Blazers keeping close eye on Canucks as COVID-19 spreads through organization

“To see them come down with the virus, and now we’re hearing more about how the players are feeling pretty ill with having COVID,” noted Blazers forward Logan Stankoven, who will need to quarantine starting next week before he heads to Texas later this month for the U-18 World Hockey Championships. “It’s really too bad. The rest of their season is kind of up in the air right now.”

Blazers head coach Shaun Clouston added, “I think it’s so hard to stop it, unless you just shut everything completely down. That’s so hard to cope with. If you look around the league, Vancouver’s the latest, but Dallas was early on. They had just about the whole team.”

The Canucks’ outbreak shows that, even with tens of millions of dollars put into testing and protection, the virus can spread so easily.

“What’s happened to the Canucks doesn’t mean it will happen to them, but it does tell us that even when ou have more resources than the WHL and more resources than the BCHL, it can be a real challenge,” B.C. Health Minister Adrian Dix told CFJC Today over Zoom. “With all the testing and all the things they’ve done at the NHL level, it’s a risk. It means everybody’s got to take care and that includes all those people in Kamloops right now playing the hockey we all love to see.”

Stankoven, who’s been living with his parents in the hub, knows the B.C. Division setup is more risky than if the teams were in a true bubble.

“You never know where people have been and who they’ve seen, so it can be passed so quickly like we’ve seen with Kelowna, ” he noted. “It started with one of the staff, a few players got it, and a few other staff members. Next you know, they’re shut down for two weeks. Obviously, that’s not something we want at all.”

Clouston added, “I think everyone is doing the best they can. I don’t think it’s for a lack of effort. I think it’s a virus. If you look around the world, it just is what it is. People wear masks, people distance, and this thing does what it does.”

The Blazers — and Rockets, hosts of the Kelowna hub — are staying in community with their billets, while the other teams stay in hotels.

When asked about also putting the Blazers and Rockets in hotels to minimize contraction of COVID-19, Clouston says he isn’t sure if that would drastically improve safety protocols.

“I don’t know if it’s better or it’s worse. I think both scenarios have pros and cons,” said Clouston. “The players are staying in a hotel. I think they’re doing a really good job, but there’s hotel workers, there are other guests, there are elevators, there are maids, so it’s not a completely protected environment.”

Dix says if any concerns arise, Interior Health will be in contact with the WHL to change the living arrangements and keep everyone safe.

by Chad Klassen

Blazers keeping close eye on Canucks as COVID-19 spreads through organization

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