Here we go again.
The Canadian women’s national ice hockey team was supposed to play its first game on Thursday, before a norovirus outbreak spread through Finland’s team.
There were 14 players total for Finland who were either sick or quarantined, leaving only 10 players available for the game.
That created one scheduling snafu, and now another appears to be happening with Canada’s next opponent.
Canada was scheduled to play Switzerland on Saturday, but that game is also at risk of being postponed.
The Swiss women’s national ice hockey team did not partake in the Olympic Opening Ceremony after they announced one of their players had also contracted norovirus.
Because of that, the whole team went into isolation before the Olympic Opening Ceremony.
If the game gets postponed, that could create some scheduling headaches for the rest of the tournament.
Canada’s game against Finland was rescheduled for Thursday, Feb. 12, at 12:10 p.m. PT. That means they play three games in four nights between Feb. 9 and Feb. 12.
The quarterfinals for women’s ice hockey are scheduled to take place on Feb. 13.
There’s seemingly no spot for the game to be rescheduled if the outbreak on Switzerland’s team were to spread, unless the quarterfinals were to be bumped to different dates.
If the game against Switzerland were to be postponed, the only way to squeeze the rest of the games in would be to have Canada play a gruelling four games in four nights.
According to IOC rules, Canada would have to agree to play that many games in consecutive days. You’d imagine they would push back on that.
The round robin for women’s ice hockey was supposed to be finished on Feb. 10.
As of now, only one player on Switzerland’s team has contracted norovirus.
If the game is played on schedule, it will take place on Saturday, Feb. 7, at 12:10 p.m. PT.