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David Staples: Fear of COVID knocks out Edmonton Oilers and cross-border games until after Christmas – Edmonton Journal

Published

3 years ago

December 20, 2021

Harry Miller

Author of the article:

David Staples • Edmonton Journal

Publishing date:

Dec 20, 2021 • 4 hours ago • 5 minute read • 80 Comments

Connor McDavid (97) of the Edmonton Oilers breaks in on Derek Forbort (24) of the Los Angeles Kings in a 4-2 Oilers’ win at Staples Center on Feb. 23, 2020, in Los Angeles. Photo by Harry How /Getty Images, file

This in from the National Hockey League: “The NHLPA and NHL have agreed to postpone cross-border games through Dec. 23.”

The following Oilers games have been postponed: Dec. 20 vs. ANA, Dec. 22 @ LAK and Dec. 23 @ SJS.

Red Wings GM Steve Yzerman says covid testing healthy athletes for covid doesn’t make sense in his opinion given they have no health threat. We need more coaches, GMs and players saying the same. pic.twitter.com/gfEM0rGF3b

— Clay Travis (@ClayTravis) December 18, 2021

My take

1. I wrote about the COVID issue at length yesterday, so I’ll refer back now to what I said, essentially that it’s a time of fear and confusion right now due to the Omicron virus but if we find this virus is mild and does not threaten our healthcare system, it’s time to lift all our lockdown restrictions. We’re all double or triple vaxxed. We can still practice social distancing if we feel vulnerable. If Omicron has no more impact than the common cold, it’s time to start acting like a brave and healthy society, not a fearful and dysfunctional one. The mental, physical and economic hardship of lockdown is crippling but it’s been utterly overlooked and downplayed by the hardcore of the pro-lockdown crowd from day one — even sneered at by a short-sighted and all-too-comfortable minority. But it strikes me that the unrelenting fear, isolation and stagnation are now far more dangerous than the ever-dwindling risk of the virus. Again, it could be that Omicron changes that calculation, but if it does not I can no longer in good conscience support the locking down and masking of my children, my family, my city and my province. How about you? How do you see it?

2. The NHL has about 90 players now on COVIC protocol. They’re all out for a substantial length of time, which has caused the cancellation of games and a watering down of existing games. It’s now brought on this pause in part of the schedule until after Christmas or longer (when has any kind of lockdown measure been as short as it’s first promised to be?). But the issue now isn’t the health impacts of COVID itself. Almost all of these players — or all of these players — are either asymptomatic or are experiencing mild symptoms. In other words, their youth, their excellent fitness and their fully vaccinated status are doing what we’d hope they would do: protecting them from any kind of serious outcome of COVID. In other years if these players were this healthy they’d almost certainly still be suiting up for games and no one would think anything of it. But because the fear of COVID is so strong in a large group of people, we’re still taking extremely restrictive and punitive action when young and healthy people get the disease. Is it not time for that to end, for the NHL to stop all testing of non-symptomatic players? I would suggest it is.

3. You could argue that if they get sick, the players will threaten spread to others. This is a fair point. It’s not unreasonable. But I will offer a counter-argument, that at this point anyone in North America who wants to be fully vaccinated is fully vaccinated. They’re also able to get booster shots. In other words, they’re highly protected from COVID, perhaps as protected as they will ever be. And, after almost two years of this mess, folks are also versed in how to protect themselves from COVID, through physical distancing and isolation if they’re highly vulnerable or around someone who is, and through changes to diet and fitness regimes that can greatly lessen obesity, which also offers solid protection from the worst outcomes. The argument that it’s time to get on with our regular lives — save for some hideous and healthcare system-threatening impact from the Omicron variant — has never been stronger. Outside of an Omicron melt down, it’s now time to do what Sweden did from the start, and learn to live with the virus with minimal lockdown measures and a reliance on the vaccines, common sense and personal responsibility to get us through. How did this work out for Sweden? Poorly at first, as they had a high death rate, but since early June their death rate has been flat. As other jurisdictions have had third, fourth and fifth waves, Sweden so far has not.

4. It’s too early to tell which direction the Omicron variant will take us. Some say it’s going to be the worst wave yet and crash our healthcare systems like never before, as this highly contagious variant both hammers the unvaccinated and also breaks through into the vaccinated population and produces enough outcomes to make a difference. But the early news out of South Africa, where the variant first took hold, is more hopeful than that, with leading physicians saying almost all cases have been asymptomatic or mild, with their healthcare system still on its feet, and with some even hoping that this variant will act as a form of inoculation, that if most of us get it we won’t get that sick but we’ll be protected from future more virulent variants of COVID. Of course, South Africa has a much younger and less obese population than Western nations, and it’s also had an exceedingly high level of previous COVID spread, which bolsters immunity greatly. We still don’t know how Omicron will impact our own society, one that is uniquely vulnerable to COVID because we’re older and less physically fit, on average, than other nations, and also because our highly-complex healthcare system, with its high levels of care and many rules of care, is vulnerable to being overwhelmed, with just 150 to 300 COVID patients in ICU able to sink our system in Alberta, a province of 4.4 million. Our healthcare workers are outstanding but they’re getting burnt out by a system that hasn’t been able to adapt rapidly to the threat of COVID — and anyone opposing all forms of lockdown can’t get around that fact.

Glad to see Notley out and about having fun. We can all use more fun and fellowship.

It’s time to get on with normal life. Unless the Omicron turns out to be a menace to our hospitals, time to axe Covid restrictions. #ableg #cdnpoli https://t.co/n8gBl2Zbgt

— David Staples (@DavidStaplesYEG) December 19, 2021

5. On a lighter note, I’m glad the Edmonton Oilers won their last two games before the break. It will put this fanbase in a better head space for Christmas, and making Oilers social media more bearable without the anti-Oilers management faction in full voice, crying out for heads to roll. I mean, such fans are perfectly entitled to their opinion, and it’s not crazy talk in any way to hold such a view, but I’m far more of a glass half-full type so I won’t miss the rancour. Plenty of times to get out the knives and pitchforks if the Oilers don’t succeed in the playoffs. For now, I’m pleased with the team’s record of 18 wins and 11 losses.

The NHL is broken into two groups right now, haves and have-nots, and the Oilers are finally one of the haves, most definitely.

6. I wonder what this all means for the World Junior tournament?

P.S. This article at first reported that the entire NHL was shutting down, a major misunderstanding and mistake on my part, as it’s just cross-border games on pause for now. My apologies to readers for this mistake.

Staples on politics

Are Albertans cool with an Omicron Christmas and a locked down New Year? I highly doubt it

At the Cult

LEAVINS: 9 Things

McCURDY: Game Grades from a 5-3 victory in Seattle

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Canada’s Marina Stakusic falls in Guadalajara Open quarterfinals

Published

14 hours ago

September 13, 2024

Anne Joseph

GUADALAJARA, Mexico – Canada’s Marina Stakusic fell 6-4, 6-3 to Poland’s Magdalena Frech in the quarterfinals of the Guadalajara Open tennis tournament on Friday.

The 19-year-old from Mississauga, Ont., won 61 per cent of her first-serve points and broke on just one of her six opportunities.

Stakusic had upset top-seeded Jelena Ostapenko of Latvia 6-3, 5-7, 7-6 (0) on Thursday night to advance.

In the opening round, Stakusic defeated Slovakia’s Anna Karolína Schmiedlová 6-2, 6-4 on Tuesday.

The fifth-seeded Frech won 62 per cent of her first-serve points and converted on three of her nine break point opportunities.

This report by The Canadian Press was first published Sept. 13, 2024.

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Kirk’s walk-off single in 11th inning lifts Blue Jays past Cardinals 4-3

Published

14 hours ago

September 13, 2024

Anne Joseph

TORONTO – Alejandro Kirk’s long single with the bases loaded provided the Toronto Blue Jays with a walk-off 4-3 win in the 11th inning of their series opener against the St. Louis Cardinals on Friday.

With the Cardinals outfield in, Kirk drove a shot off the base of the left-field wall to give the Blue Jays (70-78) their fourth win in 11 outings and halt the Cardinals’ (74-73) two-game win streak before 30,380 at Rogers Centre.

Kirk enjoyed a two-hit, two-RBI outing.

Erik Swanson (2-2) pitched a perfect 11th inning for the win, while Cardinals reliever Ryan Fernandez (1-5) took the loss.

Blue Jays starter Kevin Gausman enjoyed a seven-inning, 104-pitch outing. He surrendered his two runs on nine hits and two walks and fanned only two Cardinals.

He gave way to reliever Genesis Cabrera, who gave up a one-out homer to Thomas Saggese, his first in 2024, that tied the game in the eighth.

The Cardinals started swiftly with four straight singles to open the game. But they exited the first inning with only two runs on an RBI single to centre from Nolan Arendao and a fielder’s choice from Saggese.

Gausman required 28 pitches to escape the first inning but settled down to allow his teammates to snatch the lead in the fourth.

He also deftly pitched out of threats from the visitors in the fifth, sixth and seventh thanks to some solid defence, including Will Wagner’s diving stop, which led to a double play to end the fifth inning.

George Springer led off with a walk and stole second base. He advanced to third on Nathan Lukes’s single and scored when Vladimir Guerrero Jr. knocked in his 95th run with a double off the left-field wall.

Lukes scored on a sacrifice fly to left field from Spencer Horwitz. Guerrero touched home on Kirk’s two-out single to right.

In the ninth, Guerrero made a critical diving catch on an Arenado grounder to throw out the Cardinals’ infielder, with reliever Tommy Nance covering first. The defensive gem ended the inning with a runner on second base.

St. Louis starter Erick Fedde faced the minimum night batters in the first three innings thanks to a pair of double plays. He lasted five innings, giving up three runs on six hits and a walk with three strikeouts.

ON DECK

Toronto ace Jose Berrios (15-9) will start the second of the three-game series on Saturday. He has a six-game win streak.

The Cardinals will counter with righty Kyle Gibson (8-6).

This report by The Canadian Press was first published Sept. 13, 2024.

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Stampeders return to Maier at QB eyeing chance to get on track against Alouettes

Published

14 hours ago

September 13, 2024

Anne Joseph

CALGARY – Mired in their first four-game losing skid in 20 years, the Calgary Stampeders are going back to Jake Maier at quarterback on Saturday after he was benched for a game.

It won’t be an easy assignment.

Visiting McMahon Stadium are the Eastern Conference-leading Montreal Alouettes (10-2) who own the CFL’s best record. The Stampeders (4-8) have fallen to last in the Western Conference.

“Six games is plenty of time, but also it is just six games,” said Maier. “We’ve got to be able to get on the right track.”

Calgary is in danger of missing the playoffs for the first time since 2004.

“I do still believe in this team,” said Stampeders’ head coach and general manager Dave Dickenson. “I want to see improvement, though. I want to see guys on a weekly basis elevating their game, and we haven’t been doing that.”

Maier is one of the guys under the microscope. Two weeks ago, the second-year starter threw four interceptions in a 35-20 home loss to the Edmonton Elks.

After his replacement, rookie Logan Bonner, threw five picks in last week’s 37-16 loss to the Elks in Edmonton, the football is back in Maier’s hands.

“Any time you fail or something doesn’t go your way in life, does it stink in the moment? Yeah. But then the days go on and you learn things about yourself and you learn how to prepare a little bit better,” said Maier. “It makes you mentally tougher.”

Dickenson wants to see his quarterback making better decisions with the football.

“Things are going to happen, interceptions will happen, but try to take calculated risks, rather than just putting the ball up there and hoping that we catch it,” said Dickenson.

A former quarterback himself, he knows the importance of that vital position.

“You cannot win without good quarterback play,” Dickenson said. “You’ve got to be able to make some plays — off-schedule plays, move-around plays, plays that break down, plays that aren’t designed perfectly, but somehow you found the right guy, and then those big throws where you’re taking that hit.”

But it’s going to take a team effort, and that includes the club’s receiving corp.

“We always have to band together because we need everything to go right for our receivers to get the ball,” said Nik Lewis, the Stampeders’ receivers coach. “The running back has to pick up the blitz, the o-line has to block, the quarterback has to make the right reads, and then give us a catchable ball.”

Lewis brings a unique perspective to this season’s frustrations as he was a 22-year-old rookie in Calgary in 2004 when the Stamps went 4-14 under coach Matt Dunigan. They turned it around the next season and haven’t missed the playoffs since.”

“Thinking back and just looking at it, there’s just got to be an ultimate belief that you can get it done. Look at Montreal, they were 6-7 last year and they’ve gone 18-2 since then,” said Lewis.

Montreal is also looking to rebound from a 37-23 loss to the B.C. Lions last week. But for head coach Jason Maas, he says his team’s mindset doesn’t change, regardless of what happened the previous week.

“Last year when we went through a four-game losing streak, you couldn’t tell if we were on a four-game winning streak or a four-game losing streak by the way the guys were in the building, the way we prepared, the type of work ethic we have,” said Maas. “All our standards are set, so that’s all we focus on.”

While they may have already clinched a playoff spot, Alouettes’ quarterback Cody Fajardo says this closing stretch remains critical because they want to finish the season strong, just like last year when they won their final five regular-season games before ultimately winning the Grey Cup.

“It doesn’t matter about what you do at the beginning of the year,” said Fajardo. “All that matters is how you end the year and how well you’re playing going into the playoffs so that’s what these games are about.”

The Alouettes’ are kicking off a three-game road stretch, one Fajardo looks forward to.

“You understand what kind of team you have when you play on the road because it’s us versus the world mentality and you can feel everybody against you,” said Fajardo. “Plus, I always tend to find more joy in silencing thousands of people than bringing thousands of people to their feet.”

This report by The Canadian Press was first published Sept. 13, 2024.

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