Jonas Brodin enters COVID protocol

The Minnesota Wild went unscathed through the chaos of the pre-Christmas COVID outbreak that pummeled its way through the NHL. Well, until now.

Announced by the team on Tuesday morning, defenseman Jonas Brodin is not practicing due to being on the COVID protocol list.

If there was one player that most Wild fans could agree on, to be the most important cog in the machine crafted by head coach Dean Evason, it would be Brodin. The invaluable two-way star has been able to create offense from the back while also stripping about every puck in sight away from oncoming attackers. He has been immaculate and the major reason why this whole thing works for the Wild.

Most teams don’t just have one player on the COVID list, so this might just be leading to more and more players being added down the line. And of course, this is just days before they play their first game since Dec. 20, and it happens to be the Winter Classic on Jan. 1.

The only way Brodin will be able to feature is if he has two negative PCR tests 24 hours apart.

Luckily, the NHL reintroduced Taxi Squads — with new rules such as they can’t stay on longer than 20 consecutive days — to soften the burden of COVID on the NHL and potentially stop postponing a bunch of games.

We’re just hoping for everyone to be healthy, but we can also be a little bit selfish and determine that this sucks for our favorite hockey team and what it can mean for their upcoming games (if they happen). They are already technically in a four-game losing streak through their series of postponed matches, so it’s not the best feeling. And now that one of their top players will be assumingly out of the lineup for the next little bit, the odds that streak continues just went up a little tick.

After the Winter Classic, they are scheduled to head up to Canada to face the Ottawa Senators on Jan. 3 and then go down to the TD Garden to play the Boston Bruins on Jan. 6.