Calgary Flames COVID-19 outbreak has 17 more confirmed cases – Calgary Sun

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We likely won’t hear from Darryl Sutter until after the holidays.

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He’s isolating at home, now on the growing list of Calgary Flames’ personnel to test positive for COVID-19.

But last season, amid an outbreak in the Vancouver Canucks’ locker-room, Sutter was asked about a situation similar to the one currently unfolding with his own club. Those words still ring true today, with a total of 27 active cases for the Flames — 16 players, three coaches and eight support staffers — and the team braced for the possibility of more.

“My biggest concern, they talk about the Canucks … My biggest concern, these are young guys with young families,” Sutter told NHL.com in April.

We likely won’t hear from Johnny Gaudreau until after the holidays.

Calgary’s superstar winger is isolating at home after a positive test of his own.

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Everybody is wondering when the Flames will return to action, even if it’s without some of their key contributors. Saturday’s home date against the Columbus Blue Jackets has now officially been postponed. Next on the calendar would be Tuesday’s clash with the Anaheim Ducks, but that could certainly change.

There were similar questions last spring, when 20-some Canucks were infected with the virus.

“We couldn’t care less about the scheduling,” Gaudreau said then. “You hope everyone is safe and getting better and hope their families are OK. That’s the most important thing. You don’t really worry too, too much about the season right now. We worry about their health and everything like that. When they’re feeling better and whatnot, you can plan around that. You don’t really focus on the schedule right now.”

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Those words still ring true today.

The Flames’ situation worsened Wednesday with news that the latest round of test results had revealed 17 more positives. That includes their leading scorer, Gaudreau, and their head coach, Sutter.

The Flames now have 16 players in COVID-19 protocol, the most of any NHL team at any point this season.

Also added to the list on Wednesday were starting goaltender Jacob Markstrom, defencemen Rasmus Andersson and Erik Gudbranson and forwards Byron Froese, Trevor Lewis and Tyler Pitlick. They join nine teammates who had previously been identified — Noah Hanifin, Elias Lindholm, Milan Lucic, Andrew Mangiapane, Sean Monahan, Brad Richardson, Adam Ruzicka, Chris Tanev and Nikita Zadorov.

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Put another way, there are only seven skaters on the Flames’ active roster who have not tested positive over the past 96 hours.

There were three new cases Wednesday among Calgary’s coaches — Sutter, Kirk Muller and Ryan Huska — and seven among support staff.

Under provincial guidelines, every confirmed positive is legally required to isolate for at least 10 days. There are fathers and husbands on that list. Some have toddlers or infants at home.

The good news is as of Wednesday afternoon, all of the Flames’ cases were “doing well.” In announcing that Saturday’s game against the Blue Jackets had been postponed, the league stressed again the organization “has followed, and will continue to follow, all recommended guidelines aimed at protecting the health and safety of its players, staff and community at large as set by the NHL, local, provincial and federal agencies.”

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The big difference between what’s happening in Calgary and the outbreak in Vancouver during the 2020-21 campaign is that the Canucks’ players, because of availability/roll-out up to that point, had yet to be vaccinated.

A lot has changed since then, not only in the hockey world but period. The Flames are fully-vaxxed — as Lucic pointed out in a post on Twitter, some have already received a booster — and that will help to reduce the risk of severe illness. (Around the entire league, it’s believed there is only one remaining skater who has opted against getting the jab.)

Still, any sort of outbreak is concerning. What’s especially alarming in Calgary’s current case is the rapid spread — they’ve gone from zero positives to 27 in a short span. They will continue to be tested daily.

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While the Canucks were dealing last spring with the Gamma variant, the Flames have been awaiting further results to determine if they have been hit by Omicron, the latest strain.

That’s one of plenty of questions that remains to be answered.

The Flames’ schedule, their salary-cap situation, etc. — that will be sorted out eventually.

Right now, with their training facilities closed until further notice, this isn’t about hockey.

Just like Sutter and Gaudreau told us in the spring, when it was a rival team going through something similar to what the Flames are now experiencing.

“The No. 1 priority for everybody is the health and safety of our players, their families, those close to them, everybody impacted,” said Flames general manager Brad Treliving earlier this week. “Let’s not lose sight that everything else is a distant second to that.”

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ICE CHIPS

While Thursday’s matchup with the Toronto Maple Leafs is postponed, here’s a good reason for hockey fans to swing by the Saddledome. The Calgary Flames Alumni will be collecting donations in an outdoor drive-thru from 4-8 p.m. for their annual holiday toy drive. You can drop off unwrapped toys or grocery-store gift cards outside the Telus Club Entrance. Some of your franchise favourites will be there to collect items that will later be distributed to Women In Need Society and the Alberta Children’s Hospital.

wgilbertson@postmedia.com

Flames on the protocol list

Of the players who dressed against the Boston Bruins last Saturday, the black and white photos indicate those who are on the COVID protocol list: