A View from Afar…”Pittsburgh, we may have a problem”

I just read your local media reports stating we now have six Penguins in the NHL revised Covid protocol as of late today. Teddy Blueger, Tristan Jarry, John Marino, Mike Matheson, Evan Rodrigues and Dominik Simon are now ineligible to play. Jake Guentzel and Jason Zucker are out for unrelated health issues. Around the league the same thing is happening.

In Colorado, the NHL announced today that because of Covid the Avalanche will have seven games to make up. Since December 16, reports say they’ve had 11 different players under Covid protocol. Six currently remain.

In Toronto, GM Kyle Dubas updated the Maple Leafs’ Covid-19 situation yesterday as follows: “All told, the (Toronto) Marlies had 24 players and five staff test positive for Covid-19, and the Leafs had 14 players and seven staff members.”

In Montreal, goalie Jake Allen and defencemen Ben Chiarot, Joel Edmundson, Jeff Petry and Chris Wideman were added to the list before the Canadiens practiced Monday morning in Brossard, joining forwards Laurent Dauphin, Mike Hoffman, Artturi Lehkonen and Tyler Toffoli, who were all already on the list. Upping their total to nine players.

Full list of NHL players and staff currently in protocol (date entered in brackets):

Arizona Coyotes: Lawson Crouse (Dec. 16), Jay Beagle (Dec. 16), Alex Galchenyuk (Dec. 17), Liam O’Brien (Dec. 20), Christian Fischer (Dec. 26), Ilya Lybushkin (Dec. 26)

Boston Bruins: Oskar Steen (Dec. 16), Taylor Hall (Dec. 18, Brandon Carlo (Dec. 21), Charlie Coyle (Dec. 26)

Buffalo Sabres: Vinnie Hinostroza (Dec. 20), Zemgus Girgensons (Dec. 21), Dylan Cozens (Dec. 26), Mark Jankowski (Dec. 26), Don Granato (head coach, Dec. 26)

Calgary Flames: Dan Vladar (Dec. 21)

Carolina Hurricanes: Brendan Smith (Dec. 20), Frederik Andersen (Dec. 22), Jesper Fast (Dec. 23)

Chicago Blackhawks: Marc-Andre Fleury (Dec. 27)

Colorado Avalanche: Mikko Rantanen (Dec. 26), Nazem Kadri (Dec. 26), Logan O’Connor (Dec/ 26), Kurtis MacDermid (Dec. 26), Pavel Francouz (Dec. 26)

Columbus Blue Jackets: Boone Jenner (Dec. 19), Jack Roslovic (Dec. 19), Gabriel Carlsson (Dec. 19), Eric Robinson (Dec. 20), Andrew Peeke (Dec. 20), Joonas Korpisalo (Dec. 20)

Dallas Stars: Jani Hakanpaa (Dec. 24), Radek Faksa (Dec. 26), Miro Heiskanen (Dec. 26), Joel Kiviranta (Dec. 26), Michael Raffl (Dec. 26), Jason Robertson (Dec. 26)

Detroit Red Wings: Givani Smith (Dec. 18), Carter Rowney (Dec. 18), Alex Nedeljkovic (Dec. 18), Jeff Blashill (head coach, Dec. 18), Alex Tanguay (assistant coach, Dec. 18), Filip Zadina (Dec. 18), Sam Gagner (Dec. 19), Pius Suter (Dec. 19), Joe Veleno (Dec. 19), Jeff Weintraub (video assistant coach, Dec. 19), Adam Erne (Dec. 21), Jordan Oesterle (Dec. 21), Lucas Raymond (Dec. 26), Nick Leddy (Dec. 26)

Edmonton Oilers: Duncan Keith (Dec. 17), Jesse Puljujarvi (Dec. 18), William Lagesson (Dec. 20), Darnell Nurse (Dec. 20), Zack Kassian (Dec. 26)

Florida Panthers: Jonathan Huberdeau (Dec. 26), Eetu Luostarinen (Dec. 26), Owen Tippett (Dec. 26), MacKenzie Weegar (Dec. 26)

Los Angeles Kings: Cal Petersen (Dec. 18), Phillip Danault (Dec. 19), Quinton Byfield (Dec. 21), Dustin Brown (Dec. 26), Olli Maatta (Dec. 26)

Montreal Canadiens: Artturi Lehkonen (Dec. 18), Laurent Dauphin (Dec. 19), Mike Hoffman (Dec. 20), Tyler Toffoli (Dec. 27), Jake Allen (Dec. 27), Ben Chiarot (Dec. 27), Joel Edmundson (Dec. 27), Jeff Petry (Dec. 27), Chris Wideman (Dec. 27)

Nashville Predators: Ryan Johansen (Dec. 12), Mikael Granlund (Dec. 15), Matt Luff (Dec. 15), Michael McCarron (Dec. 15), Philip Tomasino (Dec. 15), Ben Harpur (Dec. 15), John Hynes (head coach, Dec. 15), Nick Cousins (Dec. 16) Dan Lambert (assistant coach, Dec. 15), Todd Richards (assistant coach, Dec. 15), Ben Vanderklok (goaltending coach, Dec, 15), Dan Hinote (assistant coach, Dec. 16), Mark Borowiecki (Dec. 17)

New Jersey Devils: Tomas Tatar (Dec. 26), Jon Gillies (Dec. 26)

New York Islanders: Anthony Beauvillier (Dec. 26), Cal Clutterbuck (Dec. 26), Zach Parise (Dec. 26) and Oliver Wahlstrom (Dec. 26)

New York Rangers: Patrik Nemeth (Dec. 18), Alexandar Georgiev (Dec. 27), Ryan Lindgren (Dec. 27), Jarred Tiordi (Dec. 27)

Ottawa Senators: Davis Payne (assistant coach, Dec. 20), Filip Gustavsson (Dec. 21), D.J. Smith (head coach, Dec. 21), Mike King (video coach, Dec. 21), Anton Forsberg (Dec. 27) — The Senators have also added three members of the support staff to protocol

Philadelphia Flyers: Morgan Frost (Dec. 14), Kevin Hayes (Dec. 20), Sean Couturier (Dec. 21), Ryan Ellis (Dec. 26), Derick Brassard (Dec. 27), Carter Hart (Dec. 27), Scott Laughton (Dec. 27)

San Jose Sharks: Brent Burns (Dec. 17), Jonathan Dahlen (Dec. 20), Tomas Hertl (Dec. 20), Jasper Weatherby (Dec. 22)

Seattle Kraken: Jamie Oleksiak (Dec. 18), Carson Soucy (Dec. 19), Adam Larsson (Dec. 20), Vince Dunn (Dec. 26), Ryan Donato (Dec. 26), Mason Appleton (Dec. 27)

St. Louis Blues: Oskar Sundqvist (Dec. 18), Ivan Barbashev (Dec. 23), Robert Bortuzzo (Dec. 26), Dakota Joshua (Dec. 26), James Neal (Dec. 26)

Tampa Bay Lightning: Jon Cooper (head coach, Dec. 21), Pierre-Edouard Bellemare (Dec. 26), Mikhail Sergachev (Dec. 26), Andrei Vasilevskiy (Dec. 26), Brian Elliott (Dec. 26), Rob Zettler (assistant coach, Dec. 26)

Toronto Maple Leafs: Alexander Kerfoot (Dec. 17), Jason Spezza (Dec. 17), Wayne Simmonds (Dec. 17), Jack Campbell (Dec. 18), T.J. Brodie (Dec. 18), Travis Dermott (Dec. 18), Sheldon Keefe (head coach, Dec. 18), Spencer Carbery (assistant coach, Dec. 18), David Kämpf (Dec. 21), Ilya Mikheyev (Dec. 21), Petr Mrázek (Dec. 21), Rasmus Sandin (Dec. 21), Steve Briere (goaltending coach, Dec. 21), Morgan Rielly (Dec. 23), William Nylander (Dec. 24), Jake Muzzin (Dec. 26) — The Maple Leafs have also placed four members of the team’s support staff in protocol

Vancouver Canucks: Alex Chiasson (Dec. 26)

Vegas Golden Knights: Evgenii Dadonov (Dec. 21), Alex Pietrangelo (Dec. 21), Brett Howden (Dec. 27), Peter DeBoer (head coach, Dec. 27)

Washington Capitals: Evgeny Kuznetsov (Dec. 15), Nicklas Backstrom (Dec. 17), T.J. Oshie (Dec. 19)

Winnipeg Jets: Andrew Copp (Dec. 23), Kristian Vesalainen (Dec. 23) — The Jets have also placed one staff member in protocol

NOTE: List updated as of 11 a.m. ET on Dec. 27.

This could become an even bigger problem as we move forward into 2022. Every game that gets postponed makes it that much harder to make them all up. Many NHL teams do not own their home arenas and therefore must share their facility with other teams and events, making it difficult if not impossible to reschedule a large number of makeup games. A problem we face as a league and as a team.

The elephant in the room is the Canadian Government. The biggest difference between the NHL and other sports is the heavy travel between the United States and Canadian border. Canada’s health officials and Prime Minister are much stricter than officials in the United States. The NHL and NHLPA realize changes to testing would be a non-starter for health officials in Canada, so they continue to deal as best they can with the guidance in front of them.

According to reports, revenues from the large Canadian TV contract will pay each NHL team $10 million+ annually and the NHL and NHLPA as well. Profits too large to ignore.

Indeed, Pittsburgh we may have a problem.

Thanks for reading. Let’s go Pens!!