Buckle up, Canucks fans.
Roughly 24 hours before the Vancouver Canucks face the Edmonton Oilers to kick off their season, TSN 1040’s Matt Sekeres reported a tough blow for Canucks fans and J.T. Miller fantasy hockey owners alike.
The Canucks cancelled practice on Sunday due to a false positive test, but were back out on Monday, with Jordie Benn being the lone absentee.
Today, however, Benn and J.T. Miller weren’t out for practice, and now we know why.
Miller was deemed a close contact of Benn and has been forced into quarantine, per Rick Dhaliwal.
As explained by Patrick Johnston of The Province, Benn and Miller will both have to test negative over the course of three days before being cleared for travel:
The only issue is, the Canucks are already in Edmonton, so once those three days are up (assuming both players continue to test negative), Miller and Benn still won’t be able to get to Alberta to play in the club’s matches against the Calgary Flames.
This suggests that the earliest the Canucks will get both of these players back is next Wednesday for their home opener against the Montreal Canadiens.
General manager Jim Benning spoke on Sportsnet 650 and confirmed that Miller and Benn “aren’t available to them” right now. He also added that there would be additional information announced tomorrow. We will keep you updated as new information arises.
UPDATE: Patrick Johnston posted this excellent thread that draws on information from BC Health guidelines that concludes that under the current rules, it may in fact be Miller who is out longer than Benn.
Click to read the entire thread:
In this scenario, Miller will not be cleared to play in the home opener.