VANCOUVER – Knowing that players lived through a COVID nightmare last April, the Vancouver Canucks are trying to do everything they can to listen to their most important employees now. Unfortunately, just staying home was not a viable option Wednesday evening.
With four players already under the National Hockey League’s COVID-19 protocols, but no new positive tests among players on Wednesday, the Canucks took an evening charter to San Jose for Thursday’s scheduled game against the Sharks.
After the number of players in protocol doubled on Tuesday, Canucks assistant coach Jason King was the only member of the organization who went into self-isolation on Wednesday.
Re-energized under new coach Bruce Boudreau, the Canucks have won five straight games and, miraculously, closed within the vapour trails of the Western Conference playoff race.
But instead of excitement, Canucks players probably felt something more like apprehension as they flew across the border. If the team’s small string of positive COVID tests resume, players may be spending Christmas quarantining in their California hotel rooms.
At least their partners and families back in Vancouver would be safe.
Editor’s Note: The COVID-19 situation, in the NHL and around the world, is constantly evolving. Readers in Canada can consult the country’s public health website for the latest.
The under-reported aspect of last spring’s devastating coronavirus outbreak among the Canucks was the impact it had on players’ partners and families. The idea of making your own children sick is terrorizing, and those memories will be haunting all the players who survived last April’s pre-vaccines horror.
Nineteen players from their NHL roster contracted the dangerous P.1/Gamma variant and one of them, veteran centre and leader Brandon Sutter, has yet to play this season as he grapples with COVID’s “long-haul” symptoms.
Returning Canucks players know first-hand how threatening and dangerous an outbreak can be.
When the team learned early Tuesday that Luke Schenn and Juho Lammikko had tested positive for COVID, it was the players who urged Boudreau and new Canucks president Jim Rutherford to cancel the morning skate.
Given the option, Canucks players probably would have chosen to stay home on Wednesday rather than travel to the U.S. for a single road game. But with a clear slate of tests for players, there was no choice but to go.
“It’s very important we listen to them,” Rutherford, not yet a week into his new job, told Sportsnet earlier on Wednesday. “But it’s not just this case. It’s everything we do as a team. The players have to play; that’s their job and they don’t get to make final decisions on certain things. But they’re such an important part to us and they need to be heard on everything, especially something this critical. When they voice their opinion, we listen and we act accordingly to the best we can.”
This declaration by Rutherford is significant.
During the outbreak last spring, recovering Canucks players were not consulted about the revised schedule the NHL, in partnership with the Players’ Association, was pushing on them. It wasn’t until winger J.T. Miller famously and passionately voiced concerns during a Zoom call with reporters that the league took a more serious look at the well-being of players.
“We’ve tried to talk about the number one priority is players’ health and their families’ safety,” Miller said on April 14, 2021. “And it’s almost impossible to achieve that with what they have asked us to do here on our return.
“It’s going to be very challenging and not very safe, if you’re asking me. I think it’s just a little kind of crazy.”
It was one of Miller’s finest moments. He was heard.
Rutherford, who was home in Raleigh, N.C., last spring after resigning from the Pittsburgh Penguins, is listening to players now.
He said this is part of the culture he’s trying to build.
“There’s a trust level, right?” he explained. “People have different jobs, but the fact of matter is, we’re all in this together and we’re looking for the same results. Whatever we can do to help the players succeed, that’s what we should be doing. And if we don’t know what they’re thinking, we can’t always make the right decision.
“It’s important to listen to them at all times, especially with something this serious.”
Rapid antigen testing, part of the NHL’s enhanced protocols for teams with COVID-positive players, flagged Canuck Brad Hunt before Tuesday night’s win against Columbus.
But the more complete PCR results from morning testing did not arrive until after the opening faceoff, which meant defenceman Tucker Poolman played eight shifts with COVID before he was ordered off the ice and into quarantine.
None of Poolman, Hunt, Lammikko and Schenn were with the Canucks last season.
The NHL has noted that lab capacities and capabilities vary from city to city, so it’s impossible to have one, tight standard for turnaround time on testing. Attitudes about private and public healthcare are also different in Canada and the United States.
But teams like the Canucks must find a way to ensure they know before a game each player’s health status, so that others aren’t put at risk as they were when Poolman took the ice.
“I can’t answer that,” Rutherford said when asked about shortening the gap between testing and results. “We can just do the best we can to get the tests to the lab as quickly as possible and hopefully get them back at the suggested time. But, you know, there’s more people dealing with the virus than just the hockey team, and we have to respect each other. We are trying and we hope that we get those test results back in an appropriate time so we can make the decisions we need to make.
“I’m concerned about the virus like everybody else. Nobody knows enough about where this is all going. We live in a different world and we have to make adjustments as we go. We have to learn as we go. But we’re doing the best we can to stay on top of this to keep everybody safe.”
As we’re seeing, it’s impossible to keep everyone safe. But teams have to try.
• Rutherford has made his first hire, as the Canucks announced late Wednesday that Calgary Flames pro scout Derek Clancey was joining Vancouver as an assistant GM overseeing professional and amateur scouting.
Rutherford said at his introductory press conference on Monday that he had already targeted one AGM and hoped to get permission to hire him this week. The Flames did not stand in the way of Clancey’s promotion.
The 52-year-old spent 15 seasons with the Penguins and was director of player personnel before leaving the organization last season following Rutherford’s resignation.
