BUFFALO, N.Y. — Sabres head coach Don Granato and two more players have entered COVID-19 protocol, as the NHL returned teams to their facilities early on Sunday after starting the league's holiday break early because of the virus.
Forwards Mark Jankowski and Dylan Cozens were added to the list along with Vinnie Hinostroza, Jeff Skinner and Zemgus Girgensons, who tested positive before the shutdown.
The Sabres had three games postponed before Christmas because of COVID-19 outbreaks on other teams. The league shut down for the holiday break early and originally planned to resume on Monday, Dec. 27 before pushing back its return at least one more day.
2 On Your Side Sabres Insider Paul Hamilton said on Saturday the league wanted to slow down their return to be cautious.
"They didn't want to rush things. They wanted to make sure they were squared away with the testing and everything else, so they wanted to have the extra day to do that. The teams, if everything's OK, are still going to practice on Sunday. ... What they're going to do is, players are going to come in and test. Then they're going to go out to their cars, and they're going to wait for the results to come in, and they can be told if they can come back in the arena or not."
Buffalo is still scheduled to play Wednesday, hosting the New Jersey Devils at KeyBank Center.
Because so many teams are affected by the COVID-19, the NHL had previously agreed to postponed any cross-border games through the holiday break because of COVID-19 concerns.
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