June 28: Armia was not present at morning skate, but is on a private jet to Tampa according to interim head coach Luke Richardson. Armia has been cleared from the COVID protocol and is a game-time decision. Evans was a full participant and is no longer wearing a non-contact sweater, according to Chris Johnston of Sportsnet.
June 27: On the eve of the Stanley Cup Final, the Montreal Canadiens have issued some bad news. Forward Joel Armia was absent at practice on Sunday morning and without any previous indication of injury, the speculation began. GM Marc Bergevin confirmed the prevailing theory to the media afterward: Armia is in COVID Protocol.
Bergevin did not reveal any additional details, but an update is expected on Monday. In the meantime, Armia did not travel to Tampa with the team for the first two games of the series. Whether it would be an option for him to travel separately if cleared from the protocol remains to be seen. This is now the second time that Armia has landed on the COVID Protocol Related Absences list, following a previous stint in March. At that time, he tested positive and the Canadiens had a number of games postponed. So far, there has been no indication that Armia’s current situation will impact the Stanley Cup Final schedule.
Of course, the current concern with interim head coach Dominique Ducharme testing positive last week and sidelined for 14 days, is that Armia’s status could be more than just a case of a false positive or close contact. If Armia is positive for COVID, it would mean the end of his season with just seven games left in the NHL year. Armia, who only recorded 14 points in the regular season, has taken his game to the next level in the playoffs. He has eight points in 17 games and is tied for the team lead in goals. The presence he brings to both the third line and penalty kill will be sorely missed if he cannot play at all in the series. The Canadiens hope that tomorrow’s update will bring different news.
The thin silver lining of the report today is that Jake Evans appears primed to step into Armia’s spot in the starting lineup for the time being. Evans has not played since being injured in Game One of the North Division title series with the Winnipeg Jets, but appears to have made a full recovery from the massive check that knocked him out. Despite the scoring presence lost by Armia, the Habs seems more interested in replacing his two-way ability with Evans than adding an offensive asset like Tomas Tatar.
Armia is a great example of how some players must evolve to make it in the NHL. At his draft, he was basically regarded as a sniper.
Trying to be Teemu Selanne no longer worked in the bigs and he’s trying to be Jere Lehtinen now.
And how many teams wouldn’t take a Jere Lehtinen? (grins)
So just speculating here, but assuming that Armia has gotten both vaccine doses and tested positive for covid back in March, how could he test positive again for this? A PCR test run at a 35 or higher cycle count?
Regardless, that’s a big loss for the Habs.
Perhaps this is known info I am unaware of, but…can we assume he’s been vaccinated?
Canada is behind and typically people are advised to wait a certain period of time after having Covid before getting vaccinated.
Still, his own antibodies from recent infection would usually be enough to prevent another infection this soon.
Thus why I said “just speculating”. Would be reasonable to think that pro atheletes in Canada who got the exemption to travel outside of Canada would’ve had to meet that vaccination threshold, but we don’t really know.
Likely, the very common false positive.
Being vaccinated is not a 100% guarantee that you will avoid infection with any strain of the virus. It is not full immunity. Nor is getting a previous infection a full immunity from being infected and carrying some version of Covid.
The vaccine is going to decrease the likelihood of an infection and more importantly greatly reduce the risk of the virus doing serious harm thanks to the improvement of your immune response.
Was he given a vaccination because I imagine a lot of Canadians being upset that they have to wait behind him regardless of status.
The purpose of vaccination is to keep people out of ICUs and to save lives. It significantly reduces the effects of the virus. A person can still get the virus, have symptoms and in very very rare cases die after vaccination. In Québec, over 70% of the population over 12 years of age have received their first shot, 30% have received the second shot and are “fully vaccinated”. Armia got the virus a first time in the third week of March, then in late May and early June received his two shots, like coach Ducharme. Both have tested positive with no symptoms.
Meanwhile Kucherov is healing from playing a whole 10 or so games this season. It’s ridiculous he didn’t play a single regular season minute.