How much COVID-19 is NHL willing to tolerate and keep going? How much are any of us? | Estes – Tennessean

Winning cures everything in sports, they say. Except thats not true.

It wont cure the outbreak of COVID-19 cases plaguing the Nashville Predators. This virus not only has bad timing.If anything, it has a taste forsuccess. How else to explain its arrival just as the Predators were playing their best hockey of the season?

Same for the Colorado Avalanche. Both teams brought five-game win streaks into a bizarre Thursday night divisional game at Bridgestone Arena that probably shouldnt have been played.

Both sides were shorthanded, missing forwards and skaters. The Avalanche didnt have their goalie. The Predators didnt have any of their coaches. They had to dip into their farm team in Milwaukee to fill out a lineup and have anyone on the bench to lead it.

Someone had to win this foolishness, and the Predators did, 5-2.

As a team, captain Roman Josi said, well probably always remember that game.

Now theyll remember it fondly. Thats the good part.

The bad is that the Predators also knew theyd wake up the next morning in the same predicament uncertain about whether theydbe able to play Friday night in Chicago. Uncertain about who wouldtest positive next and have to miss games.Uncertain if theydcontinue to be led in the interim by Milwaukee Admirals coach Karl Taylor since John Hynes and his assistants have all been sidelined.

And above all, uncertain if its going to be any safer to play the Blackhawks than it was the Avalanche, who were having players ruled out up until the start of Thursdays game.

Weve arrived quickly at this precarious spot intheNHLs season, andits clear the leaguethus far has no cluehow to handle the rash of cases befalling so many of its teams. So far, it has operated withoutconsistency, postponing games for some teams while steadfastly insistingothers like the Preds and Avalanche get on with playing, no matter the difficulty.

Its a new world were in, forward Filip Forsberg said. You have to expect the unexpected always, and today was obviously proof of that.

At best, Thursday's game was a silly though entertaining experience at Bridgestone.

At worst, itll prove hazardous to someone's health. This game not to mention theplane rides after thegame could easily cause more players to get sick.

Or rather, more players TO TEST POSITIVE, I should say.

I dont know theyll get sick even if they do test positive. In fact, most of the Predators whove tested positive this week have been asymptomatic, Im told. That makes it a little bit likea tree falling in the forest makinga sound. Are they really sick? And if theyre nosicker than they would be with the flu or some other bug floating around, then it becomestempting to start reconsidering howconcerned we should be.

The NHL has been seeing many asymptomatic cases. The NFL has, too.

Itd make sense if this rapid spread of asymptomatic cases among vaccinated people has something to do with an Omicron variant reputed to be more transmissible and milder in severity. Im no doctor, but shouldn't wehope thats the case?It might mean COVID is finally progressing into something more like a common cold.

If so, that really could be how this pandemic ends.

And after nearly two years, I think wed all like to know how this pandemic ends.

Its fair to wonder as someone who has received two shots and a booster, I sure do what isthe endgame if it wasn't thevaccine? Im not saying were at a finish line with COVID. But who gets to decide when we are? What will that look like?

Maybe on some level and at some point itll resemble Thursday night at Bridgestone.

COVID playeda leading role in thefestivities at Bridgestone, but it didnt stop them. A game happened. A team ofPredators players more or less won that game. Their fans were in attendance, and thosewho did play for the home team were glowing and talking about how special it was.

And it was special.

It was special because it was rare. Whats rare, by nature, isnt sustainable.

The NHL has a challenging stretch ahead. At some point, it is going to have to figure out if it needs to stop the season entirely. If not, then I wish thosedecision-makers luck indetermining how much COVID they are willing to tolerate andsayits OK to keep moving forward.

Sooner or later, thats something were all going to have to decide.

Reach Gentry Estes at gestes@tennessean.com and on Twitter @Gentry_Estes.

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How much COVID-19 is NHL willing to tolerate and keep going? How much are any of us? | Estes - Tennessean