On March 17, 2020, the Ottawa Senators introduced one in every of their gamers has examined constructive for the coronavirus. The undisclosed participant has delicate signs and is in isolation. The staff is at the moment within the technique of notifying anybody who might have are available in shut contact with the participant and staff docs have requested all members of the Senators group to stay remoted, monitor their well being, and search recommendation of staff medical employees ought to they expertise any signs.
In an announcement, the staff stated, “The well being of our gamers, followers, and neighborhood stays our highest precedence. We are going to proceed to do all the pieces we will to assist guarantee our gamers, employees, followers and the higher neighborhood stay protected and wholesome throughout this time of uncertainty as a result of unfold of the coronavirus.”
That is the primary recognized case of the coronavirus within the NHL because the league suspended operations on March 12, 2020.
Notably, simply earlier than the league suspended operations, the Senators have been on a California street journey, with video games schedule on March 7, March 10, and March 11 in opposition to the San Jose Sharks, Anaheim Geese, and Los Angeles Kings. The Senators performed their recreation in opposition to the Sharks on March 7, 2020, regardless of Santa Clara County’s suggestion in opposition to giant public gatherings simply days earlier, and the Senators stayed in California for video games in opposition to the Anaheim Geese and Los Angeles Kings earlier than the NHL season was suspended.
The Senators’ March 11 recreation in opposition to the Los Angeles Kings, on the Staples Heart, got here simply in the future after the NBA’s Brooklyn Nets performed on the similar enviornment in opposition to the Los Angeles Lakers. Just lately, the Nets introduced that Kevin Durant and three different Nets gamers have contracted COVID-19. Whereas many have speculated the gamers might have been uncovered to the virus on the Staples Heart, reviews that the Senators used the identical dressing room because the Nets have been just lately retracted. Additional, any hypothesis that NHL and NBA gamers contracted the virus on the Staples Heart is predicated on pure conjecture as it’s unclear if the undefined Senators participant attended the March 11 recreation or if gamers contracted the virus on the Staples Heart or totally different areas.
Regardless, it’s clear we could also be with out skilled hockey for an prolonged time period. A timeline for the return of the NHL is unclear as Commissioner Gary Bettman has merely stated the NHL season will resume when it’s “prudent and protected to begin again up.” However, the American Hockey League , the first developmental league for the NHL, just lately introduced that its indefinite suspension is not going to be lifted earlier than Might 2020 and the Kontinental Hockey League , Russia’s equal to the NHL, introduced that it could droop operations till April 10, 2020.
