Sabres Cancel Practice for 12/21/21; Adams to Speak at Noon

[Brawndo]

I imagine the team has a few more positive cases 

[Stoner]

For everyone's clarification, how do we know if players have tested positive or are merely isolating due to a contact? What is "Covid protocol"? Or does HIPAA prevent the team from clarifying?

Or... can we assume it's Covid since the CDC no longer recommends a vaccinated person isolate after a contact?

[Claude Balls]

Girgensons and Skinner now on the list.

[PromoTheRobot]

10 minutes ago, PASabreFan said:

For everyone's clarification, how do we know if players have tested positive or are merely isolating due to a contact? What is "Covid protocol"? Or does HIPAA prevent the team from clarifying?

Or... can we assume it's Covid since the CDC no longer recommends a vaccinated person isolate after a contact?

If you find a case on your team (Vinnie) it's wise to limit further contact until you see how many more cases emerge.

 

1 minute ago, Claude Balls said:

Girgensons and Skinner now on the list.

And there you go. 

[spndnchz]

So… who’s going to the Islanders game? 😷😷

[PromoTheRobot]

19 minutes ago, spndnchz said:

So… who’s going to the Islanders game? 😷😷

I would if I was in town. Unfortunately I was in for CBJ. Frankly Key Bank Center is probably the safest place to be in Erie County. Social distancing is easy.

[Doohicksie]

So did Adams speak?

[PromoTheRobot]

2 hours ago, The Ghost of Yuri said:

So did Adams speak?

He did. He said many words.

[woods-racer]

2 hours ago, PromoTheRobot said:

He did. He said many words.

[PromoTheRobot]

37 minutes ago, woods-racer said:

https://www.nhl.com/sabres/news/buffalo-sabres-tage-thompson-craig-anderson-injury-updates/c-329196094

[woods-racer]

2 hours ago, PromoTheRobot said:

https://www.nhl.com/sabres/news/buffalo-sabres-tage-thompson-craig-anderson-injury-updates/c-329196094

Sorry, saw the robot gif and just had to....

Thanks for the update.

Anderson back on the ice and Tage not being to serious was nice to hear.

[PromoTheRobot]

47 minutes ago, woods-racer said:

Sorry, saw the robot gif and just had to....

Thanks for the update.

Anderson back on the ice and Tage not being to serious was nice to hear.

Don't worry. I loved it.

[Doohicksie]

I lol'ed.

[GASabresIUFAN]

8 hours ago, PromoTheRobot said:

He did. He said many words.

Were they in complete sentences?

[sabresparaavida]

12 hours ago, woods-racer said:

Sorry, saw the robot gif and just had to....

Thanks for the update.

Anderson back on the ice and Tage not being to serious was nice to hear.

With Anderson coming back soon, I wonder what KA will do with the goalie situation. Keep 3 up? Unlikely. Send Subban down? Maybe, but last game was a very good one, and he might deserve another game after that. Send UPL down? Maybe, but it’s a little hard to justify that as he’s been playing great. In any case, this is a much better problem to have with our goalietenders than a few weeks ago.

[GASabresIUFAN]

Just now, sabresparaavida said:

With Anderson coming back soon, I wonder what KA will do with the goalie situation. Keep 3 up? Unlikely. Send Subban down? Maybe, but last game was a very good one, and he might deserve another game after that. Send UPL down? Maybe, but it’s a little hard to justify that as he’s been playing great. In any case, this is a much better problem to have with our goalietenders than a few weeks ago.

You are assuming this season will continue.

[woods-racer]

4 minutes ago, sabresparaavida said:

With Anderson coming back soon, I wonder what KA will do with the goalie situation. Keep 3 up? Unlikely. Send Subban down? Maybe, but last game was a very good one, and he might deserve another game after that. Send UPL down? Maybe, but it’s a little hard to justify that as he’s been playing great. In any case, this is a much better problem to have with our goalietenders than a few weeks ago.

 

2 minutes ago, GASabresIUFAN said:

You are assuming this season will continue.

I think they we will go back to a hybrid 20/21 covid team make up and 3 goalies will be allowed. I will bet it starts back right around the start of the New Year.

 

 

[GASabresIUFAN]

A 3-5 taxi squad would be a reasonable way to continue.

[dudacek]

There is a growing sentiment among players seeing their vaccinated peers on the sidelines without many of them actually being sick that the asymptomatic should be allowed to play.

[Brawndo]

1 minute ago, dudacek said:

There is a growing sentiment among players seeing their vaccinated peers on the sidelines without many of them actually being sick that the asymptomatic should be allowed to play.

Friedman reported that the Canadian Government is a minimum of Six Months Away from approving that. 
 

10. However, there is growing opposition to frequent testing, instead searching for alternatives. When Steve Yzerman talks, people listen. “Our players are testing positive with very little symptoms, if any symptoms at all,” he said last weekend. “I don’t see it as a threat to their health at this point. So, I think you might take it a step further and question why are we even testing for guys that have no symptoms….The players ultimately want to play. None have come to us and said, ‘We should shut this down.’ If they feel that way, they haven’t expressed that to us. They’ve been very acceptive of the protocols. Whether they like them or not is irrelevant. They’ve been willing to do them. I think they just want to play and get through this.”

Again, I don’t desire to put percentages or numbers on how many feel that way, but it’s not insignificant. There are many players and teams who feel very strongly testing should be reduced, except in symptomatic cases. Winnipeg’s Connor Hellebuyck expressed his frustration for the second time in several days, calling the pause, “a little overkill…You see leagues like the NFL, who are adapting and, I think, doing things right.” St. Louis captain Ryan O’Reilly and teammate Torey Krug publicly added to the group. There’s a major difference between the NFL, the NBA and the NHL. That is, of course, Canada.

11. To a man/woman, every source I spoke to over the last five days said they are well aware testing only symptomatic players (even if vaccinated) is a non-starter with Canada. “We’re six months away from even beginning that discussion,” one doctor said. But the NFL and NBA moving in that direction means there will be a push for the NHL to explore similar opportunities. “Let’s say Colorado plays Dallas,” one player said. “Do we need to test for that if no symptoms? Could we have a system where you only test if you are symptomatic or for a week prior to going into Canada?” This will not be an easy issue to manage.

12. One Canadian team exec’s reaction to that suggestion: “Thank you for the competitive disadvantage

[Marvin]

50 minutes ago, Brawndo said:

Friedman reported that the Canadian Government is a minimum of Six Months Away from approving that. 
 

10. However, there is growing opposition to frequent testing, instead searching for alternatives. When Steve Yzerman talks, people listen. “Our players are testing positive with very little symptoms, if any symptoms at all,” he said last weekend. “I don’t see it as a threat to their health at this point. So, I think you might take it a step further and question why are we even testing for guys that have no symptoms….The players ultimately want to play. None have come to us and said, ‘We should shut this down.’ If they feel that way, they haven’t expressed that to us. They’ve been very acceptive of the protocols. Whether they like them or not is irrelevant. They’ve been willing to do them. I think they just want to play and get through this.”

Again, I don’t desire to put percentages or numbers on how many feel that way, but it’s not insignificant. There are many players and teams who feel very strongly testing should be reduced, except in symptomatic cases. Winnipeg’s Connor Hellebuyck expressed his frustration for the second time in several days, calling the pause, “a little overkill…You see leagues like the NFL, who are adapting and, I think, doing things right.” St. Louis captain Ryan O’Reilly and teammate Torey Krug publicly added to the group. There’s a major difference between the NFL, the NBA and the NHL. That is, of course, Canada.

11. To a man/woman, every source I spoke to over the last five days said they are well aware testing only symptomatic players (even if vaccinated) is a non-starter with Canada. “We’re six months away from even beginning that discussion,” one doctor said. But the NFL and NBA moving in that direction means there will be a push for the NHL to explore similar opportunities. “Let’s say Colorado plays Dallas,” one player said. “Do we need to test for that if no symptoms? Could we have a system where you only test if you are symptomatic or for a week prior to going into Canada?” This will not be an easy issue to manage.

12. One Canadian team exec’s reaction to that suggestion: “Thank you for the competitive disadvantage

The NHL may never get me off my hobby-horse.  Had they grouped teams to play in blocks when crossing the border and traveling around the country, they could have minimised the testing on border crossings and playing in groups.  For instance, if the Buffalo, Tampa Bay and Florida went into Canada for a 3 game road trip for each (even better, 3 x 2 game sets for a 6 game road trip), you could test all three teams at the start of the trip and once at the end of the trip.  Then the 3 Canadian teams could come to the US to play 3 teams in a 3 or 6 game blocks.  That means tests every 1-2 weeks around each block rather than single games across the border.

This is the league's punishment for failing to think ahead.

[GASabresIUFAN]

So I guess Yzerman isn’t a moron after all.  

The truth is that the young and healthy are at little risk from this virus and when you add vaccinations to the players the risk is even further reduced.  Testing daily is clearly creating more problems then it’s solving.  Sick players, flu or Covid, shouldn’t be playing, but at some point that is where it needs to end. 

Players with asthma and other conditions may have to take more precautions 

 

Edited December 22, 2021 by GASabresIUFAN

[Doohicksie]

1 hour ago, dudacek said:

There is a growing sentiment among players seeing their vaccinated peers on the sidelines without many of them actually being sick that the asymptomatic should be allowed to play.

From what Beasley said, this is kind of what's happening in the NFL.

[steveoath]

On 12/22/2021 at 3:40 PM, dudacek said:

There is a growing sentiment among players seeing their vaccinated peers on the sidelines without many of them actually being sick that the asymptomatic should be allowed to play.

Don't care. Sit it out. If you have covid you can pass it on. There are more people to think about than just the players.

[Marvin]

47 minutes ago, steveoath said:

Don't care. Sit it out. If you have covid you can pass it on. There are more people to think about than just the players.

IMHO, most younger people tend to think that if they can't tell they have a disease because it is so debilitating, then no one will catch it for them.  To my mind, all players in these sports are "younger people"; the idea that they might kill someone older than they are because of their lack of immunity just does not occur to them.  So unless someone they know get hospitalised for a long time, it looks invisible to them.  Heck, it may take a death of a major hockey player with McDavid-like stature to die before any of the players take it seriously.  And someone in another sport may not be enough -- it has to be someone close enough to them where they say, "$#!+, that could be me."

The longer this goes on, the more I think the US and Canada will be the countries where the rest of us will have to cave into those who won't get a shot come hell or high water.  Remember that Crosby was patient zero for a mumps outbreak a few years ago -- and it changed nothing.  How does that happen in the age of MMR vaccinations?  And why would we expect the players to react any differently with COVID-19?

Edited December 23, 2021 by Marvin, Sabres Fan