dec. 21. So the other three should be cleared by Thursday.
The Kraken were hit hard before Christmas, with six players on their list. Adam Larsson was added last, on Dec. 20. So the 10-day period would have elapsed for all the Kraken players by the time of the Canucks' scheduled game on Jan. 1, if no further names are added.
So even as protocol lists expand with new names, plenty of players, especially from the teams that were shut down before the holidays, should be getting back into the mix. It'll be fascinating to see how the sum total works out once all the reports are in on Sunday — and whether that means that the league is able to mount any or all of the four games that are currently on the docket for Tuesday.
Vancouver Canucks Blogger • 
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