The San Jose Sharks are dealing with one of the worst COVID testing situations in the league, with seven players in the protocol as of yesterday, along with head coach Bob Boughner. Just before the rest of the group took the ice this morning, it was announced that Timo Meier has also been put in the protocol, though Jonathan Dahlen has been removed from it. That means their number remains at seven players, with Meier joining Erik Karlsson, Kevin Labanc, Jacob Middleton, Matthew Nieto, Radim Simek, and Marc-Edouard Vlasic.
Head trainer Ray Tufts has also been put in the protocol, meaning Will Leonard from the San Jose Barracuda will have to be helping the NHL club for the time being.
The Sharks are supposed to take on the Buffalo Sabres this evening but will have to do it without their top scoring threat. Meier is off to an outstanding start to his season, scoring five goals and 11 points in eight games while averaging nearly 18 minutes a night. In fact, with so many bodies out over the weekend, he logged more than 22 minutes of ice time and scored the game-winning goal in overtime.
It would have been hard to take a more important player out of the Sharks lineup, though it’s not clear how long Meier will actually be out. The team did not confirm whether or not he has tested positive, meaning he could potentially come out of the protocol rather quickly.
Not to be that guy to correct you Gavin but, the Sharks play the Sabres tonight. Blues are on Thursday. Timo is a big hit though he’s been the most consistent scorer in the team.
Happy you did. I skipped a game when looking at the schedule. Fixed now.
You also missed its seven players. Labanc went on the protocol when Cogliano came off.
Looking around the league, great to see that vaccine is doing such a great job at preventing infection and spread throughout locker rooms.
Yeah the fact that they are still isolating players when the entire team is vaccinated makes zero sense.
It makes sense if the vaccines aren’t actually all that effective at preventing infection or spread since it seems to be spreading just fine from player to player in these locker rooms.
I mean, there’s been several outbreaks among these fully vaccinated populations all over the country and world already. These locker rooms are no different. Makes you wonder what the point of these mandates are.