from Larry Brooks of the New York Post,
They are all trying to do the right thing here, the NHL and NHLPA, trying not to shut down the business and not to shut down the league in response to the omicron variant that is sweeping through much of the U.S. and Canada.
But with cases piling up and teams being decimated by multiple positives, maintaining even a veneer of competitive integrity seems to be becoming impossible. It is simply not fair for the league to insist that teams play with skeleton rosters. It is not fair to teams and it is not fair to the paying customers who on any given night might watch their team play with a hybrid NHL-AHL lineup befitting of an exhibition match.
And that is why the NHL is probably going to have to careen into the scheduled Dec. 24-25-26 holiday recess a handful of days early and extend it for a few days on the other side as well in order to get some sort of educated lay of the land.
Don’t roll your eyes at me and do not even attempt to infer any political partisanship on my behalf. I am boosted, I wear a mask where required or asked to do so, I support mandates and yes, of course, I am a member of a vulnerable class, but if players weren’t tested so regularly, up to 90 percent of them wouldn’t even know they had contracted the virus. They are asymptomatic and pose little threat to their vaccinated teammates.
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