ESPN – The IIHF announced on Wednesday that it has canceled the remainder of its 2022 World Junior Championship because of a rising number of COVID-19 cases among players.
The news comes on the heels of three tournament games being forfeited in the past 24 hours after positive tests started popping up. On Tuesday, the USA forfeited its game to Switzerland after two players contracted the virus, and on Wednesday positive cases forced the Czech Republic to forfeit against Finland and Russia to forfeit against Slovakia.
IIHF president Luc Tardif mentioned that the tournament could resume this summer.
Several teams were frustrated with tournament organizers about the bubble environment not being as secure as advertised. Teams in Red Deer shared the hotel with the general public, including a large wedding party.
“Since the beginning of the pandemic, we have always made the health and safety of event participants and the community at large a priority, and given the news that we have encountered positive cases within the World Juniors environment, we understand and support the decision to cancel the remainder of the event,” Hockey Canada president Scott Smith and CEO Tom Renney said in a joint statement. “Although we know this is the right decision, we sympathize with all participants who have earned the opportunity to represent their countries on the world stage and that will not be able to realize that dream in its entirety.”
James Duthie explains it perfectly here…
… You have 10 teams, 250 players, plus their staffs, who have come a long way and been through a lot for a chance to play in the World Juniors. Most will never get another one.
— James Duthie (@tsnjamesduthie) December 29, 2021
You at least owe them the chance to see if you can find a way to get through it.
It’s just awful, you have so many individuals involved in getting this tournament scheduled and ready to go. Countless hours spent. Players working there whole lives to get to this point and they just cancel it because of a few positive cases. As Duthie mentioned, 10 teams, 250 players, plus staff and 4 positive cases. That is ridiculous. Atleast give it some time and try to come up with a plan to save the tournament instead of just cancelling it.
I have an idea, as many other hockey fans did, let’s have these world junior teams go to the olympics. Save both events and let’s watch some great hockey. I sure hope that this isn’t going to effect hockey leagues and levels with cancelled seasons, tournaments and playoffs.
