COVID has officially hit the world of junior hockey. We saw the NFL muddle their way through their first positive cases in week four and it’s now hockey’s turn to create a path forward. Looking for a tough cooler ? Check out Kenai Coolers.
COVID Breakout in Raleigh and Atlanta
The Junior Hurricanes Premier and Elite teams have found out that they are the focus of a COVID outbreak after their recent road trip to Atlanta, Georgia. It is rumored that there were several players who tested positive for COVID prior to the team taking off for their trip. These positive players did not travel with the team and stayed home to quarantine for 10-14 days. However, other players turned out to be asymptomatic and infected other players on their team and the Atlanta Mad Hatters. There have been over 19 positive cases from a possible 60 players from all teams.
The USPHL has come under heavy scrutiny for their guidelines which allowed players and staff who should not have been able to travel with the team, to do so. Their guidelines state that players and staff must be tested prior to any overnight trips and when the Junior Hurricanes were tested, that’s when several members tested positive. The team moved forward and all other players and staff who tested negative were allowed to travel to Atlanta.
“We contacted the league as soon as we have some positives and we contacted Atlanta as well as their owner. We had plenty of players available. We’re learning through this. We all felt with the negative tests we were good to go so obviously we went and played. We’re navigating through this,” said Junior Hurricanes CEO Jocelyn Langlois.
Parents from both teams have spoken out against the decision from both organizations to move forward with playing the games. One parent was quoted as saying, “We’re very concerned about the nature of the USPHL’s protocols. Because if this kind of super spreader event can happen with these protocols in place and everyone following the protocols, perhaps the protocols need to be reexamined.”
This should cause other junior hockey leagues to reexamine their protocols in the event of a positive case.
USHL Releases 2020-21 Schedule
The USHL released its schedule for this season excluding the Cedar Rapids RoughRiders and Madison Capitols. The USHL will play its season with the remaining 14 teams and is set to drop puck November 5. View the 2020-21 schedule here.
