Quoting: Brian2016
I'm reading several of you guys suggesting the NHL shut down the season. I wanna be respectful of your opinions, but that idea is patently ridiculous. NHL players are at ZERO risk of severe infection - proven by the fact that ZERO NHL players have been sidelined by severe illness (or even mild illness) since the vaccine was made available. Protect the vulnerable. Protect the elderly and those with underlying health problems. NHL players do NOT fall into any of those categories. Let's stay safe. Let's Play Hockey! Enough with the hysteria!
Josh Archibald, Alex Stalock, and any player that developed or develops cardiomyopathy from a covid exposure would disagree with you.
Believe it or not but hockey players deserve the same level of health security as commonfolk and vice-versa. If society needs to take another step back because short-sighted politicians or populations made hasty decisions then athletes should be doing the same. Their physical condition doesn't warrant them invincibility to the virus or any other disease.
Sports are a reward for a functional society. We're not there yet. A two week pause now to allow the players and teams to reset under the rules that the NHL has established simply makes sense. Most of the verbiage surrounding the Olympics doesnt support the inclusion of NHL players anyways: this time was already alotted in the schedule, why not maximize its utility? The league can move forward with reduced capacities in the arenas to prevent a full stoppage in order to sustain its bottom line. This problem will only continue to exist until society learns that there isn't a choice to be made. Refusing any of the vaccines on the pretense of bad science only produces more vectors for the virus to continue mutating. Until that point we're at the mercy of that community and decisions like a pause in the NHL schedule are consequences that we'll likely need to endure.
I'm frustrated with that state of the world, you are, everyone is, and if you need CapFriendly to be an outlet, then I, the rest of the moderators, and the rest of the community are here. I'd prefer if we kept these discussions apolitical but hell, 10 pages left in this thread and I'm off to work for two weeks so I won't step in unless it's absolutely mandatory to do so.