If NHL is going to force the Canes to play through a COVID wave, the rules must change

As the Carolina Hurricanes were taking to the ice short-handed against the Detroit Red Wings, six of their COVID-positive players were on a private jet somewhere over Wisconsin.

The Hurricanes had almost as many players being shuttled home on a day-long, cross-country odyssey as they did available to play Thursday night. Thanks to the NHL’s infamously inflexible rules, the Hurricanes were two forwards short against the Red Wings and played with three AHL call-ups in their lineup.

To someone, somewhere, it makes sense for NHL teams to play games that matter with 13 NHL skaters or — in the case of the Nashville Predators — without their entire coaching staff. The Florida Panthers only iced 16 skaters as well Thursday night. The Montreal Canadiens played without fans in the building, a flashback to last season. The Colorado Avalanche, after a late positive, were reportedly given the option not to play Thursday night and declined.

This all makes sense to someone, somewhere.

We’re far enough into our pandemic future that it shouldn’t still be this hard to figure out a better way.

The Hurricanes are allowed to call up two more players to get to the full 18 after playing short-handed once — so will presumably be at full strength on Saturday and Sunday after Thursday’s 5-3 win — which makes this silliness of playing with 16 entirely pointless.

Perhaps under normal circumstances that’s a useful guard against teams attempting to bend roster rules, but there are no shenanigans here, just a wave of positive COVID tests across the league, with more than 50 players in the protocol and dozens of staff as well.

Watching the short-handed Hurricanes on Thursday, it felt like the NHL is all trees and no forest.

Going with 16 skaters against the Red Wings is the kind of healthy challenge the Hurricanes might embrace, but if either of the Florida teams were in town the Hurricanes might not be quite so sanguine about it.

It’s not that big of a deal for the other 10 forwards to absorb the minutes usually spread among 12, although some of the missing forwards were high-workload stalwarts like Sebastian Aho and Jordan Staal, who play in all situations. It’s also a lot to ask of an NHL debutant like Jack Drury.

There are reasons — health reasons and competitive reasons — the NHL won’t let teams play with fewer than 14 skaters. But somehow, in the corroded logic of a league that’s often too slow to adapt to its surroundings, 16 is OK.

Postponing Thursday’s game was apparently not an option. Hurricanes general manager Don Waddell said the Hurricanes are having enough trouble finding a spot to reschedule Tuesday’s game that wasn’t played at the Minnesota Wild that postponing games is a last resort reserved for teams like the Calgary Flames, who have 29 players and staff in quarantine.

It will be up to the players to decide whether to go to the Olympics and risk a three-week quarantine in China — so many players have gotten COVID this season, it may end up being a moot point — which could create some scheduling flexibility, but even that is far from ideal on short notice.

Preliminary indications are the outbreak that likely started with the Flames is the Omicron variant, which suggests the NHL’s problems are going to get worse with time, not better. And Waddell said only a half-dozen players have received a booster shot so far, with most of the roster waiting until the four-day Christmas break.

So if the goal truly is to plow ahead, and by all accounts it is, then there has to be more flexibility in the roster and cap rules to keep from making a mockery of this entire operation. Everyone — teams and players and fans — deserves better than this.

This story was originally published December 16, 2021 at 8:17 PM with the headline "If NHL is going to force the Canes to play through a COVID wave, the rules must change."

Luke DeCock

The News & Observer

Luke DeCock is a former journalist for the News & Observer.