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The Canadiens have been adding to their lengthy injury list almost daily this season and yesterday was no exception. Both Mathieu Perreault and Joel Armia were put on injured reserved, but what’s more worrying is that Arturri Lehkonen was placed on the NHL’s Covid protocol.
So far, there are a lot of teams that are worst hit by the Covid than the Canadiens but the fact that we are starting to see cases is a worrying trend. It started with former GM Marc Bergevin, then it was Brendan Gallagher and Sami Niku’s turn and now, Lehkonen lends on there. Meanwhile, there are now over 100 NHL players on the protocol list and that number is growing at a ridiculous rate.
The league has been clear that it doesn’t want to take a break in the schedule but unfortunately as we’ve all learnt in the last couple of years, we don’t always get to do what we want and often, we actually have to do things we hoped we never would have to do. Thursday, the Canadiens’ game against the Flyers was played in front of an empty building which means the team lost a couple of millions in gate money, add to the the concession stands, the souvenirs and all that jazz and that’s a significant hole in the Habs’ revenue.
The players still owe money to the owners because of the escrow havoc which the pandemic brought around so no one want to play games in front of empty buildings and forego revenues right now. With the Omicron variant breathing some new life into this pandemic, the League should really do the right thing and take a break. So what if it messes with the scheduling? It’s not like it’s never been done before is it? It’s not ideal but it’s better than pushing ahead and seeing teams ice AHL rosters because the main cast is on the Covid protocol.
Yesterday’s Habs practice was cancelled as a precautionary measure and today, the Canadiens were meant to travel to New York in readiness for Monday’s game against the Islanders but a decision was made to practice in Brossard this morning and only travel on Monday morning. Looks like the Habs are erring on the side of caution and perhaps thinking that right now, nothing is set in stone…