Canada vs US in Playoffs

[SheldonJPlankton]

Why make it more difficult and complex than need be?

There are 31 NHL teams. Figuring generously that each team "needs" 100 players and support staff vaccinated, the NHL buys 3100 doses of vaccine. Ship 400 doses by plane to Calgary and 300 doses to Ottawa and courier 100 doses each to Vancouver, Edmonton,Winnipeg, Toronto and Montreal. Ship the rest of the doses to the US teams as needed. Vaccinate those who want/need it and donate anything left over to local communities.

As far as side effects go, I can tell you from personal experience that I have received two doses of the Pfizer vaccine. The first hurt my upper arm a little...and by a little I mean out of a scale of 1 to 100...maybe a 6. I felt it, when I consciously thought of it...otherwise, when I was distracted by life, it was ignored. The second dose I felt nothing at all.

I can't believe that professional hockey players who are used to shrugging off the pains of blocked shots and high-sticks to the face are going to be debilitated by the COVID vaccine.

 

[notDatsyuk]

Good question, haven’t thought about it myself.

Maybe Seattle for the NHL to get a jump start.

If Vancouver made it (I know, virtually impossible), that would be the ideal place for their 'home' games.

Beyond that, not a bad idea, but highly improbable.

 

[Cotton]

Both statements are true and not at all mutually exclusive. One says the vaccines are effective. The vaccines have ~90-95% efficacy rate. Note the common root in these two words. The other statement says they lessen the symptoms should a receiver of the vaccine be profoundly unfortunate.

This is public and common knowledge and your post reeks of antivax concern trolling

Wtf is antivax concern trolling? The only word that’s applicable based on my post is concern. Which only grows when people like you are spinning yarns based on direct quotes, then attempting to make a personal attack because I’m expressing said concern.

The efficiency rate for the two main vaccines Canada is pushing is 55%-72%, you know - common knowledge and all. One of them is the one numerous countries (including the US) stopped using - about an hour ago Australia announced a patients death after getting this shot, Canada announced the blood clot side affects have started appearing also.

And we are receiving different information, Canada has been rightfully criticized on the world stage for pretty much every step they’ve taken during this pandemic. And the freedoms people in the US are getting aren’t being allowed here even after a second round of shots, specifically because we are being fed different information.

Relating to the topic, obviously it’s safer in the US.

 

[Mordoch]

Why make it more difficult and complex than need be?

There are 31 NHL teams. Figuring generously that each team "needs" 100 players and support staff vaccinated, the NHL buys 3100 doses of vaccine. Ship 400 doses by plane to Calgary and 300 doses to Ottawa and courier 100 doses each to Vancouver, Edmonton,Winnipeg, Toronto and Montreal. Ship the rest of the doses to the US teams as needed. Vaccinate those who want/need it and donate anything left over to local communities.

As far as side effects go, I can tell you from personal experience that I have received two doses of the Pfizer vaccine. The first hurt my upper arm a little...and by a little I mean out of a scale of 1 to 100...maybe a 6. I felt it, when I consciously thought of it...otherwise, when I was distracted by life, it was ignored. The second dose I felt nothing at all.

I can't believe that professional hockey players who are used to shrugging off the pains of blocked shots and high-sticks to the face are going to be debilitated by the COVID vaccine.

You're almost completely missing what the actual problem is at this point.

Basically as far as the US is concerned there is no reason for the NHL to buy doses for all the teams at this point, and some teams at least basically have had all their players get their first dose already since availability is now for 16+ everywhere. While vaccines are not being made mandatory, there is plenty of reason to believe that the teams actually making the playoffs (or likely to) are also going to have fewer players potentially refuse the vaccine because they don't want to hurt their team by being out at the wrong point in the playoffs.

The huge problem right now is that Canada has a supply problem in terms of vaccine availability which is going to still last for awhile. Whatever you think about this, politically the US and EU for example are not going to agree to export out much larger quantiles of vaccines until their own population has been served first. This means any supply the NHL is acquiring for the Canadian teams and staff is effectively going to be taken away from more medically vulnerable Canadians who won't get the vaccine until later. (It basically is not possible for private entities right now to buy vaccine outside out what a country is already producing and importing, and even if the NHL could manage this, it would be a major PR problem as far as Canada is concerned.)

For the record, some people do have a tougher temporary reaction from the vaccine, and Joonas Donskoi did end up missing the last Avalanche game due to his reaction from being vaccinated although he should be fine for the next one.

Edit: It turned out Donskoi actually was presumably already infected with Covid when get got vaccinated. There are cases where people have a negative symptoms which could complicate something like playing hockey for something like about 24 hours after the shot though, particularly after the second one.

That would be a comparatively minor issue though which probably could at least be mostly resolved from scheduling. The much bigger problem is that the Canadian team won't go to the US until the semifinals, which is basically too late for vaccination to be properly effective in time.

You are also missing that the primary problem is Canada probably not authorizing the teams to fly back and forth across the border without any of the quarantine rules since not everyone on both teams would be fully vaccinated yet. This is why there were all these discussions in this thread about the implications for home team advantage and how the NHL might actually handle this. (There is also a question if extra precautions will be taken for the Canadian portion of the playoffs given the problems if a team had a bunch of players on one of those teams came down with COVID at that point.)