Damn

Devils have Hischier, Graves, Jaros, and Boqvist with Covid
Subban out for precautionary reasons
They were supposed to have practice today at 12PM but there has been no practice and no updates

the southern states seem to be doing just fine right now especially when it comes to covid numbers

Tyler Bertuzzi must feel vindicated.

#Caps center Nicklas Backstrom is unavailable due to the NHL's COVID-19 protocol.

— CapitalsPR (@CapitalsPR) December 17, 2021

I know whos not going to be happy about this

That's not entirely true
Southern US states have less vaccination rates and less testing in those states
Even though the numbers don't look severe, in reality, these states do have problems with Covid but just don't care

Not even tryna be political but Devil is 100% right. In some cases there is not enough data to provide answers to COVID related questions. Like when it comes to statistics and graphs some areas in the lower states can’t be included - or are N/A.

And it’s hard to blame/ compare it to states like New York (upper state) because it’s obvious why places like NY just got rinsed out by COVID.

Well it was nice having him for a game. Also 9 people out from fantasy

Just shut the league down, it's getting ridiculous, we're already back in 2020

But ovi for the goal record. Jk it needs to be done. But I wouldn’t have an excuse to not do my homework. But player safety is more important

Yup, hit the nail on the head.

Tends to happen when you pretend covid doesn't exist and refuse to treat it like a real threat.

Yep, hit the nail right on the head

Not sure why not treating covid like a real threat has anything to do with how bad covid is affecting you...

If you pretend covid doesn't exist and refuse to test for it properly and enact precautions, then you don't KNOW how bad covid is affecting you, and the real effects are always much worse than you say/think they are. You really think the last time china (as a country) had a single day with 100+ new covid cases was march 2020? Give me a break. They just do a better job at stifling proper information. The south can't even pretend covid doesn't exist correctly.

Honestly is this happening cause Hagelin scored

I'm reading several of you guys suggesting the NHL shut down the season. I wanna be respectful of your opinions, but that idea is patently ridiculous. NHL players are at ZERO risk of severe infection - proven by the fact that ZERO NHL players have been sidelined by severe illness (or even mild illness) since the vaccine was made available. Protect the vulnerable. Protect the elderly and those with underlying health problems. NHL players do NOT fall into any of those categories. Let's stay safe. Let's Play Hockey! Enough with the hysteria!

First off, obviously I agree China's official covid number are not accurate.

But people seem to forget that the majority of covid cases are asymptomatic. In other words, the majority of people in the Northern states that count as a "positive case" are not in any real danger themselves. The danger is that they could give someone else covid. I would instead argue that the number in the North states are inflated.

This goes along the lines of what I said:

the real threat is when the economy crumbles when politicians get trigger happy with lock downs

and they aren't pretending it doesn't exist they just know it isn't the bubonic plague, anyone under 40 has like a 99.8% chance of survival

Not exactly true, many NHL players have said they had lingering effects of Covid

You're right, Josh Archibald and Alex Stalock are no longer playing hockey because they just decided to retire. /s

You're also missing the entire point (deliberately maybe? Not like this information hasn't been out there for months...), by saying that it's fine if the "healthy" NHL players get the virus. You think they don't have any contact with vulnerable people? What about coaches/GMs? Most of them are old, and have daily contact with the players. What about family members that may be at risk, such as elderly parents, or spouses/children with underlying health affects, do you expect NHL players to simply never interact with their families? It's also inane to suggest that because they play hockey and are in peak physical condition, that they have no underlying health risks. Archibald and Stalock did, got covid, and now will never play hockey again. There was a story on Max Domi last year saying he was taking even more precautionary measures than the average player due to his underlying health issues. Many hockey players have had surgeries, which increases your susceptibility to illness. There's a reason anyone who tests positive for covid has to isolate for 10 days and it's not "hysteria." ANYONE getting covid is bad, even if they don't get severely ill, because it's so contagious that they will inevitably spread it to others (as seen by entire teams going down, among many better examples), and those that they infect may be vulnerable. So, politely, this take is horrendously misguided at best, and malicious at worst. Shutting down the entire league until the covid cases are under control, and then enacting stricter precautionary measures, is the best course of action for the health and safety of everyone in and around the league. It also creates a better product for the fans, because nobody wants to watch their team get their teeth kicked in because half their roster is missing due to being on the covid protocol list.

Josh Archibald, Alex Stalock, and any player that developed or develops cardiomyopathy from a covid exposure would disagree with you.

Believe it or not but hockey players deserve the same level of health security as commonfolk and vice-versa. If society needs to take another step back because short-sighted politicians or populations made hasty decisions then athletes should be doing the same. Their physical condition doesn't warrant them invincibility to the virus or any other disease.

Sports are a reward for a functional society. We're not there yet. A two week pause now to allow the players and teams to reset under the rules that the NHL has established simply makes sense. Most of the verbiage surrounding the Olympics doesnt support the inclusion of NHL players anyways: this time was already alotted in the schedule, why not maximize its utility? The league can move forward with reduced capacities in the arenas to prevent a full stoppage in order to sustain its bottom line. This problem will only continue to exist until society learns that there isn't a choice to be made. Refusing any of the vaccines on the pretense of bad science only produces more vectors for the virus to continue mutating. Until that point we're at the mercy of that community and decisions like a pause in the NHL schedule are consequences that we'll likely need to endure.

I'm frustrated with that state of the world, you are, everyone is, and if you need CapFriendly to be an outlet, then I, the rest of the moderators, and the rest of the community are here. I'd prefer if we kept these discussions apolitical but hell, 10 pages left in this thread and I'm off to work for two weeks so I won't step in unless it's absolutely mandatory to do so.

To slightly change the subject, Jfresh's poll results about fanbases is out

More than 4,500(!) of you answered the fanbase survey. Here are the results.Which NHL team has the most annoying fanbase?🥇 #LeafsForever 🥈 #GoHabsGo🥉 #NHLBruins pic.twitter.com/IuXj4FHvsW

— JFresh (@JFreshHockey) December 17, 2021