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New cases are soaring in Quebec and yesterday, the government announced a new batch of restrictions to try and get things under control. Schools are now shut until January 10, restaurants can only open between 5:00 AM and 10:00 PM, bars, casinos, cinemas and venues are once more shut down while sporting events are no longer opened to fans. The Canadiens’ games until Christmas were all in the USA anyways but there is no guarantee that the situation will be better after Christmas and right now, things are looking pretty bleak.
Team Canada has decided to pull out of the Spengler Cup tournament and the list of Habs players on the Covid list just keeps on growing. Brendan Gallagher and Sami Niku are now all better but Arturri Lehkonen, Laurent Dauphin and Mike Hoffman are now on the Covid protocol and there’s no telling who might land on there in the next few days. Today, Quebec reports over 5000 cases and a lot of those are in Montreal, including the city’s mayor Valerie Plante.
Needless to say Habs fans won’t be able to watch their favorites for a while, but as of now, the World Junior Championship is still scheduled to go ahead in Edmonton and Red Deer Alberta. When Canada plays it’s first game on December 26th, it’s a Habs prospect that will be Canada’s captain as Kaiden Ghule has been entrusted with the C. With 5 days to go before puck drop, the tournament could still be cancelled but so far, so good.
Finally, both the NHL and the NHLPA have agreed that the players will not be going to the Beijing Olympics, with all the postponement, it had almost become a foregone conclusion, but it’s still good to know where we stand. The question now becomes will the Olympics even go ahead as Omicron rages on?
This current hiatus for the Habs happens just when Carey Price and Paul Byron were set to join the team on the upcoming road trip and resume training with their teammates. Now though, just like every other Hab and pretty much fans out there, they have nothing to do but enjoy the holiday season with their families.