Dec 16: Ahead of tonight’s game against Los Angeles, defenseman Aaron Ekblad and forward Frank Vatrano entered COVID protocol and are unavailable.
Dec 15: The Florida Panthers have now had a COVID outbreak of their own. The team has announced that five players and one staff member have entered the league’s COVID protocols and will be unavailable for tomorrow’s game. Sam Bennett, Radko Gudas, Ryan Lomberg, Brandon Montour, and Carter Verhaeghe won’t play against the Los Angeles Kings. Lomberg had been previously mentioned by the team, but these four new members are obviously huge absences from the Panthers’ lineup.
Notably, Bennett, Verhaeghe, Gudas, and Montour all played last night for the Panthers, with the latter logging over 21 minutes. With evidence of in-game transmission mounting, thanks to outbreaks across the league, the Ottawa Senators will have to be on high alert moving forward. The league has instituted increased protocols today limiting teammate interaction on the road, while the Senators will be returning home on Sunday to a province that has just instituted a 50 percent capacity limit on large sporting events. Ottawa of course has already dealt with widespread COVID issues earlier this season as one of the teams that saw games postponed.
For Florida, not only will these players be unavailable for tomorrow’s game against the Kings, but if they have tested positive and are experiencing any symptoms, they will be unable to accompany them on the upcoming road trip. Florida is scheduled to play Minnesota on Saturday afternoon before heading to Chicago. They’re meant to wrap up the pre-Christmas portion of the schedule at home against the Nashville Predators on Dec 23, a date that would still leave these players ineligible if they are forced to quarantine for a minimum of ten days.
This whole thing is becoming a joke for all sports , and the sad part is some or most of these guys won’t even get really sick. The best is yet to one as winter isn’t even here and what used to be the flu will become Covid
It’s all a fraud. Money driven fraud.
Like I said before one of the pro sports don’t finish their season…b-ball or hockey..
None of these players are actually ill. It’s fully vaccinated, young athletes who are around other fully vaccinated, young athletes. If they continue testing them nonstop and postponing games for positive tests with no symptoms will, this never end. Ever.
Yeah, well, it’s telling that in “freedom”-loving Florida, seeing the match highlights last night, their arena was half empty. Seems that even Floridians worry more about COVID than you do.
Lol
Glad to see coyotes fans are taking fauxvid19 seriously too.
I was at the Bolts game last v Kings last night. Place was full. As usual. Florida has the lowest case count per 100k in the country (NY Times). Pretty much nobody cares about COVID here.
And the Branch Covidians, who this summer were all over Florida for having higher covid numbers, are suddenly very quiet about that and that the highest vaxxed states now have the highest covid numbers. Funny that.
What are the hospitalization rates though? I havent seen them but if i had to guess I would assume Floridas numbers would be way worse. I think its pretty clear that the vaccines dont actually prevent contracting covid, but instead do a good job at preventing the effects.
@nhatrang its very telling when yo ass is all on fire about Florida. Noones forcing you to go Florida route then why you just cant chill? Oh maybe cos you’re a leftist lunatic thats why.
@khabibmcgregor “i havent seen them but if i had to guess” sounds like a valid argument to me. Keep being BASED my sir
Panthers arena was half full because it’s South Florida, been here for 30 years and it’s always fair weather fans. Weeknight game against Ottawa isn’t going to be a big draw here, had nothing to do with covid.
It is estimated that (NY Times) that about 61% of the population is vaccinated with about 2 million per day getting vaccinated or getting booster shots. A study also was published that linked people with other medical issues with increased issues with Covid.
To those saying these guys won’t even get sick, etc etc..
What about their parents who might be immunocompromised? Or their kids under 5 that can’t get vaccinated yet? Same with the fans in the stands who might get infected. If we just allow everyone who is infected to go about their lives/day than we risk more than the individual.
Granted I believe we all will get this sooner or later, but in the meantime going slow and taking precautions for things like sports (luxuries) and ensuring we don’t blow the system up with infections so that we can still have things like education (necessities) is probably the right call.
Survival of the fittest
And this is why youll never be in a position of importance. What a pathetic response. Do you actually believe people should behave like deer getting hunted by predators lmao.
Who tf hunts you down idiot? cRaZy aNtIvAxXx folk? If you so scared then stay in your mommys basement. Why is it everyone else’s responsibility to make you feel safe?
ew gross pedophile doesnt know how an ecosystem works
Oh stupid basket child is back with his smear and run tactics right outta the basement. How old are you sonny?
You’re a delusional fool. Any suggestion that this is the ONLY time alleged “at-risk” should be concerned about their health is high level naivety.
The parents who are immune compromised are vaxed. Right? Kids under 5 have a zero statistical risk of death Look it up. That’s why schools are open in Florida and have been for a long time. See many kids dying? Nope. Sure don’t.
As of last Monday Florida had 1411 hospitalizations of people with COVID. In the entire state. In a state of 20+ MILLION people. That’s hospitalized WITH COVID. Not necessarily BECAUSE of COVID. Maybe we should shut the entire state down and lock ourselves in our homes? Oh wait. We already did that. Worked great.
You do actually see kids dying; they’re in the news every day. And what the hell are you talking about? According to the CDC, Florida’s had over THREE AND A HALF MILLION COVID cases as of December 10th. Just under 60,000 Floridians have died of it, so far, and 95,000 have required hospitalization. 30,000 new COVID cases have cropped up in Florida over the last two weeks alone, and over 500 new deaths.
What the hell is wrong with you?
Who cares how many cases reported since the virus began? It’s not relevant. It’s deaths that matter and current hospitalizations (1411). What kids? How many? More kids drown in swimming pools in Florida than die of COVID. So if 1 kid dies we do what exactly? Shut down the state? Again. Since when is that the standard? And when do we stop? Stop fear mongering and grow up. Life comes with risk. Deal with it.