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“All you have to do is deal with the hand you dealt”
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Edmonton Oilers coach Dave Tippett is on the bench against the Toronto Maple Leafs on January 22, 2021. Photo by Jack Boland /Postmedia, file
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If the NHL continues Friday’s postponed game between the Edmonton Oilers and the Canucks in Vancouver, it will be an absolute, unadulterated deaf embarrassment and phenomenal failure the league cannot justify.
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It was a total gong show in Vancouver all week.
The Canucks were supposed to have team training on Wednesday but didn’t.
Instead, it was switched to office work and individual training sessions.
So this is ONE training session before the Oilers are played on Friday.
One.
“Coming back and playing will be very challenging and not very safe if you ask me,” JT Miller told media representatives in Vancouver on Wednesday. “I don’t feel ready when I’m honest. I know everyone has a job, but to expect our entire team to be ready to play in a practice session and a pre-game skate is a lot to understand.
“It has nothing to do with ice hockey. To be honest, we’re going to need more time to come back and play hockey. Even the guys who didn’t get it aren’t ready.
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“That sucks. We are trying to talk about our # 1 priority, the health and safety of our players, and that is impossible to achieve with what is being asked of us.”
This is a Vancouver team that will have passed 22 days between games and is expected to return with the first of six consecutive games on Friday in Edmonton and Saturday at the Toronto Maple Leafs.
The Leafs will play the Canucks on Monday to create four games in six days. Consecutive home games against Calgary and Ottawa make up five games in the first seven days. A second game on Saturday against Ottawa in Vancouver will be followed by a flight to Ottawa to play on Sunday. And on Tuesday and Wednesday they are supposed to be in Ottawa and Toronto in a row.
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That’s nine games in the first 14 days after ONE training session to get back in shape?
The Canucks will play 19 games in 32 days.
The Oilers are also scheduled for three more games against Vancouver, May 4th in Edmonton, May 6th in Vancouver and May 8th again in Edmonton.
The Canucks could only let 14 players participate on Ice Tuesday.
This included neither goalkeeper Thatcher Demko nor Braden Holtby, Captain Bo Horvat, Travis Boyd, Jalen Chatfield, Alex Edler, Jayce Hawryluk, Nils Hoglander, Zack MacEwen, Marc Michaelis, Tyler Motte, Tyler Myers, Antoine Roussel, Nate Schmidt, Brandon Sutter or Jake Virtanen, all of whom were still on the NHL’s COVID-19 protocol list.
Chatfield, Edler, Hawryluk, MacEwen, Schmidt, Virtanen, Hoglander or Loui Eriksson will probably not be available on Friday.
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Trainer Travis Green was still on the COVID-19 log.
Some of these players are expected to get off the list in time to play on Friday – but not all.
In total, the Canucks had 22 players and four employees were on the log list as a result of the outbreak.
It continued on Wednesday afternoon.
“We’re assuming we’ll have a game in Vancouver on Friday. Until we hear something else, our itinerary and training plans are set up to go, ”Oilers head coach Dave Tippett said when I asked him how closely he was monitoring the situation and anticipating a possible postponement. “I think we may need to keep monitoring it, but we are scheduled to go there (Thursday) afternoon.”
With the Friday game in Vancouver, the Oilers are forced to fly over Alberta after the Canucks game and arrive two time zones away in Winnipeg around 4 a.m. to play their originally scheduled game against the Jets on Saturday’s Hockey Night in Canada .
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When I asked Tippett about this, he said nothing could be done about it except accept the challenge.
“All you have to do is deal with the hand that you dealt. This is the hand we have been given here. There are no excuses. You have to do what you have to do. We’ll be there to play. “
You should know that the Oilers are here 13-3 in their second back-to-back game since Tippett’s coach.
The postponements and postponed games have left Edmonton on the road with nine of their last 10 games.
But, by and large, they’d definitely rather be the Edmonton Oilers than the Vancouver Canucks.
Email: [email protected]
On Twitter: @byterryjones
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