Jets happy to see end of daily testing

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This article was published 20/01/2022 (1326 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

NASHVILLE — Winnipeg Jets players are preparing to say goodbye — and good riddance — to daily COVID-19 testing.

Starting next month, asymptomatic players and staff members will no longer be subjected to swabs up their nose. The only exception will be for travel-related purposes to get back and forth across the border. The change, announced this week by the NHL, is mainly due to the fact that nearly 75 per cent of the entire league has already tested positive, with the vast majority of those having little to no symptoms.

“The NHL finally woke up,” is how veteran Jets forward Paul Stastny put it Thursday, prior the Jets’ battle with the Nashville Predators. “I mean, everyone knows how it is. NFL, once the playoffs start, they don’t want little issues over asymptomatic players to kind of ruin a playoff game or ruin games. Now, it’s the NHL kind of following suit. Guys have been talking about this for six weeks now and they finally do it. But better late than never.”

Stastny made his return to the Winnipeg lineup at Bridgestone Arena, eight days after he tested positive just before boarding a charter flight with his team. Under recently revamped rules, he only had to quarantine for five days — it used to be 14, then 10 — before he could resume normal activities because he didn’t have any symptoms.

Stastny missed a pair of games against the Detroit Red Wings and Washington Capitals.

“It wasn’t bad. Just being stuck at home with the family, it’s tough when you have two kids and you’re trying to stay busy and stay active. There’s only so much that you can do. You try to go outside sometimes and do activities, but it is what it is,” Stastny said.

“Everyone in the family got it, so that’s good. Everyone is healthy and there are no issues at all. It’s kind of nice to get it out of the way and now, you don’t have to worry about it.”

Indeed, the Jets hope the bulk of their COVID-19 worries are behind them, especially since more players than not have already tested positive. And for those who have dodged the bullet so far, they won’t have to worry much longer about getting flagged by a daily test.

“That’s huge,” said Jets forward Andrew Copp, who has participated in the drafting of health and safety protocols through the NHL players union.

“You look at the guys we’ve had out in the past, we’ve been lucky here to have sporadic games, we haven’t really missed guys for more than a game or two. So, we’ve been really lucky in that aspect. But then in talking to the guys, speaking for myself and the symptoms that we had, I feel like we’ve played through worse.”

Copp tested positive Dec. 21 and didn’t miss any games because of the extended holiday break, Dec. 20 to Jan. 2. That’s a big difference from the start of the season, when forwards Mark Scheifele and Blake Wheeler were stricken and missed five games each.

“So, I think that’s going to be a real positive for everyone in the league, not having to sit out. And that can cause injury, too,” said Copp.

“At least now it’s five. When it used to be 10 days, or 14 days quarantine, you saw (Pierre-Luc Dubois) get hurt last year. Can’t really point to one thing in particular but I can promise you 14 days off the ice, kind of sitting there waiting, can probably lead to some of that. Going to be a real positive, not just for us but for every team in the league to not have to wait for an email every day saying a guy is positive.”

As of now, the Jets only have two players left in COVID-19 protocols, defenceman Brenden Dillon and backup goaltender Eric Comrie. Both are currently with the team in Nashville and are expected to return to the ice Friday for a practice in Boston. Notable players who haven’t tested positive so far this year include Dubois, Kyle Connor, Adam Lowry, Josh Morrissey, Nate Schmidt and Neal Pionk.

“Right before we were about to take off for the airport, I got the text,” Stastny said of his diagnosis last week.

“When you get that call, you kind of know something is up. You kind of figure something is going to happen, because everyone has been getting it from before Christmas and after. Like I said before, if you look at the numbers all over the world, it’s so easy to get that you might as well just… you know it’s coming, it’s inevitable.”

Stastny stepped right back on to the top line against Nashville along with Scheifele and Copp, taking the spot of Nikolaj Ehlers who suffered a knee injury on Tuesday. The Danish winger was placed on injured reserve Thursday and has been ruled out for the remainder of this road trip, including weekend back-to-back games in Boston and Pittsburgh.

Ehlers was spotted walking out of the rink with teammates Thursday morning, without the use of a brace or crutches. He had a slight limp but was in good spirits.

“Obviously he’s a really big part of who we are, the speed that we try to play with. I think he and (Connor) kind of model that for us. We’re going to miss a really dynamic player, a player that provides a lot of offence for us,” said Copp.

“It kind of adds to that faith that we have when we’re down in a game, just the dynamic offensive ability that we have to kind of come back and win. We’re going to miss him for sure. But we’ve got some guys coming back like you said that will fill that spot and kind of the next man up mentality.”

With nine previously postponed games now re-scheduled, Thursday marked the start of 47 games in 100 days for the Jets to the end of the regular-season finish line. In that sense, they’ll be happy to have all hands on deck, or as many as possible.

“It’ll be busy. If you ask anyone, they’d rather play games than practise. Especially when it’s the middle of the season and you’re champing at the bit to get going,” said Stastny.

mike.mcintyre@freepress.mb.ca

Twitter: @mikemcintyrewpg