Biggest enemy to Avalanche next week? Not Covid, but rust

A few people have already asked: even though the Avalanche are shut down through Feb. 11 because of Covid-19 protocol, can players still skate on their own?

The answer: no.

If players have a home gym, they can work out as much as they want. If they have those home skating machines, they can use those. But they can’t go out in public and skate anywhere.

As a refresher, here is what Avalanche players must adhere to until Feb. 11, at least:

Stay at home to the greatest extent possible and do not engage in unnecessary interactions with non-family members. This includes:
• Diligently wearing face coverings and physically distancing both inside and outside of the Club Facilities.
• Avoiding social interactions where you are in close contact with non-family members; to the extent these gatherings are necessary, limit the size of the gathering, maintain distancing, try to stay outdoors, and all individuals must wear face coverings.
• When in your home market, avoiding going to restaurants, bars, and clubs. COVID-19 transmission is suspected to occur in community interactions at restaurants and in bars, where patrons – including your own guests – are unmasked for extended periods of time
to dine and consume beverages. Sitting outside at a restaurant is less risky but does not eliminate the possible person-to-person transmission of COVID-19.
• Not engaging in dining, even if in a home, with others that are not in your household.
• Not participating in crowded situations, including parties or larger gatherings, and environments where significant numbers of individuals from the community may gather, including schools and shopping malls.
• Avoiding the use of public transportation.
• Relying on delivery services for groceries or meals, whenever feasible.

The biggest issue I see for the Avalanche will be rust. If their Feb. 14 game against Vegas still happens, they will only have had two days to practice before boarding a plane to Sin City. If all things stay equal, the Avs will go into Vegas against a very good team that had been playing regularly for more than a week. Of course, Vegas only got back into action Friday night for the first time in over a week, because of their own Covid layoff.

I think we’re still a few more teams having Covid issues from this happening, but one thing I’m hearing under consideration: All teams, home and away, having to stay in hotels, in a bubble atmosphere. No visitors, not even family.

Players won’t like that, of course, but they and their families also wouldn’t like the season being canceled, and no paychecks.

Stay safe out there folks.

*In some good news, no new players have been added to the Avalanche Covid list the last two days. The two players on the Avalanche Covid list remain Tyson Jost and Gabe Landeskog.