Sharks News & Notes (12/22/21)

 Here are the latest headlines affecting the Sharks despite not playing any games this week: 

• Brent Burns, Jonathan Dahlen, and Tomas Hertl have been recetly placed in COVID protocol. Hopefully they can return to the team in time before their next game in Anaheim on Monday, especially so I can see them play in person. However, there are no guarantees on this, and I also hope this doesn’t spiral into something worse for the Sharks. 
  
• In the meantime, Jasper Weatherby and Jayden Halbgewachs were sent down to the Barracuda in the AHL on conditioning assignments so they can get more playing time to further their development. 
• The NHL officially begins its Christmas break today, as it has paused the season and league operations through the Christmas weekend due to multiple teams struggling with multiple positive cases among players, coaches, and team personnel. In addition, this move was also made to ensure there is a competitive balance throughout the entire NHL. 
• It should come as no surprise at this point that the NHL has opted out of participating in the upcoming Winter Olympics in Beijing. It isn't worth all of the hassle when many teams are currently struggling to contain COVID outbreaks and the Beijing Winter Olympics' extended quarantine if a player tests positive will prevent players from returning to regular team activities in a timely fashion. Like I have mentioned previously, the few-week period that was initially set aside for players to participate in the Olympics should be used to make up all of the games that have been postponed this season due to the pandemic, and that's what the league plans on doing.
  

Stay tuned to CPF Hockey for more updates. 

Sources: NHL App, Twitter