Penguins take NHL's changes to covid-19 protocol in stride

Just over three weeks into the season, the NHL revised several of its rules pertaining to covid-19 protocols.

The league announced the alterations Thursday afternoon, a day after 40 players were identified on the league’s daily listing of absences related to covid-19.

In a statement, NHL commissioner Gary Bettman indicated less than half of the almost 100 players who have been listed since the start of the season on Jan. 13 have tested positive.

Currently, defenseman John Marino is the Penguins’ only entry on the list.

But with four teams — the Buffalo Sabres, Minnesota Wild, New Jersey Devils and Vegas Golden Knights — being forced to disrupt day-to-day operations in some fashion because of covid-19, the NHL announced four proposals before Thursday’s games.

• The partitions of shielding behind the benches will be removed to improve the quality of air flow.

• Players and coaches are being advised to arrive to playing venues no earlier than an hour and 45 minutes before the start of a game. Typically, players are required to be at the arena two hours before the game. And coaches will often spend upwards of 16 hours or more of a day in the building, primarily preparing for a game.

After games, players and coaches are advised to vacate the premises as soon as possible.

Additionally, all meetings “shall be conducted virtually, to the greatest extent possible.”

• Occupied dressing room stalls are now to be spaced six feet apart. It is unclear how that goal will be practically realized given the physical limitations of many dressing rooms, particularly those for visiting teams. The NHL has given teams a deadline of Feb. 10 to submit plans to meet this requirement.

• The league is considering portable air cleaners in the bench areas to improve “indoor air quality and mitigate airborne viral transmission.”

The limits on direct communications with players appears to be foremost on Penguins coach Mike Sullivan’s mind.

“A virtual environment is very different than face-to-face,” Sullivan said via video conference.

“It’s a different experience all together. It’s something that none of us are really used to. We’re going to have to figure out that challenge as we go through the process here. But obviously, as a coach, the human interaction is such a critically important component of trying to maximize the group that you have and trying to optimize the performance. A lot of what we do is built on relationships and it’s built on human emotion. It’s hard to have that same effect in a virtual world.”

While acknowledging the disruption to their routines, the Penguins appear to be very aware of life outside of their own insular world.

“At the end of the day, this is giving us an opportunity to play the sport we love and get a season in,” defenseman Mike Matheson said.

“It’s — I don’t want to say annoying — but inconvenient in certain ways. Some of the things, I think we’ve been doing a good job of reminding ourselves of what it means and what it leads to. And at the same time, there’s a lot of people around the world that are struggling a lot more to get through their day. So for us to make sure that we’re keeping our masks on and things like that, seems pretty minor to be able to then go out and continue to play hockey.”