Prior to Monday night’s 6-5 victory over the host Edmonton Oilers, head coach Paul Maurice of the Winnipeg Jets spent some time during a media availability 
talking about playing NHL games in empty arenas.
For starters, he feels the experience is good for the players’ long-term relationship with the fans.
“I think,” Maurice said, “that this is actually great for the players of the NHL to go through because they truly have an appreciation for how much the fans bring to the building. . . . We will be really, really happy when we get people back in the building, for sure.”
(Thanks to Carter Brooks of fullpresshockey.com for the quotes.)
And it’s something that is felt just as much on the road as it is on home. In fact, Maurice said, when you’re playing on the road, well . . .
“There is not that energy, that juice, that excitement (right now), and that’s true on the road, too,” he said. “Sometimes winning the game on the road is even more fun because you depress 20,000 people. That sounds terrible, but it’s true. You come in and you’re out-playing them, the fans are booing their own team. There is an energy that comes out of that.”
D Nathan Beaulieu, who is in his ninth season as a pro, admitted that it isn’t easy adjusting to playing before empty seats.
“I think having no fans is definitely wearing on guys . . . especially with games that are emotional and tight,” Beaulieu said. “If you need that extra boost, if you’re playing a back-to-back, I think we miss the fans more than we (let on). They’re such a big part of our game. That’s the biggest thing I’ve noticed . . .
“But playing the same teams over and over . . . you kind of know what to expect when you’re showing up at the rink, so there’s not a lot of surprises. But personally, the fans . . . you don’t really realize how much you miss them until they’re not there.”
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As if the NHL doesn’t enough on its hands with the pandemic, it was forced to postpone a game on Monday night due to a lack of power. Yes, power as in electricity. . . . The Dallas Stars were to have played host to the Nashville Predators but was scrubbed because of, as the NHL put it, “extreme weather conditions that have caused significant power outages in the Dallas area.” . . .
At 10 p.m., The Weather Network reported that the temperature in Dallas was minus-14 C; it was minus-5 C in Kamloops. . . .
The St. Louis Blues and Arizona Coyotes wrapped up their seven-game set on Monday afternoon, the host Coyotes winning, 1-0. Arizona won four of the games. . . . While those teams were meeting seven times in 13 days, the Buffalo Sabres didn’t play even once thanks to COVID-19 protocols. The Sabres returned to action last night for the first time since Jan. 31, losing 3-1 to the visiting New York Islanders.
The San Antonio Spurs and Detroit Pistons were to have played an NBA game in the Michigan city tonight. But the NBA announced Monday that the game had been postponed. The Spurs had a player test positive and contact tracing has left them without the required eight players necessary to play a game.
There was an accident on the Trans-Canada Highway on the eastern side of Kamloops on Monday morning. The east-bound lanes were shut down and traffic was rerouted onto Shuswap Road, which runs along the north shore of the South Thompson River for 17 km before providing a link to the highway. Dorothy and I often take Shuswap Road into the city and on a lot of trips might pass eight or 10 vehicles. On Monday, we had to go in to pick up groceries at 2 p.m. On our way in we must have passed between 200 and 300 vehicles. Somehow I don’t think the week-long pleas by B.C. politicians and health officials asking people not to travel on the long weekend had the desired effect.
THE COVID-19 CHRONICLES . . .
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CBC News — Saskatchewan is reporting 143 new COVID-19 cases, which nudges the province’s 7-day average up to 160.
CBC News — Alberta is reporting 251 new COVID-19 cases, 2 more deaths.
CBC News — Red Deer slaughterhouse to close temporarily amid growing COVID-19 outbreak that has claimed one life. . . . As of Monday, 326 employees had tested positive, nearly double the count of 168 on Feb. 6. Of those, 192 remain active.
CBC News — Widespread testing of all residents at a condo building in Mississauga, Ont., starts today after 5 cases of the coronavirus variant first detected in South Africa were identified there, Peel Public Health says.
CTV Montreal — Eleven Ontario students fined at least $17,000 for cottage weekend in Quebec Laurentians.
CBC News — Quebec is reporting 728 new cases of COVID-19. The province is also reporting 16 additional deaths, 5 of which occurred in the last 24 hours. The province removed 1 previously reported death from its total. 804 people are in hospital, including 136 in ICU.
CBC News — 1 new COVID-19 case in New Brunswick, the lowest daily total since December 30. Health authorities also say there has been another death due to the virus.
CBC News — 7 new cases of COVID-19 are being reported in N.L., along with 21 presumptive positive cases identified through rapid testing. There are 298 known active cases in the province. 1 person is in hospital.
CBC News — Surge in cases in hamlet of Arviat, Nunavut continues to grow with 7 new COVID-19 cases reported Monday, marking Nunavut’s biggest daily increase of 2021. New cases bring the territorial count of active cases to 18, all of them in Arviat.
CBC News — Global cases of COVID-19 top 109M cases and over 2.40M deaths: Johns Hopkins University.
Johns Hopkins University of Medicine, Monday, 10:44 p.m. PT — 21,298 people in Canada have died from coronavirus . . . 832,375 people have tested positive in Canada.
Johns Hopkins University of Medicine, Monday, 10:44 p.m. PT — 486,321 people in the United States have died from coronavirus . . . 27,692,967 people have tested positive in the U.S.
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TAKING NOTE 