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Morning, folks!
It’s Friday and, like Rebecca Black, I’m looking forward to it. Even if I’ve been un/fortunate enough to be living in a perpetual weekend for months.
That’s my time for this morning (love Fridays) but before I leave you to your own devices, take a look at this:
We warned everyone that the realignment plan the NHL shared with governors on the call Wednesday was subject to change, and that's exactly what appears to be happening. Sources confirm the NHL is looking to make a few tweaks to those divisions again. 1/2
— Pierre LeBrun (@PierreVLeBrun) December 11, 2020
Welp.
I mean, I’m sure it’s not that big a deal in the end, but the NHL really does need to cross these T’s and dot these I’s ASAP if they want to get this thing up and running in a calendar month.
This does seem relatively minor, though, and it should be worked out in relatively short order.
Source confirms that the NHL is planning the private purchase of a COVID vaccine for all constituents involved in the potential upcoming season.
— John Shannon (@JShannonhl) December 10, 2020
Predictably, there was a good degree of “WTF?!” in the comments here about the NHL and its players being any sort of priority ahead of front-line workers or vulnerable populations, to which Shannon clarified:
For clarification...
— John Shannon (@JShannonhl) December 11, 2020
The NHL is interested in securing vaccine when and if it’s available for private purchase.
Is it at this point? — no.
The league also is adamant they would not jump the line to do so.
That’s better, I think, but there’s a wider discussion here that I’m not qualified to have, or lead. In a just world, I think, the most vulnerable groups would receive the vaccine first, working backwards to the least vulnerable, of which I would count the majority of NHL players.
But that’s all IMO. I’m also of the opinion that it’s generally irresponsible for a professional sports league — that does involve hospitalizing injuries from time to time — to play at all when critical care resources are stretched thin and/or burnt out.
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