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This morning Almtuna screened all players for COVID-19, after two players received a confirmed corona infection.
After that, the players got ready for the game, and by 6.30 pm they had finished warming up on the ice before the game against Timrå. Then came the message: The match has been postponed, announced by the speaker 18.32.
CLIP: Here players are forced to leave the ice.
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Opens up for change
Erik Ryman, Hockeyallsvenskan’s sporting director, followed the evening watch in front of the television and at first had a hard time believing what he heard when he received the message.
– At first I just thought: “Must someone be joking?” But that was not the case. We have had a route entry that we will do during the day, and especially this morning. But with the information we had, the doctors of both teams did the right thing, according to the protocols and guidelines that we have in Swedish hockey – everything was followed to the letter, he says, continuing:
– But you see how insidious this disease can be. None of the players showed symptoms.
But even if all the routines were followed, now there may be changes due to the events of the night.
– We have to learn lessons. Every day we learn something new about this virus. It’s the same with this: we get to learn, evaluate and see if we should change routines, or if we should have another follow-up and how we should do with everything, says Ryman.
– With the result in hand, it was fortunate that we did not start playing the game. Then we could have had another infected computer. So we broke up there and then we got lucky in bad luck, it was okay they didn’t start playing. For both the referees and the referees, Timrå and the rest of the Almtuna players. It is a very insidious disease, covid-19.
“Of course you are worried”
Compared to SHL, Hockeyallsvenskan has suffered relatively few crown sprouts and postponed matches, but Erik Ryman is not hiding behind the fact that recent events are concerning.
– Clearly you’re worried. Above all, for all of society, it is not just hockey. You can see that there is a great spread of the infection throughout the country that we must try to stop together, because no one wants this development. For the sake of the Allsvenskan, I am very concerned that we are going to have more teams contracting diseases, and that is not good for our league, he says, adding:
– But we must look at the whole of society and see what we can contribute to help reduce infection. We’ve had a bit of luck so far, but it’s starting to spread everywhere, so it’s clear that you’re concerned about our league and hockey in general.
As recently as today, the Swedish Ice Hockey Association announced that it is pausing the national junior series, and such action is not something that Erik Ryman excludes from Hockeyallsveskan.
– Then maybe it could be, we’ll see. This is something we must investigate. But this is not something we are discussing at the moment, he says.
