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Devils Add Five More to COVID Protocol

Things are beginning to grow worse regarding the Devils COVID-19 problems.

Today, Chris Wescott announced via the Inside the Devils Blog that the NHL has said that five more New Jersey Devils have been named to the COVID Protocol list.

Jesper Bratt, Jack Hughes, Damon Severson, Ty Smith and Matt Tennyson now join Connor Carrick, Aaron Dell, Andreas Johnsson, Janne Kuokkanen, Michael McLeod, Kyle Palmieri, Sami Vatanen, Pavel Zacha and Travis Zajac on the list.

Notable absence from Wescott’s list is Mackenzie Blackwood. It seems that the goaltender has cleared the list, doing the math.

The Devils season, on Monday, was postponed by the NHL until February 6 at the earliest. That was when the team had ten players on the list, it now stands at 14.

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NHL Puts Devils Season on Pause

Chris Wescott of the Inside the Devils Blog today said that the Devils’ season will be put on pause with all games postponed through at least Saturday, February 6.

The reason? You guessed it, COVID.

The Devils added four more players to the COVID Protocol today.

Mackenzie Blackwood, Connor Carrick, Aaron Dell, Andreas Johnsson, Janne Kuokkanen, Michael McLeod, Kyle Palmieri, Sami Vatanen, Pavel Zacha and Travis Zajac now reside on that list and the NHL has announced that the Devils will not play until February 6 at the earliest.

Wescott said that “as a precaution, the Devils facilities are closed to all players on the active roster, effective immediately, and it will remain that way until further notice.” He also said that he NHL “is reviewing and revising the team’s regular-season schedule.”

This is reality in 2021. It is not ideal, but we (and the team) will get through it. It should be noted too, that not all of the players on the list are necessarily there due to concerns that they have the virus.

Vatanen is in quarantine after coming over from Finland, Carrick’s wife just gave birth and Dell came in from Winnipeg, so they are just clearing things up. That does not mean that they do not have the virus, it is just running through necessary procedures that keep them out of action even just in case.

The Devils’ official channels should keep us updated and we will pass things along as they get reported.