As the National Hockey League continues to experience COVID-19 outbreaks across a number of organizations, some on-ice officials have been caught up in the rising number of coronavirus cases.
According to Sportsnet's Jeff Marek, 8-10 NHL officials are in COVID protocols but the league is expecting five of them to be removed soon.
The NHL was forced to postpone five of the 10 games on the schedule Saturday due to outbreaks, with five teams -- the Florida Panthers, Colorado Avalanche, Nashville Predators, Boston Bruins and Calgary Flames -- all shut down until after the three-day Christmas break. So far on Saturday, 17 players have been added to COVID-19 protocols and five head coaches -- including Maple Leafs bench boss Sheldon Keefe -- are in protocols as well.
With cases rising seemingly every day this week, the NHL and NHLPA agreed to return to more strict rules to attempt to curb the spread of the virus during non-on-ice activity. Some of those rules -- which will be in place until at least Jan. 7 -- include wearing masks in all environments outside games, limiting the number of people interacting with players and more frequent testing.
