Penguins forge on through a changing landscape for covid-19

Mike Sullivan lost what could have been a dream job on Wednesday.

But he hasn’t lost perspective.

With covid-19 impacting seemingly every granular detail of the NHL’s business, the league opted to pull out of participating in the upcoming Olympics last week and as a result, Sullivan won’t be able to coach the United States’ Olympic men’s team, a station he has repeatedly described as an “honor.”

He is obviously disappointed.

But not obtuse to the bigger picture.

“Am I disappointed that I’m not going to have an opportunity to participate in the Olympics with the NHL players? Sure I am,” the Penguins coach said on Monday. “But I also feel very fortunate to do what I do, regardless of what’s come our way here the last couple of weeks with respect to the business of the game and all of these things. A lot of that stuff is out of our control. All I know is I get up every day and I’m excited about what I do. I feel very fortunate to come to the rink and do what we do every day.

“Certainly, there’s a whole lot of people that are in way worse circumstances that we are right now.”

Sullivan’s empathetic worldview noted, the Penguins’ circumstances got a little bit worse Monday when the team announced six players — forwards Teddy Blueger, Evan Rodrigues and Dominik Simon, defensemen John Marino and Mike Matheson and goaltender Tristan Jarry — were placed into the NHL’s protocols for covid-19.

An optimistic report on the sextet, though with few specifics, was offered.

“For the most part, everybody is doing very well,” Sullivan said. “There are a couple of the guys that have mild, almost like cold-like symptoms. But most of them are doing very well. There’s a handful of them that are asymptomatic. None of them, to this point, have anything significant.”

Obviously, needing to place what could reasonably be a group of starters for any game into isolation for medical reasons is far from ideal. But it’s kind of par for the course in the NHL at the moment.

Over the past two-plus weeks, as the more transmissible but less severe omicron variant of the virus has spread across North America, the NHL has had more than 100 players placed into protocols for covid-19 while a total of 70 games have been postponed as of Monday evening.

Four of those games involve the Penguins. Home contests against the New Jersey Devils (Dec. 21) and the Philadelphia Flyers (Dec. 23) and road contests against the Boston Bruins (Dec. 27) and Toronto Maple Leafs (Dec. 29) have already been held up. And it’s questionable if their next scheduled game, a road game against the Ottawa Senators on Dec. 31, will go on as planned given their roster limitations as well as those of the Senators, whose top two goaltenders on the NHL roster — Anton Forsberg and Filip Gustavsson — are in the league’s protocols.

The NHL and the NHL Players’ Association have been working throughout the pandemic in kneading the minutia of the collective bargaining agreement to make playing through these realities practical. On Sunday, both parties announced the temporary return of taxi squads, which will allow NHL clubs to keep minor leaguers on hand in the event incumbent members of the roster are unavailable.

“The main goal is to keep going,” said Penguins defenseman Kris Letang, the team’s representative to the NHLPA. “Try to have a season as normal as possible. Have the games be played. But obviously, a lot of teams are getting covid. The farm teams also, so it’s tough to call up when you have an outbreak in the (minor leagues). Right now, it’s just kind of a day-to-day analysis of what’s going on around the league and what can be done to play games. That’s all we know right now. It’s kind of day to day.”

While other sports leagues currently in season are also dealing with rising numbers of covid-19 cases, some — such as the NFL — have opted to test vaccinated individuals who are asymptomatic less frequently.

In contrast, the NHL has resumed testing on a daily basis.

Part of the reason for that frequency is the different medical laws between the United States and Canada, a country with far fewer medical resources. Further to that, the NHL has seven franchises in Canada while the NFL is entirely based within the United States.

“I think the Canadian border is maybe an issue about testing,” said Letang, a native of Montreal. “I was a guy that when (the pandemic first impacted the NHL in March of 2020), I was big on testing. As of now, I’m kind of trying to see it positively that it brings something.

“But at the end of the day, I think it’s going to stay like this. Covid is not going to disappear tomorrow. So we have to find a way to do our job. It seems like other leagues are doing something different. It looks like it’s working. I’m pretty sure the league is going to look into it to have a different standard and different protocol to make sure that we can play in a safe environment.”

On Monday, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention shortened its recommendations for isolation and quarantine from 10 to five days for those who test positive.

Currently, the NHL’s protocols call for individuals who test positive to isolate for 10 days. It is unclear if the league will follow the CDC’s guidance, especially given the different regulations in place in Canada. As of Monday, Canada’s federal government still recommends a 10-day isolation period.

All of this appears to be a moving target for the NHL. And that has largely been the case since the league’s day-to-day operations were initially disrupted in March of 2020.

“The goalposts move every couple of days it seems,” Sullivan said. “I’m grateful that the guys that have got covid to this point, we’ve had no serious cases. Which is a big deal. First and foremost, we want to keep everybody healthy. That, for me, is the ultimate priority.

“We’re grateful in that regard that we haven’t had any circumstances outside of that. Hopefully, the guys we have in covid protocol can continue to be asymptomatic and/or (have) very mild symptoms. We can get these guys back in the fold as soon as we can.”