Of all the sports leagues battling the sudden rise of the highly transmissible Omicron variant of Covid-19, the National Hockey League is the one skating closest to chaos.
Since the time the new variant was discovered in South Africa in early November, 12 NHL teams have suffered serious enough outbreaks that the league has called off their games and shut down their home rinks and training facilities for extended periods.
By Monday afternoon, 19 of the league’s 32 teams were due to be inactive through Dec. 27 with 43 games postponed. Then late Monday, the NHL called off this week’s remaining five games, effectively putting the entire league on pause until next week.
On top of all that, the NHL has another major Covid-related problem to solve: whether to allow its players to take a three-week break in February to participate in the Beijing Olympics, as planned.
The decisions facing the NHL are similar to those facing many organizations and individuals: how to respond to a more transmissible variant when the workforce, which is mostly vaccinated, is testing positive in numbers not seen since the early days of the pandemic in 2020?
More than 119 players–16% of active skaters– and five coaches are currently in the league’s Covid-19 protocols. The NHL hasn’t specified whether the individuals who tested positive had been fully vaccinated or received booster shots, but did note in a statement on Sunday that “there have been a low number of positive cases that have resulted in concerning symptoms or serious illness.”
The mild nature of these widespread outbreaks is the NHL’s primary rationale for saying no to a leaguewide pause over the weekend despite the fact that nine — nearly one-third of all clubs– are currently barred from using team facilities.
Instead, the NHL tightened health protocols, such as masking and social distancing, and resumed daily testing, something it exempted vaccinated players and staff from this season. The league postponed 12 games through Dec. 23 that require crossing the U.S.-Canadian border due to uncertainty surrounding travel.
The league said on Sunday that its medical professionals would make decisions on whether teams should suspend organized activities on a “case-by-case” basis. Within hours, the NHL shut down Detroit Red Wings and Toronto Maple Leafs facilities. On Monday, the Columbus Blue Jackets and Montreal Canadiens were added to that list. All clubs will be closed through at least Dec. 26 and were not given firm dates for when their rinks could reopen.
That doesn’t account for the Olympic-sized variable that is looming for hockey. As part of the collective bargaining agreement signed with the NHL Players’ Association in July 2020—which paved the way for the 2019-20 season to resume in two Canadian bubbles—the league agreed to allow skaters to represent their national teams at the upcoming 2022 Olympics. Logistically, this entails leaving a three-week gap in the game day calendar between Feb. 2 and 23 while dozens of skaters headed to China to compete in the Olympic men’s hockey tournament, which runs from Feb. 9-20.
According to the terms of that agreement, the NHL could back out of its promise with the International Ice Hockey Federation to send pro skaters to China if there were “material disruptions” to the 2021-22 season or if the health landscape became “impractical or unsafe.” That threshold has long since been exceeded, NHL executives say, and the league expects to announce a decision on Beijing later this week.
“We’ve been putting our full focus on NHL players going,” said USA Hockey assistant executive director John Vanbiesbrouck on a call with reporters last week. The outbreaks have accelerated so fast, however, that this week has brought a scramble for a backup plan.
Bill Guerin, the men’s Olympic team general manager, said last week that he would consider filling the roster with skaters in college or the American Hockey League, the NHL’s minor league, should NHL players sit out Beijing.
Two factors complicate the NHL’s Olympics decision. First, most players absolutely love the Games.
“To play in the Olympics again would be amazing,” said T.J. Oshie, a right winger for the Washington Capitals and one of 18 active NHL players who represented the U.S. in 2014 in Sochi, the last Olympics that NHL skaters participated in. “To get a medal, for me, that’s one of the only things that I haven’t done as a hockey player.”
Yet the Olympics create potential inequalities in the final stretch of the NHL season, something Commissioner Bettman has previously panned. A team loaded with talented skaters who represent their home countries may resume the NHL slate more physically depleted than a team with comparatively few national team members who spent the three-week hiatus resting rather than playing. Adding the Olympic hockey tournament to the NHL’s 82-game season can also increase injury risk.
“I don’t care where in the world it is going to be or at what stage throughout the season,” said Victor Hedman, a Tampa Bay Lightning defenseman who plans to play for Sweden in Beijing. “It might be my last Olympics and it will be unbelievable to get that opportunity.”
Second, there remains great uncertainty about the stringent health protocols the Beijing 2022 Organizing Committee will deploy for February’s Olympics. Games participants who test positive are required to serve a 21-day quarantine in a Chinese facility, which could potentially keep skaters away from their domestic NHL teams through March. Additionally, strict contact-tracing measures require anyone exposed to a person with a confirmed case to enter isolation, with limited options for testing out, or leave the country immediately if they have received a negative result within 24 hours and are asymptomatic.
These protocols are giving some players pause. San Jose Sharks defenseman Erik Karlsson, a 2014 silver medalist with Sweden, has said, “I don’t understand why anyone would agree to take the risks of being in the position that we will be in once we board that plane and go to China.”
Write to Laine Higgins at laine.higgins@wsj.com
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