A Fight Against Insurance, An Olympic Roster Update and More

The Sens should be coming back soon and it seems like the rest of the hockey world just moved on even though the Sens season feels like a game per month type of deal. Is COVID still taking over the headlines? You bet it is, so without further delay let’s dig into the latest and greatest.

• COVID-19 has brought the worst of so many people and so many situations and it seems billionaires were not immune to its effects either. Twenty NHL owners are in a fight with their insurance providers for losses not reimbursed. That is one battle you never know who to side with on. The case is based on allegations that the insurance companies breached contracts by refusing to reimburse more than $1 billion worth of losses due to the COVID-19 pandemic. Yikes! Here’s the fun part though, our very own Eugene Melnyk is in the middle of all this so we automatically know who’s going to win this battle considering his track record with the courts.
• The NHL and Olympics match up was officially crushed a few weeks ago. Team Canada was quick to come up with an alternate plan for the roster. It is probably they had a Plan B in their pockets all along. Among the more interesting names to be added to the potential roster is Buffalo Sabres’ prospect Owen Powers. The final roster should be finalized within the next 2 weeks and other names included are goalie Devan Dubnyk and Adam Cracknell.
• On the women’s side, the team is taking extra caution and doing a self-quarantine approach. They have officially entered a bubble and will not play any games until the Olympics. It makes perfect sense to make sure nobody is risking exposure prior to the Olympics and ensuring they have the healthiest roster going into the tournament.
• Remember that “magical run” by the Montreal Canadiens last year? Yeah, most people don’t. The core of that improbably performance was their goalie Carey Price who has always been the anchor of that team. Things took a wild turn after the season ended from Price’s surgery, to him being unprotected against the Seattle draft and eventually him entering the players’ assistance program. It’s been a rough few months for the goalie but it seems people don’t see a future for him in Montreal anymore. Trade rumours have been flying around more than usual lately, but who takes on this contract?
• The IIHF really messed up its world juniors planning but now they have another juniors situations to handle. As you may have heard, the Russian teams caused a bit of riot on their New Year’s Eve flight after the tournament was cancelled. The IIHF is now investigating the incident with the possibility of punishing the teams in question./

** Correction on the last point, the Czech team were indeed not part of the on-flight incidents and were mistakenly identified as part of that trip. They are not facing any repercussions from the IIHF as they have no involvement whatsoever in the situation.