Vegas Golden Knights goaltender Robin Lehner blasts NHL over COVID-19 vaccine protocols
Vegas Golden Knights goaltender Robin Lehner blasted the NHL over its handling of its COVID-19 vaccination policy, saying the league went back on promises made about easing restrictions and calling it “totally unacceptable.”
During a press conference Wednesday, Lehner spoke for almost 11 minutes and claims that the NHL backed off a promise that would allow players to have some social gatherings when a certain threshold would receive the vaccine.
“That was a lie,” Lehner said. “A blatant lie.”
The NHL pushed back on Lehner’s characterization of the matter.
“Nobody from the league has communicated to any player or club that any of our COVID protocols would be ‘relaxed’ for any player once he is vaccinated,” a league spokesman said.
The NFL, NBA and Major League Baseball have set vaccination thresholds to relax some protocols, such as mask-wearing and prohibition of outdoor dining, when a certain percentage of team personnel are fully inoculated against COVID-19. Those leagues have all teams currently playing in the U.S., where everyone 16 and older can get a vaccine.
“Look at the NBA, NFL and the other leagues,” Lehner said. “They’ve already implemented these things. And now we are, we are vaccinated and we’re still going to be trapped in a prison.”
Lehner later apologized for using the term “prison.”
