VANCOUVER – December 29th, 2021
Big news today as the IIHF announced that they will be canceling the World Junior tournament indefinitely and no date has been announced to as when or even if they will be rescheduling the tournament. This comes as a huge blow as Canada was heating up and were dominating their games thus far. There were supposed to be four games played today but two of those games had to get forfeited due to positive test results. With so many games having to be forfeited and the tournament was only in the preliminary round, the IIHF felt as if they had no choice but to cancel the tournament. Up to five on ice officials also tested positive for Covid and the committee thought they would run out of on ice officials to call the games if nothing was done.
In Vancouver Canucks news, two players tested positive earlier today before the morning skate along with a coaching staff member and were all put on the Covid 19 protocol list. No player tested positive yesterday before the team boarded their jet, all three positive test results came today. Players that tested positive were Forwards Brock Boeser and Phillip Di Giuseppe, the name of the staff member was not released. Both players didn’t skate this morning for precautionary reasons. It is unlikely that the game tonight versus the Anaheim Ducks gets Canceled but you never know with the NHL. The Ducks also have four of their own players in Covid Protocol as of now but two of those players are already out on injured reserve.
In NHL news the league announced today that they would be cutting down isolation requirements to only five days to players who test positive for Covid but that doesn’t apply to Canada. Canada still requires ten days in isolation if put in Covid 19 protocol. There are 25 teams based in the U.S. and only seven in Canada. This only applies to the U.S. teams because of the stricter regulations in Canada. Players and staff can only return in five days if there are no symptoms.
The NBA and NFL have already lifted many restrictions like cutting the isolation requirement in half, and by not placing players and staff members who test positive but are asymptomatic on the Covid 19 list. These easier regulations make it easier to continue playing games and not having to postpone them. The NHL already lifted their self-isolation requirements, so I fully expect the league to follow suit on other regulations too. The NHL so far has postponed 75 games due to Covid 19 so it’s highly unlikely they will want to do more and lose any further revenue.