Vancouver Canucks Return, The Fans Return in Nova Scotia, More COVID Scares and The Legend of Connor Brown

There is always something happening in the NHL and even though the trade deadline was not as exciting as we had hoped to be, there were a few interesting trades here and there.

However, the biggest story of this season has been how the league handles the COVID-19 situation and nobody got hit harder more than the Vancouver Canucks. Are they ready to come back? More on this alongside other newsworthy pieces for this week’s Thursday links, news and notes.

• The NHL announced that the Vancouver Canucks would return to play on Friday after several players and staff members were hit with variants of the COVID-19 virus. Players were seriously ill and one would imagine it takes time to fully recover. The Canucks players’ don’t seem to agree with the NHL decision especially J.T Miller who believes that it is impossible to stay safe when players are asked to return prior to full recovery especially with a grueling schedule that includes six back-to-back games.
• While Canadian NHL teams have not been able to invite fans into their arenas, Team Canada will be able to do that soon. The women’s world hockey tournament hosted in Nova Scotia will be able to accommodate a limited number of fans to its games. All players and teams will undergo strict quarantine rules. It’ll be nice to see some fans cheering on our players and I’m sure the players will appreciate it as well.
• As the Canucks recover from their COVID-19 dilemma, other teams are having to deal with their own scares. Both the Toronto Maple Leafs’ Nick Robertson and Colorado Avalanche’s goaltender Philipp Grubauer have been added to the NHL’s COVID Protocol List.
• Unless you’ve been living under a rock, you already know that Connor Brown has become the world’s greatest scorer. While unfortunately his historic streak came to an end last night, it’s really fun to see the list of players he’s become in a group with, and not only on a Senators level. I think it’s safe to say that his ticket into the hockey hall of fame is guaranteed at this point.
• The Ottawa Senators “goalie graveyard” jinx ended with Craig Anderson and now the Senators seem to have a plethora of goalie, most of which are very talented young goalies. But if you still needed more goalies to get excited about, the Senators have added young talented Danish goalie Mads Søgaard to the mix. Mads is expected to come over to North America next season and it will be interesting to see how the overcrowded goalie situation gets sorted out; especially if the Sens remain without an ECHL team. /