The National Hockey League announced the postponement of tonight’s matchup between the Philadelphia Flyers and Washington Capitals at Wells Fargo Center earlier today. It is the second Flyers game to be postponed this week, and it’s just another example of how the virus and protocols have effected the Flyers.
It was announced yesterday that Thursday’s scheduled matchup in Pittsburgh at PPG Paints Arena against the Penguins had been postponed, leaving tonight’s game as the only scheduled contest at the time.
Kevin Hayes also was placed in COVID-19 protocols yesterday after he was pulled from practice early, adding to the list of Flyers that are in that unfortunate club as fellow forwards Morgan Frost and Max Willman have already been in them.
Gerry Mayhew would have made his Flyers debut tonight after having a stellar season in Lehigh Valley in the AHL so far. He was recalled with Hayes’ placement on the COVID list and hasn’t appeared in an NHL contest since last season when he played just four games for the Minnesota Wild. Tonight would’ve been the 18th career NHL contest for Mayhew, an undrafted 28 year-old center from Wyandotte, Michigan who’s spent most of his pro career in the minors.
Flyers general manager Chuck Fletcher spoke on the level of concern he has with the way COVID has effected his team in a press conference yesterday as well when asked by The Athletic’s Charlie O’Connor.
“I think we’re all concerned. You just look around the league, you look at the NFL, the NBA, our sport it seems like every day there’s more positives (tests). Clearly there’s a surge going on right now in the world and we’re all dealing with it, but we’re doing the best we can with protocols. We’re back to where we were last year in terms of masking and physical distancing, and yesterday was a day off, which was a good thing I think for our group. Keep everybody away and hopefully that can stem the tide of what seems to be happening. But you know, we’ll just deal with it and we’re no different than anybody else.”
Of course, Philadelphia hasn’t been the only team that’s had things changed by COVID-19. Plenty of teams have had players enter protocols, including massive outbreaks in Calgary, Nashville, Vancouver, Boston, Toronto, Florida, and Carolina, among others. But at the time of this writing, at least two-thirds of the league have players in protocols and it’s scary how much things are evolving and changing, and it’s also scary to think how many players are being effected.
With everything going on, the NHL and NHLPA also announced today that players won’t be attending the Olympics, which is a huge gut punch. At least one or two Flyers would’ve probably ended up going, such as Ivan Provorov, and maybe players such as Cam Atkinson, Carter Hart, and Claude Giroux would’ve been in consideration for their national teams as well.
This has been a tough time for everyone. Not just in the NHL or the hockey world, but for everyone across the world. This virus has taken over our lives for the better part of two years now, and now there’s a new variant that’s effecting everyone incredibly hard and making life more difficult again. It sucks, but we’ll find a way to power through it.
