Colby Guy
A Covid-19 outbreak could not have happened at a worse time for the Florida Panthers.
On Dec. 17, the team’s games were postponed due to the Covid-19 outbreak, but for seven players, it meant that their holiday season was in jeopardy.
“’Here we go again’ was my initial thought,” Aaron Ekblad said when asked his reaction to being placed into the NHL Covid protocol.
“Second time I’ve had to deal with it and second time over Christmas I had to deal with it, so not enjoyable for me or my family. But it was a necessary evil and I was able to get through it fairly quickly.”
Ryan Lomberg, who was the first of the seven players placed on the Covid protocol list, said he was asymptomatic.
He was also activated off of the list on Dec. 23, so he was able to celebrate the holidays.
“My fiancé and I planned a low key, quiet holidays,” Lomberg said. “Unfortunately, neither of our families were able to make it down, so we had a quiet holiday ourselves. It didn’t change too much in our house.”
Ekblad said that he dealt with mild symptoms for two days.
“I tried to stay on the hydration well and get some good sleep and on the vitamins and pass by very quickly,” he said.
Ekblad was also able to get some work in after he was feeling better and the team gave him clearance to do so.
“I tried to do a little bit of stuff at home,” the 25-year-old defenseman said. “I’m lucky to have an infrared sauna and a gym at home, so I was able to do a few things when given the clearance to do so.”
Ekblad, Lomberg, Carter Verhaeghe, Brandon Montour, Sam Bennett, Frank Vatrano, and Radko Gudas were on Covid protocols as of Dec. 17.
All seven players were able to return to practice to with the team on Sunday.
Florida did add four more players to the Covid list on Sunday.
“The passion for the game is extremely high right now. Getting back out there was awesome, seeing the boys was amazing,” Ekblad said.
“That was kind of the worst part, sitting upstairs in your room doing a whole lot of nothing for 10 days, but now I’m really happy to get back out there.”
Lomberg was also excited to see his teammates after spending two more days away from the team than the rest of the group that came back did.
”It was like the first day of school all over again,” Lomberg said. “Everyone’s excited to see each other again, catch up, and see how their holidays were.”
The Panthers plan to have three days of practice before they return to game action against the New York Rangers on Wednesday.
They hope that gives the quarantined group enough time to get their legs back.
“Just getting back on your feet and your skates is always a little difficult,” Ekblad said.
“Nothing feels good on the feet the first day, but I know it’s going to get better and it’s just a matter of getting back out there and feeling the puck again, feeling the skates again.”
The Panthers ran a mini-scrimmage in their second practice back from the extended break on Monday.
The team plans to practice Tuesday morning and should be on the ice Wednesday before its game with the Rangers.
”It’s important, especially at this level, the game is so fast,” Lomberg said. “Any time you’re away from it for an extended period of time, it takes a few reps to get back up to that speed.
”It was good, I thought our intensity was there, the boys were skating, so I’m looking forward to tomorrow.”