The NHL has found its patient zero of the novel coronavirus. On Tuesday night, the Ottawa Senators announced one of their players has tested positive for COVID-19, which is the disease caused by the coronavirus.
For privacy purposes, the Senators did not release the player’s name. Several players have been showing the symptoms, so they are getting tested, according to Hailey Salvian and James Mirtle of The Athletic (subscription required).
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The Senators were on a long road trip before the season got put on hold, so it’s hard to pin down precisely where they got it from. They’ve recently played in Los Angeles, San Jose, and Anaheim. The Senators also went to Pittsburgh in early March and had a home game against the New York Islanders on March 5.
This proves why the NHL and NBA were wise to shutdown the league. Usually, if one player gets sick, everyone gets sick. With an illness as contagious as the novel coronavirus, that can be quite scary, especially for players who might be in contact with elderly people, who are most vulnerable to the coronavirus.
The schedule can be crowded at certain arenas, meaning that the virus could have spread quite quickly. Though the unnamed Senators players is the first player to test positive for the coronavirus, it seems like some of his teammates might have caught it as well.
Even though the NHL canceled games right after the NBA did, the NHL still didn’t come out unscathed from the coronavirus. At this point, we’re not going to be seeing hockey games until at least mid-May, and even that seems optimistic. There are reportedly plans for the league to start back up potentially as late as late-July or early-August.