from Ted Kulfan of the Detroit News,

“Our mentality going into the season was it’s a 101-day season, with 32 games, and it’s not a bad sacrifice to make,” Griffins coach Ben Simon said. “We’re all doing the same stuff, giving up different things, in order to make this happen. You have to be aware of your decisions at the rink and away from the rink, and how they can impact if this season is on the rails, or not.”

The Griffins have kept things on track – and tried to make light of it along the way.

“We’re just having fun around each other in practice and when we have a long layoff between games,” defenseman Dennis Cholowski said. “We all know it’s a weird schedule, but we’re going through it together and trying to enjoy each other’s company.”...

“The players have been great, they’ve been great soldiers adhering to the protocols, the mask wearing at the rink,” Simon said.

Two different locker rooms are being utilized at Van Andel Arena, to again, limit any chances of possible exposure.

“It is strange because you can potentially go through a day, and be in either locker room one or two, and you see each other on the ice but don’t see each other otherwise,” Simon said. “We’re trying to mitigate our exposures.”

Meetings are held in small groups, and players are utilizing an app for scouting reports, game plans and video presentations.

The Griffins only travel to Cleveland, Chicago and Iowa, the only three teams they see on the schedule, and do so day of game (they do travel to Iowa the day before).

They travel in two buses, again to limit any potential contact tracing.

“The two buses is a little weird, I’ve never done that before,” Cholowski said. ”But everything is a little weird. None of us have had to cope with anything like this before. We’re all just going with the flow and go with it.”

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