via Patrick Johnston of the Vancouver Province,

The NHL’s COVID-19 protocol this season, agreed to by the players’ association, places a heavy burden on unvaccinated players.

But the vaccinated part of the team also has to deal with those burdens. Things like potential masking in dressing rooms if they aren’t able to maintain six-feet distancing from the unvaccinated player.

Social distancing measures being put in place on planes and busses. It’s surely annoying for the vaccinated players to have to deal with these extra bits.

The unvaccinated player themselves can’t leave the team hotel on the road. They have to take a PCR test every day. Costs borne by the team to deal with the unvaccinated player are counted 50 per cent against the players’ share of revenues.

The rules were designed to make things uncomfortable for unvaccinated players … but somehow four guys are still shrugging their shoulders and the teams are somehow going along with it.

If Tyler Bertuzzi and Mackenzie Blackwood weren’t so important to their teams, it seems likely they’d have been handled like Zac Rinaldo. Or even like Travis Hamonic.