The NHL is in the midst of a COVID-19 outbreak that forced the league to pause operations through at least Tuesday, Dec. 28.
Other professional sports leagues are dealing with the same thing and ended up changing their protocols because of it. Now Brad Marchand is hopeful the NHL will follow suit.
The Boston Bruins forward (and the rest of the team) returned to practice Sunday afternoon after a bout with COVID. Marchand and his fellow teammates are fully vaccinated and echoed what team president Cam Neely said earlier this week about needing to figure something out so pauses don’t continue to happen.
“It’s tough. This whole thing is tough. There’s obviously a valid argument on both sides where this could be the new norm with the variant coming around every year,” Marchand said over Zoom. “It’s something we’re going to have to live with. We can’t be doing this year in and year out and every day. At some point we have to get back to some normalcy. Guys have done what they’re supposed to do and we’re vaccinated and all that stuff. It’s to a point where we’ve got to get back to normal, and it’s not wrong. Other leagues have gone to the testing if you have symptoms, otherwise if you’re asymptomatic you just go about your day, and we definitely have to get to that. The NBA is there. The NFL is going there now and we’re going to get there soon. It needs to get there soon. We can’t continually have hold ups in the league. If guys are fine there’s no reason they shouldn’t be able to play. Hopefully we can get there soon.”
It’s unclear if the NHL has plans to modify its testing protocols once play resumes, but it certainly would be worth considering to avoid another potential shutdown.
The Bruins are scheduled to get back to game action Dec. 29 in Ottawa against the Senators.
