Delays? Play with juniors or contumacy will come. The infested KHL is tightening after the scandal

The overseas NHL has performed over 30,000 coronavirus tests in the ongoing playoffs and still has not found a single infected person. It owes to the “bubble” around the stadium, which no one but hockey players and other necessary participants is allowed to enter.

In contrast, the Russian KHL, whose players are in normal contact with the environment, counts one case after another. It currently records 87 infected and 132 cured. Covidu-19 did not escape a total of over two hundred people.

The number of team quarantines and postponed matches is growing.

“You can see for yourself that this is a complicated situation, but it definitely didn’t get out of hand.” he declared Morozov. “More and more coronavirus-infected players are recovering and gaining immunity, the situation is improving.”

Interrupting the season is out of the question. On the contrary, the KHL is tightening its approach towards the affected teams.

He does not want to repeat the confusion caused by Yaroslavl on Tuesday. She was supposed to play against the Chinese Kunlun in Mytišč, but she did not arrive due to the infection at half of the manchaft. The “home” were preparing as usual. Apparently they were expecting the opponent to deploy juniors.

Yaroslavl – like the KHL – did not make any statements on the day of the match. Journalists found out that he was not going to Mytišča from the club’s spokesman only after urging him through a communication application. The Russian media subsequently spoke of sabotage. “Is this normal in 2020?” the diary asked Sport-Express.

The criticized Yaroslavl, who had previously postponed the battle with Minsk, emerged from a scandal with contumacy.

The KHL has made it clear that it does not want to postpone the duels indefinitely, as it did at the beginning of the year, when they were quarantined in Helsinki and the Nur-Sultan in Kazakhstan. The current approach is tougher:

If you are infected, play with juniors.

If you refuse, we will consume your match.

The postponement comes into consideration only when the club does not find enough hockey players even with the help of a junior and a backup team, for example due to the spread of the disease.

The Latvian Riga, which recently ended up in a two-week quarantine due to ten infections, is probably unlucky. He will not receive the same relief as before Helsinki and Nur-Sultan. He has to play. But because he needs every point as an outsider to fight for the playoffs, he doesn’t clap the idea of ​​building juniors. And so she is in danger of several contaminations.

“We understand the difficulties that Riga is currently facing, but we believe that it can build a team from backup sources,” said the head of the competition, Morozov. “If he doesn’t, he’ll lose all the matches he doesn’t play in.”

The premiere is in the eyes of Morozov St. Petersburg, where covid-19 was caught by half of the team, including coaches. The rich club still jumped against Novosibirk on Wednesday, as it took advantage of juniors and officials.

He lost 1: 4, but it was an interesting sight. 16-year-old Arseniy Koromyslov swept across the ice, and Roman Rotenberg, a senior club leader and businessman whose father is an influential oligarch befriending Russian President Vladimir Putin, was on the switch.

The coronavirus has already visited the cloakroom of Ufa or the Moscow Spartacus. And it will most likely affect other teams as well.

Compared to the Czech extra league, the KHL has the advantage that (for now) it does not have to deal with dramatic restrictions in the auditorium. Spectators go to hockey in large numbers without the need to wear a veil, although not everywhere. However, the last battle of St. Petersburg and its juniors was watched on the spot by almost seven thousand people.

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