Danish men's hockey has six positive tests at Olympics

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Denmark’s men’s hockey team held its first pre-Olympic practice Wednesday without six players after a spate of positive COVID-19 test results upon arriving in China.

The Danish Olympic federation announced that forwards Matthias Asperup and Nick Olesen tested positive for the coronavirus and went into isolation. Former NHL forward Mikkel Boedker, veteran defenseman Markus Lauridsen and two taxi squad players also missed practice after testing positive, though the team believed the results to be inaccurate and expected them back on the ice soon.

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"Fortunately, it looks like four of them were false positive, we are hoping," longtime NHL center Frans Nielsen said. "I wouldn’t called it ‘scared,’ but you’re always worried about, ‘Is there going to be more?’"

Coach Heinz Ehlers expressed optimism about getting four of the players out of isolation late Wednesday or early Thursday. The National Olympic Committee and Sports Confederation of Denmark said it did not believe any other members of the nation's 62-person delegation would need to be isolated.

Ehlers said everyone on Denmark's men's hockey team tested negative twice within the previous 48 hours before leaving for Beijing. Asperup and Olesen need to produce two negative COVID-19 tests 24 hours apart to be cleared to rejoin the team.

"Of course it’s frustrating about the practice because we were supposed to do a little bit of power play today and three or four of those players, they were out," Ehlers said. "It’s just (we have) to accept the way it is right now."

The tournament begins in a week. Denmark plays its first game Feb. 9 against the