Dallas Stars coach Rick Bowness was removed from the bench after the second period of Sunday’s game against Carolina Hurricanes due to the COVID-19 protocols.
Bowness, 66, is the league’s oldest head coach. He is fully vaccinated, the team said. Assistant coach John Stevens took over as head coach for the rest of Sunday’s game, which Dallas lost 1-0.
General manager Jim Nill later said that the team believes it was a false positive result for the virus and that Bowness is not showing any symptoms.
“He scored very low, but he is still positive,” said Nill. “For security reasons, he was removed. But yes, he was vaccinated. His first vaccination was sometime in January. He got both vaccines. ”
Nill said the team is in contact with the league secretary and that each side has agreed to take Bowness out of the game just in case.
“Everyone decided that this was the right situation because of Rick’s situation, that he is at low risk and because of the test score,” said Nill.
The result came back during the interval of the second period, which is why Bowness was removed in the middle of the game. No other member of the Stars team has tested positive.
Stars had a coronavirus outbreak on the training ground after 17 team members tested positive, which delayed the start of the season. Entering Sunday, Dallas goalkeeper Anton Khudobin was the only Stars player on the NHL’s COVID protocol list, with what the team also believes to be a false positive.
“He came back negative, then the same situation,” said Nill. “He was a very weak positive test and passed both protocols and had two negatives and is now free to travel with the team. ”
According to Nill, most of the team and their companions have already been vaccinated, or have already been infected with COVID-19. Khudobin was among the Stars players who contracted the virus in the off-season.
The NHL is currently dealing with another outbreak in the Northern Division. More than half of the Vancouver Canucks squad tested positive last week, while the team remains on pause. Sources told ESPN that some Canucks players are symptomatic, including at least one player who needed an IV for dehydration over the weekend.
The Associated Press contributed to this report.