“We had these conversations this morning amongst our teams and obviously around the league and union,” said Chara. US Open: The USTA decided that since New York City was still just emerging from its worst days of the pandemic, it would have to create a bubble if it wanted to get approval from local and state health officials to host a tournament. STREAM OUR EXCLUSIVE COVERAGE WITH TSN DIRECT! Seats at Roland Garros will be allocated according to social-distancing parameters, with empty seats separating fans. In the Zoom conference from the Edmonton bubble, a large group of players stood behind Ryan Reaves, one of a small number of Black players in the league.

Much of the National Tennis Center was converted into a giant outdoor lounge, so players had the option to spend the entire day there. Crosby won the Stanley Cup for the third time, and for the … While the vast majority of players endorsed the bubble approach and felt secure in the environment, some bridled at the restrictions, especially those among the seven players who had to operate under "enhanced protocols" due to their contact with Benoit Paire, the only player to test positive for coronavirus prior to the start of play (he was removed from the draw). It will continue to be an enormous undertaking. In what would be a rare sight in the middle of hotly contested, bitter playoff series, the combatants met the press together on Zoom from the bubble in Toronto — the Bruins’ Zdeno Chara and the Lightning’s Kevin Shattenkirk at one table, the Islanders’ Anders Lee and Flyers James vanRiemsdyk at the adjacent table. Obviously, with what transpired (Wednesday) and the other leagues opting out, I think we took our time and were able to process this as a whole and speak to this as a group of players and make the right decision I think unified us as a group to realize that any Black player in this league, any Black player who’s a kid coming up in hockey can feel like they have a voice, can feel like the NHL and the sport itself is a safe place. In his post-game press conference, Chara said that the team had its usual pregame tunnel vision and could not fully grasp what was going. "I'm super-conservative because I do have some serious health issues, so I try to stay away from public places," Williams said at the US Open. But the tournament did forgo the use of the grandstand stadium (capacity: 8,215) that was inaugurated in 2016, turning it over for use in the Western & Southern Open front end of the "double in the bubble.