The NHL has announced the revised schedule, filling up the February Olympic break with games that had previously been postponed. New dates have been announced for 98 games, date changes for 23 more, and a handful of start time changes for matches down the road. The full list of rescheduled games can be found here.
Notably, 95 games were rescheduled into the 16-day window from February 7-22, originally held open for Olympic participation. That includes a slate of ten games on February 17, the busiest day of the previously empty block. Deputy commissioner Bill Daly released a statement on the changes:
We are profoundly grateful to our fans for their support and understanding during a challenging time and to our Clubs, the NHL Players’ Association and the Players for their cooperation in a rescheduling of unprecedented logistical complexity.
For teams like the New York Islanders and Ottawa Senators, who have played in just 32 games so far this season (nine fewer than some other teams) it means a very full February schedule. The Islanders will play seven games between February 9-22, while the Senators have ten games between February 7-22.
The NHL schedule maker is likely not done for the year, but the recently announced changes to the testing protocol should help avoid many postponements in the future. Asymptomatic players will no longer be tested after the All-Star break, save for those traveling across the U.S.-Canada border. So far, the league has not announced any games scheduled past April 29, originally noted as the final day of the regular season.
But when I suggested this so many said arena’s were booked during the shut down already and games couldn’t be played…
what a shocker.
So, @Gavin, do you think this will reduce the number of times you have to mention guys getting put on the COVID list? I’d like to hope so, just so you can get back into the rhythm of actual hockey reporting.
Gosh I hope so.
@Gavin – No matter how old you are now, you’re still too young to be saying, “I remember WAY back when, we used to be able to do real sports journalism!”, only to see a small child looking up at you with disdain and saying, “Mister, I think you’re messing with us!” :)
So, instead of the Olympics at 2 am that I wasn’t going to watch, I now get to watch a half dozen Pens game instead?
Cool.
Too bad the fantasy sports HTH leagues are screwed up with all the rescheduling. Our league championship was rescheduled by espn to the final week of the season. That final week is only 5 days long and could have many top players sitting out. Our league prefers to avoid that last week of the season on purpose. Oh well. Definitely detracts though.