Coyotes' Conor Garland worries for girlfriend on the front lines of the COVID-19 fight

March hadn't been an easy month for Conor Garland to begin with. Just before the NHL suspended play, the 24-year-old Arizona Coyote suffered a knee injury that he feared would end his season. Garland had also lost his dog of 15 years who had been living with his parents. His biggest concern, however, is for his girlfriend, a nurse at Boston's Children's Hospital who is on the front line of the fight against COVID-19.

"I spend a lot of my day worrying about that and talking to her,” Garland told The Athletic. “She's the best and I admire her so much, but the work is getting more and more intense and more and more dangerous because they are laying more and more people off so there is more and more to do.”

Garland says he'd much rather have Meghan with him in Scottsdale, but he understands the sacrifice she's making.

“I'm just trying to stay safe,” he said. “All the unknown is scary.”

Garland, a former fifth round draft pick of the Coyotes, now has 115 games of NHL experience under his belt. It wasn't until this season that he became a fixture for his team, participating in 68 games before the league shutdown. As much as he would like to get back to playing, he's not convinced that's going to happen any time soon.

"I listen to the press conference every day with the president and the two doctors and it's hard to believe we're going to be able to play any time soon without some hard-core restrictions,” he said. “I'm sure the league is thinking about all of that, but it sounds like it's going on longer than anyone thinks.

“This is way more important than hockey.”

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