The increase in COVID-19 cases is becoming a growing concern for the entire NHL.

In just 36 hours (from early Monday to Tuesday night), nearly 30 players and staff joined the league's COVID-19 protocol. Tuesday’s game between the Minnesota Wild and the Carolina Hurricanes was postponed due to COVID-19, a day after the Calgary Fire’s season was suspended due to an organizational outbreak.

The situation may change at any time. Here, Emily Kaplan, Kristen Shilton, and Greg Wyshynski answered some questions about where the NHL is, what might happen this season, and how COVID-19 concerns will affect the NHL’s participation in the Olympics.

Greg Wyshynski: As of Tuesday night, the NHL has postponed 9 games this season because of the outbreak of "mini clusters" on four specific teams. The Ottawa Senators postponed three games from November 16 to 20 (in New Jersey, home against the Nashville Predators and New York Rangers). The New York Islanders will have two away games on November 28 (Rangers) and 30 (Philadelphia Flyers).

The NHL suspended the Calgary Fire season before the team was about to embark on a road trip to the United States, postponing Monday's Chicago and Tuesday's Nashville games and Thursday's home game against Toronto. Finally, the Carolina Hurricanes' game in the Minnesota Wilderness team was postponed on Tuesday.

Emily Kaplan: A source told ESPN on Wednesday afternoon that the NHL will implement the enhanced agreement at least until January 7.

The decision was made after the NHL, NHLPA and their doctors held a conference call on Tuesday night and Wednesday afternoon, after a large number of COVID cases have been reported across the league.

According to sources, according to the enhanced agreement-which NHL players have experienced last season-players will be tested every day instead of every three days. All team members will be required to wear masks in the facility, meetings will be held in a virtual manner, and everyone will be required to limit all social interactions at the hotel, ice skating rink or outside the home. The NHL currently has only one unvaccinated player, Red Wings forward Taylor Bertuzzi.

NHL has recommended the booster, and many players have already received it. However, sources told ESPN that the league currently does not intend to force a refill.

Emily Kaplan: As of now, the NHL has not considered a suspension. The Alliance believes this is the last resort. Especially since most of the players who tested positive have mild or no symptoms, the league is trying to deal with a series of cases.

ESPN.com: Edmonton Oilers coach Dave Tippet was scheduled to play after the team lost on Tuesday night. Some Carolina Hurricanes players, including Sebastian Ajo, are currently accepting the agreement, and the team's game against the Minnesota Wilds on Tuesday has been postponed. Boston Bruins forwards Brad Marchand and Craig Smith were scheduled to join on Tuesday, while Patrice Bergeron joined on Wednesday.

There are many players in the Calgary Flames agreement, and three games have been postponed. On Wednesday, they added a total of 17 team members to the league agreement, including head coach Darryl Sutter (seven players, three coaches, and seven support staff).

Kristen Shilton: The situation this season is very different from last season.

First, the entire NHL was vaccinated, except for Detroit Red Wings forward Tyler Bertuzzi who refused to be vaccinated. Therefore, although the test results of the players and staff are positive, the symptoms reported by individuals are usually very mild or non-existent at all.

In contrast, when COVID-19 swept through the 25 members of the Vancouver Canucks organization last spring, several players and coach Travis Green fell due to symptoms of weakness.

Some players, such as Milan Lusic, have also received their booster ball (although Lusic's test result this week is still positive). More players may follow suit and accept the third dose as soon as possible.

For this reason, fully vaccinated players and employees did not follow the strict rules as before. Last season, the locker rooms were more spaced, and players should always wear masks and keep their physical distance. Now, fully vaccinated players will not be affected by these same parameters, which will not help when the virus spreads suddenly and rapidly.

Then, of course, every NHL team has more travel this season. This leads to more interaction with other people, more potential spread, and more containment difficulties.

As one player pointed out on Tuesday night, compared to last year, many people’s partners and children are in contact with more people. The school has fully resumed classes, and some offices have been reopened. These interactions created more potential exposure for players who did not have it before, when virtual learning and work at home were prominent.

Basically, there is no single culprit. However, until the spread of the coronavirus subsides, another strengthening of the agreement may benefit the NHL.

Kristen Shilton: If a player/staff test positive, Canada and the United States have different regulations.

The NHL's COVID-19 agreement stipulates that when a person tests positive, no matter where he is, he must be quarantined at a designated local hotel. However, the Canadian government requires a 14-day quarantine for any positive test. For example, Carolina Hurricanes forwards Sebastian Ajo and Seth Jarvis and a team member were forced to stay in Vancouver after testing positive for the Hurricanes against the Canucks ( And may stay there for two weeks).

In contrast, when the Hurricanes teammates Jordan Starr, Andre Svechnikov, Ian Cole, and Steven Lorenz subsequently tested positive in Minnesota, they Only "temporarily" was sent to the hotel for isolation, according to the team.

As of Wednesday morning, the hurricane is working on a plan that may involve the use of emergency medical transportation to return the trio in Vancouver to Raleigh. The hope is to determine the way forward in the next day or so, but this is still a tricky situation.

Hurricane general manager Don Wardle told The Athletic on Tuesday that in terms of getting everyone home, “These are the details we are working on now, because now we have three people there and four people in Minnesota. Maybe we You can bring them all home together."

Greg Wyshynski: From the perspective of the NHL, the players participated in the Beijing Olympics through collective bargaining last year. They insisted on this commitment-provided that there was no "substantial interruption" in the 2021-22 regular season because of COVID-19. Bateman said that the league will cancel their participation, "If it is obvious that we cannot reschedule time without doing other things, including [using] part of the rest time." The NHL did not specify the threshold for a "substantial interruption" this season. , It’s just that we haven’t got there yet.

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From the athlete's point of view, they are worried about contracting COVID-19 while participating in the Olympics. According to the "script" currently given to athletes by the Beijing Olympic Organizing Committee, athletes with symptoms will be sent to the hospital, while athletes who are asymptomatic will go to the isolation center.

Asymptomatic athletes after two consecutive COVID-19 test results are negative, if they continue to show no symptoms, they will be discharged after at least 24 hours apart, although they will face more COVID-19 agreements. But athletes with symptoms may stay in China for a long time.

The athletes’ body temperature returned to normal for three consecutive days before being discharged; their respiratory symptoms improved significantly, including those recorded through lung imaging; they tested negative for COVID-19 twice in a row within 24 hours; they showed no other COVID- 19 symptoms. After that, they still need the approval of the Chinese Medical Expert Panel to be discharged from the hospital.

Although there is no detailed description in the script, NHLPA has communicated with the players that the quarantine time of symptomatic players in the hospital may be between three to five weeks. Of course, the recovery time may be faster, but this is the real range of what players have heard from the union-especially since any lifting of isolation requires the approval of the medical team.

This may mean spending a month and a half with relatives in isolation facilities in China, but it may also have a significant financial impact. According to the NHL and NHLPA agreement, players who were infected with COVID-19 during Beijing will not be paid for any practice or games missed after the interruption of the NHL Olympics. There is an International Ice Hockey Federation fund, reportedly worth $5 million to make up for lost salaries. But once this situation disappears, the player will not be compensated for the lost time.

NHLPA is still waiting for news from Beijing organizers on some issues, such as the location of these isolation facilities. But it is also waiting to figure out whether infected athletes-or injured athletes-can leave China and return to North America to recover.

Greg Wyshynski: People think that January 10, 2022 will be the key date for NHL participation, because any withdrawal after that day will mean financial penalties for the league. But Deputy Commissioner Bill Daly stated that January 10 was “related to cost financial responsibility at a specific point in time” and a decision could be made after that date.

NHLPA executive director Don Fehr hopes to clarify before January 10. "I hope to be able to say it before that date. But even if it is affirmative, it depends on [after that] nothing has changed," he said. "The plan now is that we are gone, unless something happens to make us reassess."

Of course, the longer this uncertainty lasts, the more countries participating in the Beijing Men’s Ice Hockey Championship need to develop plan B. US team general manager Bill Gelin and his team are paying close attention to AHL and NCAA players and players participating in international leagues for a hastily formed substitute team-although they clearly hope that the NHL players are the ones on this trip. For Canada, look at the upcoming Channel One Cup and see what their plan B roster will look like: former NHL players such as Ryan Spooner, Eric Fair and Jason De Moss, led by former Canadian coach Claude Julian and Blackhawks coach Jeremy Colliton.

Greg Wyshynski: Some will make up during the season. Two of the nine games postponed as of Tuesday night have been rescheduled. Unfortunately, the Olympic break provides the greatest leeway. The NHL decided not to set aside time before the end of the season to make up for delayed matches like the 2021 season. The last day of the regular season is April 29. The Stanley Cup playoffs will begin on May 2. This date may be uncertain, but in the first year of a new TV agreement with the two US TV networks, the playoffs will be pushed any further into the summer. Currently, June 30 is the date when the seventh game of the Stanley Cup final may be played.

How much can the league pack in during the Olympics? The NHL has developed a "shadow schedule" that includes a one-week break-non-Olympic, non-All-star players must be allowed to plan to travel to Maui with their families-and some games will start in the season from later . But establishing availability is a problem. The NHL encourages its arena not to book events during the Olympic break, in case players do not go to Beijing. However, during the pandemic, the arena also suffered huge economic losses and used this time to reschedule tours and book other performances.

For example, Madison Square Garden hosted 11 concerts, including performances by artists such as Billie Eilish and Elton John, and three Knicks during the NHL break Contest. The Staples Center has 16 games, including Lakers and Clippers games and a three-day concert with the Super Bowl.

Kristen Hilton: At this point, only goalkeeper Robin Reiner-the locker of the Swedish team-has publicly stated that he will refuse an invitation to participate in the Olympics.

But other stars in the league have begun to comment on the uncertainties and possibilities of prolonged isolation in China amid increasing COVID-19 cases.

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Edmonton Oilers captain Connor McDavid, one of the three Canadian players, told reporters on Tuesday that speaking of the Olympics, "This will obviously be a very unstable situation. There is not a lot of information [coming soon] Coming]] going out, and then three to five weeks of [isolation] things. It’s a bit erratic. Obviously, if you go there this is the case, it’s disturbing."

Despite this, McDavid still has a strong desire to represent his country.

"I am still a person who wants to participate in the Olympics," he said. "But we also want to make sure it is safe for everyone. For all athletes, not just hockey players."

Alex Pietrangelo told the Las Vegas Review on Monday that his concerns are growing.

"I have four children under three and a half years old," he said. "For me, apart from the Olympics, I might be locked there for five weeks and be away from my family for a long time. Until we have all the answers, I will not make a decision because these are hard to come by." . So, we all sat there and waited. "

Also on Monday, Maple Leafs captain John Tavares, who was selected to participate in the 2014 Sochi Winter Olympics in Canada, also expressed his hesitation about going to Beijing.

He told reporters: "I think we all want to go, but obviously I think things are more disturbing than before." "There must be some questions we want to study and answer. Obviously, the status quo of things will encounter some obstacles and Challenge. I may be more upset than a few weeks ago, or a few months ago."

Meanwhile, Sharks guard Erik Karlsson told reporters on Wednesday that if the quarantine of people who tested positive in China remains the same, he "may not" participate in the Olympics.

After the recent wave of positive cases throughout the NHL, it seems that more players will continue to participate.