When can the Penguins and NHL get back to hockey?

Sidney Crosby learned a valuable lesson when he contracted the mumps in December of 2014.

“Don’t get them,” the Pittsburgh Penguins’ captain said with a chuckle Tuesday.

When mumps struck the NHL throughout the course of the 2014-15 season, the Penguins were hit particularly hard as Crosby and former teammates Beau Bennett, Steve Downie, Thomas Greiss and Olli Maatta each came down with the ailment. Several others were tested and quarantined as a precaution.

To combat that virus, the NHL ordered virtually every home and visiting team facility sanitized in unprecedented fashion. Benches, dressing rooms, showers, locker stalls, glove dryers and just about anything else any NHL player would conceivably come in contract with was scrubbed, for lack of a better term.

With the coronavirus, which has halted virtually every sports league in North America, to say nothing of so many other walks of life around the globe, the league has gone even further.

In conjunction with putting a pause to its schedule, the NHL shut down all players from practicing or working out at team facilities, at least in the early days of this unprecedented break.

UPMC Lemieux Sports Complex in Cranberry, the Penguins’ practice facility, is closed to the public through Sunday.

Furthermore, the NHL, with the NHL’s Players Association, has advised all players to self-quarantine in the city or region of their NHL team. If player’s family lives elsewhere, such as those recently traded, they are permitted to travel provided they alert their team.

One considerable exception involves injured players. They may receive necessary treatment at a team facility during the quarantine period.

Beyond that, hockey players aren’t really allowed to do much as it relates to hockey.

They are encouraged to work out and maintain their conditioning as best they can own their own during this down time, but guidelines heavily advise against using a public gym.

At some point, players will be permitted to skate in small groups, but the parameters of what is permitted for that remain undecided.

“What we now asked our clubs and our players to do is to go home, isolate to the extent possible for the next few days,” NHL commissioner Gary Bettman said to the Associated Press on Friday. “How many days exactly we’re working on with the medical people. And then we’ll be looking to progress in terms of activities once we get a handle on whether or not anybody in the short term is going to test positive.”

When (and if) the NHL resumes this season, the league would like to provide players a training period of sorts, much like the mini-training camp NHL teams had after the 2012-13 lockout came to an end.

On Sunday, Sportsnet reported NHL teams have been told it would be a week at the earliest before facilities could be opened before small group skates or workouts could be conducted.

All of this — as with any other walk of life such as concerts, school or other public gatherings — is subject to change.

In the meantime, don’t expect Crosby or his peers to ignore these directives.

“It’s just something that you have to deal with,” Crosby said Tuesday. “It’s not always expected, but sometimes these things come up. You hope everyone can stay healthy and avoid it. But there’s measures that have to be taken sometimes. You just have to go with it. You can’t overthink it, overanalayze it. Listen to everything that’s recommended and go from there.”

Follow the Penguins all season long.