Interesting news from the Penguins’ latest opponent as the NHL fined the Washington Capitals $ 100,000 and added four players to its COVID protocol absenteeism list.
The four players that have been added to the list are all very well known:
Travel Protocol: Each member of the club’s travel group must stay in a single room. No person may let guests or other staff into their room (with the exception of cleaning / technical staff, if necessary … as long as no person is present)
– Elliotte Friedman (@FriedgeHNIC) January 21, 2021
Here is Capitals’ statement on the matter:
As Japers Rink Details:
The instruction builds on the existing reporting. Mainly, Ovechkin, Orlov, Kuznetsov, and Samsonov appear to be outside of the areas approved by the team at some point (presumably without masks). However, at this point in time, we don’t know if Caps players have tested positive for COVID and how long they may be out.
As of Wednesday evening, much is still unknown. What exactly did these players do, who at times gathered in a hotel room in Pittsburgh – where they stayed from Saturday night until before Tuesday’s game? That seems pretty harmless enough considering they’re already crammed together on the benches in team buses, planes, locker rooms, breathing hard and all that good stuff in a tight space for a long time.
But does this situation go deeper? Were there other non-gamers who made up that heavy fine? How did the league even find out about it? Did any (or all) of these players test positive to indicate they had broken the procedures? All the answers to these questions are currently unknown or not currently reported.
The last question is probably the most important, as these players were in very close contact with the penguins on Sunday and last night. It would be a messy situation if it emerged that multiple players could potentially spread the virus to another team if it did. Again, we are not sure at this point whether this is a possibility. Or is not a possibility.
An important reminder is that just listing it in the “NHL Protocol” does not necessarily mean that a player has tested positive for the virus.
Kind reminder that players on the NHL’s COVID log list may be absent for several reasons: an unconfirmed positive COVID-19 test, a confirmed case of COVID-19, symptom isolation, contact tracing, or quarantine for travel reasons.
– Chris Johnston (@reporterchris) January 15, 2021
Through testing, we will know as of Wednesday that the Penguins currently have no players on the NHL’s COVID log, and it will certainly be of great attention in the coming days to hope that there are no more players from Pittsburgh (or Washington) for the time being List added.
It also remains unknown how long the Capital players will be out or how long it will take them to clear the NHL log. The capitals are set to play in Washington next Friday. The Penguins will also play against NY Rangers in Pittsburgh on Friday. The NHL had to postpone several games in the first week of the season.
Comments are closed.