Montreal Canadiens forward Jonathan Drouin expressed his discomfort Thursday with the NHL continuing to play with the list of players in the COVID protocol rising rapidly around the league.

“I’m not really comfortable playing against people that might have COVID,” Drouin said. “When you have seven guys on the team (with COVID,) you can have two or three others that get it tomorrow, I don’t know.”

“Anyway, I don’t feel comfortable to play with that. That’s not what we were told this year with the vaccines. Of course things change over time but it’s not really ideal.”

Drouin's comments came after the Montreal defeated the Philadelphia Flyers 3-2 in a shootout in an empty Bell Centre after Quebec public health officials asked the Canadiens to play without any fans in their arena in an effort to slow the spread of the virus.

"Today was a bit of a wake-up call," said Drouin, who scored the lone goal in the shootout to secure the win. "We weren’t expecting that there wouldn’t be fans in the stands this year with the vaccines.

"We were told the opposite but it’s tough to see that again, without the fans’ energy. After that, health and safety is more important than going to watch a hockey game.”

Neither the Canadiens or Flyers have added a player to the COVID-19 protocol this week.  A total of 13 players were added to the protocol around the league on Thursday, one day after 22 players joined the list on Wednesday.

The Canadiens were scheduled to host the Boston Bruins, who currently have six players in the protocol, on Saturday, but that game was postponed Friday morning.