If there was ever any doubt that the NHL was expecting teams to follow the COVID-19 safety guidelines and return-to-play protocols, there shouldn’t be any doubt now. On Wednesday, it was announced that the league has nailed the Washington Capitals with a $100K fine for violations of the rules on COVID-19 precautions.
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As per multiple reports, the Capitals are being fined because there were social interactions among team members who were in close contact with one another and were not wearing face coverings. The NHL Public Relations Department tweeted the news but no other details were released regarding the matter.
NHL Is Serious About This
Fans may have noticed that coaches are required to wear masks during games and there are strict guidelines about close contact between players, personnel, media and others involved in the league trying to get through 56 games with minimal interruption. So far, the NHL has done a good job, but there have been instances of canceled games and practices have been canceled frequently out of an abundance of caution.
The NHL cannot afford for the COVID-19 numbers to get out of hand and one of the ways to ensure teams don’t let relaxed in their respective approaches to keeping the totals down is to heavily fine them for infractions. The league has done so here.
It will be interesting to see if there is reaction to the news or teams start to take extra precautions to avoid getting similar fines moving forward.
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