Hurricanes back on the ice for practice, hoping to play games soon
.JPG "Carolina Hurricanes’ Sebastian Aho, right, celebrates his overtime goal against the Calgary Flames with Teuvo Teravainen in an NHL hockey game Thursday, Dec. 9, 2021, in Calgary, Alberta. (Jeff McIntosh/The Canadian Press via AP)")
After a holiday break that began sooner than expected, the Carolina Hurricanes were back on the ice Sunday for practice at PNC Arena.
Jordan Staal and Sebastian Aho, out of COVID-19 protocol, were back centering lines. Wingers Andrei Svechnikov and Seth Jarvis also returned from the COVID list. Canes coach Rod Brind’Amour put them all — 11 forwards, six defensemen and goalie Antti Raanta — through a workout that had a nice pace and enough skating.
“Spirits were good and everyone was excited to be out there,” Brind’Amour said Sunday.
Given the recent COVID-19 outbreaks in the NHL, so much is uncertain, if unsettling. The Canes (21-7-1), who have had five games postponed, are scheduled to host the Montreal Canadiens on Thursday, but Brind’Amour was not sure after the practice if that game would be played.
“I just knew we were going to practice today and we’re planning on practicing tomorrow,” Brind’Amour said.
The NHL later Sunday announced the Canes-Montreal game was among those that would be played as scheduled. It also said teams would temporarily be allowed a taxi squad, with a maximum of six players, who can practice with the team and be available.
It has been an interesting, if challenging two weeks for the Canes. Aho and Jarvis were placed in the NHL’s COVID protocol on Dec. 13 in Vancouver. A few days later, Staal, Svechnikov, forward Steven Lorentz and defenseman Ian Cole went on the COVID-19 list hours before the road game at Minnesota, causing a postponement.
The Canes faced the Detroit Red Wings on Dec. 16 with 16 skaters, two short of a full roster, and won. They hosted the Los Angeles Kings two days later and won, again filling the roster with call-ups from the Chicago Wolves of the AHL.
More recently, goalie Frederik Andersen, forward Jesper Fast, defenseman Brendan Smith and forward Stefan Noesen (a Chicago call-up), entered the COVID protocol. Goalie coach Paul Schonfelder and two other support staff members also have tested positive.
Canes owner Tom Dundon did alleviate one problem by arranging for a charter flight to bring Aho, Jarvis, Staal, Svechnikov, Lorentz and Cole back to Raleigh on Dec. 16.
Staal tested positive for COVID-19 early in the 2021 season, which began in January. Suddenly, the Canes captain was faced with COVID quarantine again in 2021-22 although saying his symptoms were slight.
“I wasn’t expected to get stuck in my attic for nine or 10 days, but there I was staring at the same four walls and about to lose my mind,” Staal said Sunday.
Aho was playing his best hockey of the season when he fell ill in Vancouver. He had scored five goals in his last three games and had 12 points in five games. He scored the overtime winner against Calgary, then followed with another two-goal game in a win over the Edmonton Oilers.
Then came Aho’s positive test for COVID. And the “escape” by ambulance from Canada, which had a 14-day quarantine period, that came with a long holdup at the U.S. border for Aho and Jarvis before being allowed to cross.
“Obviously not ideal, but the team got me home ... so I guess it could be a lot worse,” Aho said Sunday. “I avoided the worst (physically), but at the same time it’s not easy to sit home doing pretty much nothing.”
Olympic decision disappointing
Aho was among the Canes hoping to compete in the 2022 Winter Olympics. The NHL put an end to that, as well, ruling last week that its players would not be going to Beijing and that the planned February break in the regular-season schedule would to be used to make up the postponed games.
“Obviously disappointed,” Aho said of the NHL decision. “I was looking forward to it. But in the end, though, you see how many games were postponed and all that’s going on, so you could mentally prepare for it. You kind of knew it wasn’t go to happen after seeing the whole league shutting down. So, yes, disappointed, but I guess it was the only choice there.”
The NHL extended the holiday break — postponing Carolina’s road game Dec. 23 at Ottawa — and then ruled there would be no games until Tuesday, Dec. 28 while it continued to analyze the COVID situation. That ruling postponed the Canes’ home game Monday against the Florida Panthers.
The NHL ruling Sunday on taxi squads will help prevent teams from being forced to play a game “short” because of COVID as the Canes did against the Red Wings.
Brind’Amour called that a “common sense” move by the league. He’s just eager to get back to playing games while continuing to take all the proper health and safety measures.
“Turn the TV on and you see the NBA’s playing and turn the TV on and you’re watching the NFL playing, and we’re not playing,” he said. “I think at the end of the day, we’ve done all we can do here as a group, as a league, as far as getting vaccinated and doing what we have to do. I think we have to follow their lead and plow through this. That’s my opinion.
“And we’ve had all these guys get (COVID-19) and no symptoms or very little. ... The vaccinations work. Guys aren’t getting sick, which was the biggest fear of everything.”
This story was originally published December 26, 2021 at 7:33 PM with the headline "Hurricanes back on the ice for practice, hoping to play games soon."
