The situation is worse than first expected in Montreal ; in all-Canadian division

As you know, the National Hockey League announced on Tuesday that, as a result of two Montreal Canadiens Players being in the NHL’s COVID Protocols, the team’s games have been postponed through Sunday, March 28. Pending test results in the coming days, it is expected that the Canadiens will be able to re-open their facilities for practice on Monday, March 29. 

Habs general manager Marc Bergevin held a video conference on Thursday morning to reveal that the situation is a totally new one for the NHL and worse than expected as the GM revealed that the one positive case on the Canadiens is a variant.

This is a new situation for the NHL and many insiders, including Habs reporter Arpon Basu for The Athletic, pointed out the league will have to deal with this differently than previous cases. 

“With Marc Bergevin confirming that it is one case and it is a variant and the other player is in the Covid protocol simply for contact tracing, it should be interesting to see the NHL’s protocol list today.

The player who is in protocol for contact tracing would need to provide three negative tests to ensure he did not have the virus. If they did one test per day, that would perhaps be Tuesday, Wednesday and today, meaning that player could be removed from the list. We’ll see.”

As for rescheduling the four postponed games, Bergevin hinted at the possibility that the Canadiens might have to play four contest in five nights. 

TSN’s Pierre LeBrun revealed earlier this morning that the NHL has re-scheduled the aforementioned games and he believes there will be a game or two May 11 which is the latest yet on the schedule. 

“Don’t think the NHL will announce changes until Montreal Covid situation is cleared up.”

It will be interesting to see how the NHL deals with this variant diagnosis. This is probably why the league acted so quickly to postpone Monday’s game in Montreal. The Edmonton Oilers, who were set to take on the Habs, were told minutes before puck drop that the game needed to be postponed.