NHL Playoffs: COVID testing issues causing concerns, Jets without Ehlers and Dubois for game one
Anthony Scultore
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The NHL Playoffs have four games scheduled for tonight. Two teams on the docket have some issues with discrepancies in COVID testing and that could impact schedule.
NHL Playoffs COVD testing issues
The St. Louis Blues are one of the two teams that may be impacted by discrepancies in COVID testing results. GM Doug Armstrong released a statement that reads:
We have discovered discrepancies in Covid test results relating to multiple players. We have been in touch with and are working with the League to address these discrepancies with additional testing and expect to have further information later this afternoon.
The League will provide a further update when we have more information. Head Coach Craig Berube and our players will not be available to the media until after tonight’s game.
Per Elliotte Friedman, the league is re-testing some of its teams due to the number of false positives. More information is expected today. Andy Strickland is reporting that this may have something to do with a lab in California that handled the tests.
Updated: COVID test negative
Per the NHL:
“This morning, we became aware of certain test results involving multiple Players on two Clubs (the St. Louis Blues and the Vegas Golden Knights) that had indicated positive results for the COVID-19 virus. Because those reported results emanated from the same laboratory, and due to other peculiarities and similarities as among the test results themselves, an investigation was initiated into the possibility that the initial test results reported may have been in error. All affected Players were immediately isolated and further testing was done involving collected samples. Those tests have returned uniformly negative results, therefore confirming that the initial reported test results were in error. As a result, all affected Players will be eligible to play in their team’s next game.”
Winnipeg Jets without Ehlers and Dubois
The Winnipeg Jets not only have to face Connor McDavid and his high flying Oilers tonight, they will have to do so without two of their biggest guns. Both Nikolaj Ehlers and Pierre-Luc Dubois will be out for game 1 tonight.
Ehlers has been out since late April with an upper-body injury after a fantastic season with 46 points in 47 games. Meanwhile, Dubois was hurt in the Jets last game of the year and is not ready to return.
Tonight, the Jets need Connor Hellebuyck to perform his best impression of Martin Brodeur mashed in with Patrick Roy and Dominik Hasek to steal this one.
