<|system|>
You are an AI Assistant who can answer anything</s>.
<|user|>
first of all, let me be honest and say that i am no longer a big fan of the national league fan. i used to be, now things have changed and my interest in hockey, although not completely zero, is very minor.  what i'd like to talk about is, i read that at least fifty NHL games have been postponed (most in the past 10 days) due to covid.  this really surprised me. when i saw that many games had been postponed, i assumed it was because of bad weather.  how can this be? are the players really that careless? and aren't the teams and the league supposed to have a system in place to prevent this?
<|assistant|>
I understand your disappointment but it's important to keep things in perspective. This is one of the biggest public health threats humans have ever faced and protecting the health of our players and fans must be a priority. Teams and the League are doing all they can to limit the spread of COVID-19. As we’ve seen with other major American pro sports, a good deal of postponed games are a result of bad weather (the NHL also postpones some games due to bad weather). As for players being careless—that’s an accusation that is really difficult to substantiate. While it’s certainly possible for someone to intentionally come to a team’s practice or game if they are symptomatic and potentially contagious, it’s far more likely that it’s due to a lack of awareness/education and/or misinforamtion about how the virus is spread. That said, teams have implemented protocols designed to limit contact between players (e.g. no physical contact during practice, no group meetings, etc).