Amerks could return to practice Wednesday after positive COVID-19 tests

The Rochester Americans have had three players test positive for COVID-19, coach Seth Appert announced during a Zoom call with the media on Tuesday. The three players have experienced "minimal to no symptoms."
Appert said the first positive test occurred early last Thursday. Rochester postponed its next game - scheduled for the following night against Cleveland - later that afternoon. The team has since had two additional games postponed, including Wednesday's scheduled game against Syracuse.

"Our players have been nothing but exemplary in their on-ice work ethic and competitiveness but also in their off-ice decision making and habits that they've lived their life," Appert said.
"This is an unfortunate situation, it happened at no fault of our players, and we made the decisions that we made in terms of postponing games out of an abundance of caution and to avoid a situation where we had a mass spread either to us or to our opponents."

Appert said the Amerks have had multiple days without a positive test. If there are no additional positive tests, they will return to a small-group practice on Wednesday followed by a full practice on Thursday. Their next scheduled game is at Utica on Friday.
"I believe we could play Friday, and I've made that known to the people who make those decisions," Appert said. "We gave the players a four-day mental recharge, so to speak, that we didn't do any hockey over Zoom or over phone for the first four days. Mental break, recharge physically and emotionally.
"And then as we got into yesterday, now we started having more conversations with the players individually and collectively about their own game and how we want it to move forward. I think the biggest message collectively was, this will not be an excuse for us to not come out and perform at our best. … If the league tells us we're playing Friday, we'll be ready to give it a heck of an effort."
The Amerks rank fourth in the North Division at 6-3-1. The roster includes first-year pros in forwards Arttu Ruotsalainen, Jack Quinn (first round, 2020), and Matej Pekar (fourth round, 2018) along with defensemen Oskari Laaksonen (third round, 2017) and Mattias Samuelsson (second round, 2018). Ukko-Pekka Luukkonen (second round, 2017) has started eight of the team's 10 games in net.
Appert said the Amerks could have played last Friday in accordance with league protocols but opted to postpone their game against Cleveland to avoid the risk of a long-term disruption to their season.
"We talk about it all the time that these games this year, they're precious," he said. "They're so valuable and they're so important. We've got so many young players here that need this development opportunity. More than ever, the decision we continue to make away from the rink impact our play and our ability to be at the rink.
"Our guys, like I've said, they've been fantastic. This has been such a great group to coach in their work ethic, their competitiveness, but also the decisions they're making and the attitude that they've come to the rink with every day."