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The Colorado Avalanche beat the Minnesota Wild 2-1 on Tuesday, but before the game the NHL had put Wild forward Marcus Foligno on the league’s COVID Protocol List. The list means that there was a positive test from himself or someone in his circle found through contact tracing. The hope with isolating Foligno from the rest of the team was that he wouldn’t possibly spread the virus to his teammates, but as of 7pm ET today, five Wild players who played last night have been placed on the COVID Protocol List.
As @darrendreger reported, sounds like roughly half-dozen #mnwild players will be on NHL's COVID-19 protocol list. Hope was this would be isolated to just Marcus Foligno, but Wild's latest team to have an outbreak. They'll have to medical jet back from Colorado, I suspect
— Michael Russo (@RussoHockey) February 3, 2021
Among those five Wild players is Avalanche forward Tyson Jost, he is the first and so far only potential case the Avalanche have had this season. You might remember that there were several positive cases amongst the Avalanche when the season stopped last March.
Tyson Jost is on the NHL COVID-19 list. #Avs
— Peter Baugh (@Peter_Baugh) February 3, 2021
#mnwild's Nick Bjugstad, Marcus Johansson, Joel Eriksson Ek, Jared Spurgeon, Nick Bonino join Marcus Foligno on NHL's COVID-19 protocol list
— Michael Russo (@RussoHockey) February 3, 2021
Sources: Positive players to medijet back to MN, team quarantined in Denver hotel; No word on Thursday's game, 4-game upcoming homestand
The Wild are still in Colorado as the two teams are set to play again on Thursday night. The status for that game is currently up in the air. Michael Russo who covers the Wild for The Athletic is reporting that the five positive players have taken a medical jet back to Minnesota while the rest of the team quarantines in their Denver hotel rooms awaiting tests/further instructions. The Wild are scheduled to be in St. Louis for two games on Saturday.
Here is the full list of players on the COVID Protocol List. Minnesota joining New Jersey and Buffalo as the latest teams with a significant outbreak.
There are five new #mnwild players, three new #njdevils players and two new #letsgobuffalo players on the #NHL’s Covid-19 list today. pic.twitter.com/2afxBNcM3B
— Frank Seravalli (@frank_seravalli) February 3, 2021
We are 22 days into the 2021 NHL season and 18 games have already been postponed. New reporting from Bob McKenzie indicates that the MIN @ COL game will be postponed as the Wild are facing a seven-day shutdown of their season. Minnesota will visit Colorado again in mid-March where they could fit in a re-match.
Nothing official yet but sounds like MIN is quite possibly facing a seven-day shutdown that would result in postponed games. https://t.co/GAeYlVPjan
— Bob McKenzie (@TSNBobMcKenzie) February 4, 2021
UPDATE:
On Thursday evening, the NHL announced that the Avalanche will see their next five games (including tonight) postponed for a later date. This includes the games against St. Louis on Saturday and Sunday, and the games against Arizona on Tuesday and Thursday. The Avalanche will hopefully return to action next Sunday in Vegas.
All the people involved in this decision decided that more caution was warranted while test results come back and so cleaning can take place. The Avs’ training facilities have been closed until further notice. These five games will be rescheduled in the coming days. Stay tuned.
Schedule Update: @Avalanche games postponed through February 11. https://t.co/o42HHY0569 pic.twitter.com/5YfU4QP8Ky
— NHL Public Relations (@PR_NHL) February 5, 2021