Hurricanes
Gold: It's going to be hard to field a team by Thursday
Canes insider Adam Gold joins Pat Welter to discuss the Hurricanes COVID-19 outbreak.
So based on what you've heard of him, you know, what do you think the mood is around the team? I'm sure there's a lot of nerves because you don't know what's next. I'm sure that there's some frustration, because right now nobody is showing symptoms of Covid. Even Sebastian Aho, who was sick kind of over the weekend. Um, it feels fine now. So, uh, the only one of the Hurricanes who has tested positive not just in this group but going back to Ethan Bear, Tony Daniel and Brett Pesci that really showed symptoms was bare and those were mild. So I think everybody's frustrated. They don't know what's next. They haven't gotten a full read on what's going to happen with Thursday's game at home against Detroit. So everybody's just kind of in a holding pattern. Yeah, we just saw Calgary have three games postponed. So what's your educated guess on? You know where this ends and where it begins? Well, logically think it through. I have a hard time believing Carolina is going to play on Thursday. Um, they just don't have. First of all, they don't have the bodies there in a little bit of a salary cap crunch. It's gonna be hard to even feel the team by Thursday. Uh, it is possible through some different things they can do with the league. They might be able to feel the team by Saturday. But all of this is dependent upon no other positive tests. Uh, you know, Calgary's got nine players in protocol right now. The Hurricanes have six. I'm sure if we get another, Then Carolina will probably be paused for a period of time. My guess is I think it's 5050. They play on Saturday Against the kings, and if you play Saturday, you'll play Sunday against Nashville and I think it's 50.50. They don't. And if they don't, I don't think they'll play Sunday, either. So I think we're either gonna play Saturday or we're not gonna play until next week. Do you think the lead needs to make an adjustment to its protocols, whether it's just being stricter or as far as you know, you know, maybe salary cap flexibility with who you can call up and one well, the salary cap issue. Carolina put themselves in. Uh, so you're not gonna get any sympathy around the league because teams are leave themselves room at time. But there's a simple way around it. It's just gonna take a day or two to get there, which is why I don't think they'll get to it by Thursday because they theoretically, they could put, you know, 16 Skaters on the ice short of the 18 you normally go with and play a game. Last year, Las Vegas Vegas played with 15 skaters in a game, but that was strict salary cap problems that was not covid related. Um, so there is a way the Carolina can get around it and field a representative NHL team and changing protocols? No. The protocols were agreed to by the NHL, the Players Association, to try your best to keep everybody safe. I don't think you're going to change protocols just because you've got one team with a bunch of positive tests going around the league. Now the league may have to adjust a lot of things because it's not just here. Boston, Vancouver, Colorado, the Islanders. There's tons of teams right now that are at least six teams other than Carolina that are having covid issues. Edmonton has an issue. It is interesting Carolina just went through Calgary and Edmonton and Vancouver. Vancouver also has players in protocol as well. Uh, so, uh, there's just nothing you can really do about the league's don't doing the best they can and keep everybody safe. Is there anything that we're overlooking? You think as far as you know, what's happening right now, that could affect them? I mean, I heard Brent Moore today talk about, you know, these guys are in quarantine, they come back, they're not going to be in hockey shape because there, you know, not skating, so to speak. So, you know, that was one element. Anything else that you see, maybe we can send them pollutants to their hotel rooms. The Aho, Sebastian, Aho, Seth Jarvis and the member of the training staff. They're currently in Vancouver. They're trying to get them back into the United States. There's a way to do this. It's a little complicated, but I think they can get that done. The other four players are in Minneapolis, actually. ST Paul. Uh, Um and they're in a hotel room there. Yeah, the game shape is an interesting thing. Ethan bear probably still isn't back up to speed and he's played the last three or four games after being in a San Jose hotel room for 10 days. Uh, in terms of those things, I don't think there's anything they can do. I will tell you that the complicating factor or the complicating factor coming up is the Olympic Games. This has thrown schedules into a for, you know, for a loop Because Carolina's got 15 games in March and 16 games in April after the Olympics are over. If you have four games to make up, it's very difficult to slide them into the schedule. Maybe you can do it in January before we get even to the Olympics, but it's going to be hard to slide a lot of games in. I don't think they want to extend the season. They don't want to have the Stanley Cup finals later that they did last year. That's a possibility. We're already playing the regular season almost all the way through April, so it's going to be a difficult challenge to get these Games in. But they'll figure out a way to do it and you'll get some, I guess, a little break from the players Association. There might even be times where you have to play three games in three days. I mean, I think that's possible. I don't know if the player association would go for it, but everything's going to be on the table will be a lot more back to backs, that's for sure.