Tampa Bay Lightning defenseman Ryan McDonagh (27) celebrates with goaltender Andrei Vasilevskiy (88) as Vegas Golden Knights center Jonathan Marchessault (81) skates away after the Lightning beat the Golden Knights 4-3 at T-Mobile Arena Tuesday, Dec. 21, 2021.
Tuesday, Dec. 21, 2021 | 11:16 p.m.
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There was an ominous feeling as the final horn sounded Tuesday night at T-Mobile Arena.
It wasn’t that the Golden Knights lost 4-3 to the Tampa Bay Lightning, it was that this was the final scheduled NHL game until Monday — with only an optimistic hope that it’s not longer.
COVID-19 has decimated the hockey calendar over the past two weeks, with 50 postponed games, including the Golden Knights’ Thursday contest against the the Los Angeles Kings. Instead, the league will enter a league-wide pause, which began as soon as Vegas’ game ended, and will resume with COVID tests on Sunday and games next week.
That is the hope, after all.
The NHL is the only sports league to pause its season, extending its standard holiday break from three to five games.
Other leagues have different approaches. NBA Commissioner Adam Silver said he couldn’t see the logic in pausing its season, while the NFL has reduced testing for vaccinated players and shortened the process of returning to play.
Winnipeg goalie Connor Hellebuyck said this morning pausing the season was “overkill,” and Detroit general manager Steve Yzerman said yesterday the league shouldn’t test vaccinated players who are not showing symptoms.
Reilly Smith, a veteran leader of the Golden Knights, agrees.
“We want to play. I think the NBA has taken a good approach and people who aren’t symptomatic — I think you’re only going to put fuel on the fire,” Smith said. “This thing isn’t going to go away, so if we can play games I think we want to play.
“A lot of people support what Yzerman said. I wish that was our approach.”
The thought among reducing testing is that since almost the entire league is vaccinated, and so many positive COVID cases have been minor or asymptomatic, players should be allowed to play through it.
Vegas defenseman Shea Theodore explained the frustration that a player may only know he has COVID because of the league-mandated daily testing.
“Yeah it’s definitely tough with guys being asymptomatic and not really knowing,” he said. “I think you just have to be cautious of your surroundings, of who you’re with. It’s a sticky situation. A lot of people are trying to figure it out and it’s something we’re going to have to battle through going forward here.”
The Golden Knights entered two players, defenseman Alex Pietrangelo and forward Evgenii Dadonov, into league protocols today and Tampa Bay coach Jon Cooper entered protocols hours before the game. Meanwhile the other game on today’s schedule, Washington at Philadelphia, was postponed.
But if Pietrangelo and Dadonov entered protocols this morning after spending a week on the road with their teammates — and Dadonov took part in Tuesday’s morning skate before his positive test came back — the Golden Knights arguably have more positive tests waiting in the wings. The team may not know until players return for tests on Sunday.
The Golden Knights aren't scheduled to play again until Monday at home against the Colorado Avalanche.
“I don’t know. The world we live in, I have no idea what’s going to happen tomorrow,” coach Pete DeBoer said. “I think our group’s ready for a break, as much mentally as physically.
“Hopefully we’re back playing on the 27th.”
No one wants hockey to be gone any longer than Monday. Things change fast in the world of COVID-19 though, and a five-day break with a return to action next week can only be called a best-case scenario.
“I think the league is doing a good a job as they can, trying to stop the spread. There’s only so much you can do,” Theodore said. “Definitely going to be aware of it and this time of year you want to try and get a little lucky with some of it.”
