According to the latest reports, we still haven't seen the full impact of the Vancouver Canucks' Covid-19 outbreak.
Patrick Johnston of
The Province is reporting that more names are expected to be added to the team's Covid Protocol list on Saturday — and that the Brazilian P.1 variant is at play in at least some of the cases.
Over at TSN, Farhan Lalji adds to Darren Dreger's report, revealing that at least some of the Vancouver players have not just tested positive for the virus, but are experiencing severe symptoms.
Of course, Adam Gaudette was the first player to test positive, pulled from practice on Tuesday as soon as his results came in. He and his wife, Micaela, are often active on social media, and Micaela spoke to Patrick Johnston about their situation on Thursday.
"Micaela woke up with a headache on Thursday morning and felt a bit tired, but otherwise has been doing all right," Johnston wrote. "Adam, on the other hand, still has his sense of taste and smell, but feels achy and lethargic and has chills. He also didn’t start showing symptoms till Tuesday night, more than 30 hours after his positive test was taken.
"So far for him, it’s like a very bad case of the flu, Micaela said."
On Friday, Micaela posted to her Instagram Story that she was sweating like crazy while also feeling chilled, so it sounds like her symptoms did become more severe.
So — my first thought is that send best wishes to all players, coaches, team staff and their families that are affected. Hoping for speedy and complete recoveries for everyone.
Secondly — when I saw the list of player names on the protocol list on Friday, my first thought was that there would almost certainly be more to come. This group is a total cross-section of the team — old guys, young guys, forwards, defensemen, a goaltender, big-minute players, role players, Canadians, Americans, a Swede and a Frenchman.
In addition to Gaudette, Travis Hamonic was added to the list on Thursday before five more names on Friday: Alex Edler, Braden Holtby, Quinn Hughes, Zack MacEwen and Antoine Roussel.
One member of the taxi squad is also in protocol, but his name is not required to be released; I've seen it mentioned that he might be a close contact. And as much as we're hearing about players being quite ill, just because their names are on the list here doesn't necessarily mean that they're experiencing symptoms — or even that they've tested positive. They could also be close contacts.
For the moment, nothing further has been announced as far as the team's schedule. As of Saturday, they're set to start practicing again on Tuesday and get back into game action on Thursday in Calgary.
With five and a half weeks left in the regular season as it's currently constructed, the league will try to postpone as few games as safely possible.
To that end, Chris Johnston of Sportsnet is reporting on Saturday morning that the Canucks have issued a call to Utica to start bringing players back into Canada, to serve as reinforcements if they can't ice a full lineup when it's time to play again.
Of course, the Utica Comets have had Covid issues of their own. The team hasn't played since March 10, and is now targeting April 9 for a return to action.
Rick Dhaliwal is reporting that up to 10 Utica players tested positive, and some just got back onto the ice for the first time on Friday after a long layoff.
We do know that Kole Lind is now on the taxi squad.
He came up to Vancouver a little while ago to get treatment for a broken nose, so he has completed his quarantine and will be ready to go when the schedule resumes.
The NHL typically releases its daily Covid Protocol list sometime between 2-3 p.m. PT. That's when we should find how how many more players came back with positive tests on Friday night, and get a bit more of an idea of where things go from here.
As I said earlier, the first concern is clearly for the players' health and the safety of the group. This scenario is also a very loud warning bell, for folks in B.C. in particular, that what we've learned about Covid over the last year doesn't necessarily still hold true now that these new variants are in the mix.
From a practical standpoint, none of this can be making Jim Benning's job any easier, either, with the trade deadline now just nine days away.
If there's any bright side, I guess it's the fact that hopefully every day that passes gets Elias Pettersson one day closer to being ready for game action again?
If you missed it, Jay Beagle has also now been moved to LTIR. He has now missed seven games with an undisclosed injury, and played last on March 10.
And there is one Canucks-related game to keep an eye on. Vasily Podkolzin and SKA will play Game 2 of their KHL Western Conference semifinal against CSKA Moscow on Sunday morning at 7 a.m. PT. SKA was shut out by a score of 3-0 in Game 1 on Friday in a quiet game for Podkolzin, who played 12:12 and had one shot on goal.
Stay safe!
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