Pistons tested for COVID-19 MJHL shuffling games Pandemic fallout forces major reshuffling of MJHL schedule
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Hey there, time traveller!
This article was published 04/11/2020 (1470 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.
Three members of the Steinbach Pistons, afflicted by flu symptoms early this week, are isolating and waiting for the results of their COVID-19 tests.
The developments cast further doubt on the immediate future of the MJHL season, which has been hammered by postponements and a positive test result for an OCN Blizzard player this week.
In Steinbach, the immediate fallout was the cancellation of all team activities until further notice on Thursday. A day earlier, the number of potential cases prompted the league to cite “precautionary public health concerns” as a reason to postpone the club’s home-and-home series on the weekend with the Winkler Flyers.
“We had three players that exhibited flu symptoms — one Monday and two Tuesday,” said Pistons general manager/head coach Paul Dyck. “So we’re just taking precautions. The players have been tested. We don’t have results back.
“We don’t have a confirmed positive test. So, we’ve just taken the necessary steps and the precautions and following our league protocols, etc. We’ve just cancelled practices and players are isolating. And so that’s where we’re at.”
The Pistons are entering a scheduled bye week but players will not be travelling home during the break.
“We’ll keep them here,” said Dyck. “If all our tests come back negative we’ll resume our training schedule.”
Dyck was hopeful test results would be available by the weekend but could not be certain. He was asked if he expected any of the three cases to be COVID-19 as opposed to the flu.
“Honestly, we have no idea about that,” said Dyck. “(The players) were all feeling better on Day 2 and Day 3. I haven’t spoken with all the players today but they were trending in a good direction on Day 2 and Day 3, so I really don’t know. But yeah, there’s no question that our senses are a little heightened (to the pandemic).”
The likelihood of cases cropping up in the league had been part of the mindset around the Pistons since training camp.
“We’ve talked about this so much that the first day it was, ‘Well, OK, this is what we have to deal with,’” said Dyck. “We treat every illness now as a potential positive case and we know that we’re just so much more sensitive to the health of our players this year.”
Had only one player been involved, Dyck said that player would have isolated and team activities would probably have continued. Having three players involved raised the level of concern. Even so, flu outbreaks during hockey season are not uncommon.
“We had a week (last season) with five players out with the flu in a two-, three-day stretch,” said Dyck. “And this year that just gets treated a little differently.”
Meanwhile, the fallout from the pandemic forced a major reshuffling of the league’s upcoming schedule.
OCN’s Thursday-Friday doubleheader with the Oil Caps was postponed with Virden now squaring off instead with the visiting Swan Valley Stampeders tonight.
In the wake of the Blizzard’s positive case, Dauphin (OCN’s last opponent) won’t play this weekend after the Kings’ two-game series against the Portage Terriers was postponed.
“The fact that we had played a team that had a positive case, they were worried,” said Kings GM/head coach Doug Hedley, noting his players must get through until Tuesday without exhibiting symptoms before being cleared to play games again. “Our group’s still together, we can still practise. It’s just a matter of self-monitoring.
“We were doing the temperature checks once a day. Now we do it twice a day. Our trainer had everything under control.”
Hedley hopes to reschedule one of the shelved Portage games for the bye week, adding the team had one player tested for COVID-19 recently.
“We did have one person that a couple weeks ago had a minor headache and then he got tested and he stayed home,” said Hedley. “If anyone has any kind of symptom, he just stays home. He can’t come back until he’s done, he sees negative… He came back negative in two days.”
Meanwhile, weekend series between the Stampeders and Selkirk Steelers, Winnipeg Blues and Waywayseecappo Wolverines, and Winnipeg Freeze and Neepawa Natives were also postponed. Selkirk and both Winnipeg teams are prohibited from games or practices owing to code red restrictions.
The Wolverines and Natives will now meet tonight in Neepawa and Saturday in Wayway. Tonight’s game at the 1,200-seat Yellowhead Centre will have a maximum attendance of 175 fans, down from 250 in previous games.
Only season-ticket holders will be allowed in the door.
mike.sawatzky@freepress.mb.ca
Twitter: @sawa14
Mike Sawatzky
Reporter
Mike has been working on the Free Press sports desk since 2003.
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