Sunday News Roundup

So we’re still a few days away from the start of the Devils’ 2021-22 schedule and there are some news items to get to that I figured I would put together in one post for the week.

To begin with, Sam Kasan is reporting on the Devils’ official site (and it has been further confirmed by a tweet from the IIHF) that Devils captain Nico Hischier has been named as one of the first three provisional players for the Swiss Olympic team.

Kasan said tha that “[t]he International Ice Hockey Federation, National Hockey League and NHL Players Association asked all participating countries to provide a list of three initial players to be selected for the men’s Olympic national team roster.”

Hischier joins the Nashville Predators’ Roman Josi and the San Jose Sharks’ Timo Meier as the players named by Team Switzerland for the 2022 Winter Olympic Games.

Hischier told Kasan that he’s “really pumped. Growing up you watch the Olympic Games. It’s something special. It’s something I haven’t experienced in my career. It’s still a little ahead. I’m trying not to focus on that instead of the season. I’ll just take it day-by-day, but when the time comes and I go over there, it’s a dream come true. I always wanted to experience that. It’s pretty cool.”

Kasan mentioned that Hischier has been able to represent Switzerland in the World Championships, the World Juniors and the World Under-18 Championships.

But you can tell by Kasan’s quote that this really means a lot to Nico and many of the players who will represent their countries in Beijing.

We, as fans, sometimes worry that, with NHL players in the Olympics, those from our team will get injured playing in a tournament that may or may not mean anything to us. To the players, this is one of the pinnacles of their careers and a chance to bring an Olympic medal home to their countries.

Good luck to Nico in February!

In other, more sobering news, there has been movement on the Mackenzie Blackwood vaccination saga.

Kasan is reporting via the Devils’ website that the goaltender tested negative for COVID-19 on Sunday and is now leaning towards getting the vaccine.

Blackwood was one of the final holdouts in the league to not get vaccinated.

Blackwood told Kasan that he is “probably going to be getting the shot in the next couple of weeks. It’s nice that {current test) came back negative and I’m back with the team, and business as usual.”

Kasan reported that Blackwood had been in quarantine since Thursday – but that that had no “bearing on his decision to get the vaccine.”

Blackwood told Kasan: “That has absojutely nothing to do with that choice. I talked with my family and friends. Don’t think this (COVID scare) changed my mind. It’s a separate event.”

Kasan said that when Blackwood was pulled out of the preseason game on Thursday against the Islanders, it was because of an inconclusive test.

Blackwood elaborated to Kasan, saying “I was getting ready for the game. I was told my test came back inconclusive and I just went home and waited to see what happened. I felt normal so I figured nothing was going on. Last time was a little different.”

Kasan mentioned that Blackwood had had COVID this past January. In addition, the goalie had heel surgery in the off-season as Kasan said that he had “been dealing with a lack of strength and mobility in the heel, as well as some discomfort.”

Blackwood did get in two preseason games according to Kasan. He played a period against the Islanders on October 2 in Bridgeport, Connecticut and two periods against the Capitals on October 4 at Prudential Center. Both games were wins for the Devils.

Kasan reports that he was scheduled to play the whole game on Thursday – the game was canceled due to a power outage at the Prudential Center – before he was pulled from the lineup. Blackwood said that he is treating practice as a game to make up for the “absence of a full game.”

Hopefully, Blackwood does decide to get the vaccination. Obviously, it is not perfect, you can still get sick even when fully vaccinated. NHL players are in close contact with each other on a daily basis and things are bound to happen.

But being vaccinated is a step towards protecting himself. If he is unvaccinated, he is very likely to get sick versus very less likely if he is fully vaccingated. The last thing we (selfishly) as fans need is for Blackwood to get on a hot streak and have it all come to a halt because a COVID test comes back negative and he needs to quarantine, or worse yet, is actually sick again.

NHL to Participate at 2022 Winter Olympics

According to an article accessed from the NHL app by Nicholas J. Cotsonika, the NHL will be participating in the 2022 Beijing Winter Olympics.

The NHL and the NHL Player’s Association came to an agreement with the International Ice Hockey Federation today. This will result in “a break in the 2021-22 NHL regular-season schedule to accommodate the participation of NHL players in the 2022” Olympics.

The break will begin on February 3 and end on February 22, encompassing the Olympics and the All-Star Game (the weekend of the third) at T-Mobile Arena in Las Vegas. The end of the break will see the Olympic gold medal game on February 20.

According to Cotsonika, “[i]t will be the first Olympics for NHL players since 2014 in Sochi and the first best-on-best international tournament since the World Cup of Hockey 2016 in Toronto.”

The article said that the agreement between the NHL, NHLPA and IIHF “allows for the possibility of a later decision to withdraw in the event evolving COIVD-19 conditions are deemed by the NHL and NHLPA to render participation by NHL players to be impractical or unsafe.”

Cotsonika quoted NHL Deputy Commissioner Bill Daly as saying: “We understand how passionately NHL players feel about representing and competing for their countries. We are very pleased that we were able to conclude arrangements that will allow then to resume best-on-best competition on the Olympic stage.”

NHLPA general counsel Don Zavelo said that “[r]epresenting their country in the Olympics is important to the players, even in these uncertain times. The players look forward to pulling on their nation’s hockey sweater at the upcoming 2022 Winter Olympics in Beijing as they comepete for the gold medal.”

IIHF president Rene Fasel added: “I know I can speak for hockey fans around the world when I say that we absolutely welcome the decision to bring back best-on-best ice hockey to the Olympics. We had many constructive discussions, and a lot of hard work was put into making this happen within the time we set for ourselves, and I want to thank all parties involved for their support and commitment.”

Cotsonika said that NHL players were participants in the Olympics five times between 1998 and 2014. That streak ended at PyeongChang 2018 as the NHL felt at that time “the Olympics [disrupted] the NHL season, particularly when not held in North America.”

Last year, Cotsonika continued, when the NHL and NHLPA extended their collective bargaining agreement through the 2025-26 season, the sides committed to going to the Olympics if an agreement could be banged out with the IIHF.

Of the Olympics with NHL participation, Cotsonika mentioned that the Czech Republic won gold  in 1998 (Nagano), Canada has won in 2002 (Salt Lake City) and 2010 (Vancouver) and Sweden won in 2006 (Torino).

The Olympic tournament, as reported by Cotsonika, will include 12 countries. They will be seeded into three groups and include the top eight IIHF World Ranking teams: Canada, the Russian Olympic Committee, Finland, Sweden, the Czech Republic, the United States, Germany and Switzerland. They will be joined by the teams that recently qualified through IIHF qualifying tournaments: Slovakia, Latvia and Denmark.

In other news, the Devils announced, through their PR team, that the team will participate in the 2021 Prospects Challenge.

The Prospects Challenge will teake place from September 17 to 19 at LECOM Harborcenter in Buffalo.

The participating teams will be the Sabres, the Devils and the Boston Bruins. Tickets are available at Sabres.com/prospects and are $10. There will be COVID guidelines to follow should you make the trip up. If you are unvaccinated, you will need to wear a mask at all times at the Harborcenter. The press release does not hat masks are optional if you are vaccinated.

The Devils prospects will take on Buffalo on Friday, September 17 at 7 PM and Boston on Sunday, September 19 at 1 PM.