As the number of Flyers on the league’s COVID protocol list on Friday night grew, a potential situation increased in likelihood for the NHL.
At the very least, the situation appears to be growing in concern and complexity with the upcoming weekend’s outdoor games approaching.
Oskar Lindblom and Scott Laughton were added to the NHL COVID protocol list on Friday. The Flyers now have seven players listed as out because of the COVID protocol. Jakub Voracek, Morgan Frost, Claude Giroux, Justin Braun and Travis Sanheim remained on the list, which is updated daily by the NHL around 5 pm ET.
There are several factors that contribute to why a player can be placed on the list of COVID protocols. A player absent because of the COVID protocol does not necessarily mean that the player’s test is positive for the coronavirus.
Lindblom was diagnosed with Ewing’s sarcoma in December 2019 and completed his radiation treatments last July, when he was found to have no evidence of cancer. The 24-year-old Swede has remained cancer-free, participating in two games of the 2020 playoff and playing all 13 games of the club’s regular season this year.
Per league protocols, all teams receive daily COVID-19 tests. If they are not on the road, the Flyers pass their tests at the Virtua Center Flyers Skate Zone in Voorhees, New Jersey. As of last Sunday, Flyers have had new additions to the COVID protocol list every day, except Monday and Wednesday. Voracek and Frost were added on Thursday, while Giroux and Braun were added on Tuesday. Sanheim has been sidelined since Sunday, when he lost the Flyers’ 7-4 victory over the Capitals for COVID protocol. Lindblom, Laughton, Voracek, Giroux and Braun played in the game and practiced on Monday.
It is not known how much Frost was around the Flyers, if at all, recently. The 21-year-old center is on the injured reserve and underwent shoulder surgery last week at the Steadman Clinic in Vail, Colorado.
Two days ago, the NHL identified Monday as the Flyers’ appropriate return date to practice. The next game scheduled for the Flyers is Thursday next week against the Rangers at the Wells Fargo Center. The team is then due to travel to Stateline, Nevada, to play against the Bruins on February 21 in one of the NHL Outdoors games in Lake Tahoe next weekend.
We will have to wait and see if these plans will remain in place or if the NHL will be forced to listen again.
On different days this week, the Flyers had games on Tuesday, Thursday, Saturday and Sunday all postponed because of the COVID protocols. The Devils, who were originally supposed to play against the Flyers on Thursday and Saturday, 18 players on Friday’s COVID protocol list. New Jersey hasn’t played since January 31.
With Sunday’s Flyers-Rangers game postponed, the league is clearly trying to give as much time as possible for the Flyers’ situation to improve and eventually calm down before the outdoor game.
Are other changes peaking? Stay tuned.
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