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NHL Postpones Two More Ottawa Senators Games

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Two more games for the Ottawa Senators have been officially postponed due to attendance restrictions in certain Canadian cities. The games will be rescheduled for later in the season, with the hope of full attendance being possible. The following will not be played:

  • Saturday, Jan. 8
    Ottawa @ Vancouver
  • Saturday, Jan. 15
    Ottawa @ Winnipeg

That leaves the Senators playing the Edmonton Oilers and Calgary Flames next week, games that were meant to be bookended by these matches in Vancouver and Winnipeg. Ottawa has had many of their games to this point rescheduled and currently sit with only 29 played, second to only the New York Islanders for the fewest in the league.

For the Canucks, this means that they will have no games between January 1 and January 11, which is now their next match and scheduled against the Florida Panthers. The Jets, meanwhile, played yesterday but won’t hit the ice again until January 13.

NHL Postpones Detroit/Anaheim Game To Sunday

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3:55 pm: The Anaheim Ducks added defenseman Hampus Lindholm and forward Vinni Lettieri to COVID protocol. With the announcement coming so quickly, it was likely the motivator behind tonight’s postponement.

3:50 pm: The NHL has postponed tonight’s game between the Detroit Red Wings and Anaheim Ducks to Sunday, January 9 at 7:00 PM CT.

In the statement, the league says the game was postponed due to COVID issues affecting Anaheim. Currently, the team has five players in COVID protocol – goalie John Gibson and forwards Ryan Getzlaf, Derek Grant, Sam Carrick, and Nicolas Deslauriers.

Trevor Zegras was previously in COVID protocol but was activated from the list today. However, after just one morning skate, he wasn’t going to play in tonight’s game as originally scheduled.

The postponement gives Anaheim a chance to regroup. Getzlaf was placed in protocol on January 2 and could be available by then. Gibson entered today, however, and likely won’t be available for that game.

NHL Postpones Three Games Due To Capacity Restrictions

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The NHL announced Wednesday that they’ve postponed three games due to current capacity restrictions in Canada. The following games were postponed:

New Jersey Devils vs. Montreal Canadiens (originally scheduled for January 15)
New Jersey Devils vs. Toronto Maple Leafs (originally scheduled for January 17)
Chicago Blackhawks vs. Edmonton Oilers (originally scheduled for January 18)

The postponements leave a sizable gap in the schedule in terms of home games for all three Canadian teams affected. Montreal’s next home game is now scheduled for January 27 against Anaheim. They have seven road games scheduled prior to that point.

Toronto is actually playing host to the Oilers tonight, but it’ll be their last time hosting for a few weeks now. Their next home game is also against Anaheim on January 26, the day prior to Montreal’s game. Edmonton has a home game scheduled for January 10 against the Ottawa Senators, seemingly left unaffected as it’s two Canadian teams facing off against each other.

NHL Makes Several Schedule Adjustments

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The NHL has announced five schedule changes as it continues to try and work through dozens of postponements and attendance restrictions in Canadian markets. The following changes have been made:

  • Game #693, Columbus @ NY Islanders on January 18 – to be postponed with a rescheduled date announced at a later time
  • Game #694, Detroit @ Philadelphia on January 18 – to be postponed with a rescheduled date announced at a later time
  • Game #340, NY Islanders @ Philadelphia previously scheduled for November 30 will now be rescheduled for January 18 @ 7:00 p.m. ET
  • Game #723, NY Islanders @ Toronto currently scheduled for January 22 will be rescheduled for April 17 @ 7:30 p.m. ET
  • Game #1211, Toronto @ NY Islanders currently scheduled for April 17 will be rescheduled for January 22 @ 7:00 p.m. ET

These are just the latest in what will be an ongoing stream of changes for the rest of the season as the league tries to squeeze in games whenever possible. There will be many more of these announcements to come.

Senators-Kraken Game Postponed

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The NHL has postponed another match, this time between the Ottawa Senators and Seattle Kraken on January 6. The Senators placed several new players in the COVID protocol earlier today.

By postponing this game, the Senators are now off until January 8, at which point they should have several players back from the protocol. This is not the first time that Ottawa has dealt with postponements; quite the opposite, in fact, as the team has seen games rescheduled for both COVID outbreaks and attendance restrictions.

The Kraken are now off even longer, as they don’t have another game scheduled until a week from now. That means they will have played just three games between December 18 and January 10.

There have been more than 90 postponements so far through the first half of the season.

NHL Postpones Nine More Games

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As a result of attendance restrictions in Western Canada, the NHL has postponed eight more games.  The games affected are as follows:

Monday, Jan. 3
Minnesota @ Ottawa

Wednesday, Jan. 5
New York Islanders @ Vancouver

Saturday, Jan. 8
New York Islanders @ Edmonton

Tuesday, Jan. 11
New York Islanders @ Calgary

Wednesday, Jan. 12
Minnesota @ Edmonton

Friday, Jan. 14
Vegas @ Edmonton

Saturday, Jan. 15
Vegas @ Calgary

Sunday, Jan. 16
Edmonton @ Winnipeg

In addition to those contests, the Islanders’ road game in Seattle on January 4th has also been postponed due to the other games on their West Coast road trip being postponed.

No make-up dates for any of the games were announced but in the release from the league, it was noted that the games “will be rescheduled for dates later in the season when such restrictions may be eased or lifted”.  These postponements bring the running total to 90 games that the league will need to reschedule in the coming weeks and months.

NHL Postpones Three More Games

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The NHL has announced three more postponements, including two that involve the Colorado Avalanche and Dallas Stars. The following games will have to be rescheduled later in the season:

  • Chicago Blackhawks @ Winnipeg Jets, December 29
  • Dallas Stars @ Colorado Avalanche, December 29
  • Colorado Avalanche @ Dallas Stars, December 31

There have now been 70 games postponed this season, most of them coming since December 13. As of now, the three other games scheduled for tomorrow are still on, though the Montreal Canadiens and Tampa Bay Lightning both had players enter the COVID protocol earlier today.

For the Avalanche, Blackhawks, and Stars, this means they will not play again until the new year. Winnipeg still has a game scheduled on December 31 against the Calgary Flames. Not only did Chicago see Marc-Andre Fleury enter the protocol today, but also several members of the Rockford IceHogs, including part of the coaching staff. The rampant spread of positive cases in the AHL is having a huge effect on their NHL affiliates, who haven’t been able to recall enough healthy bodies at times this season.

NHL Announces More Postponements

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The NHL has officially announced the temporary formation of taxi squads and three additional postponements. The following games will be rescheduled for later in the season:

  • Columbus Blue Jackets at Chicago Blackhawks, December 28
  • Pittsburgh Penguins at Toronto Maple Leafs, December 29
  • Boston Bruins at Ottawa Senators, December 29

The other games scheduled for Tuesday are set to play as originally planned, though there will be continued testing that could change that. Frank Seravalli of Daily Faceoff writes that more players are expected to be placed in the COVID protocol tomorrow when test results have been confirmed.

In addition to the postponements, the league has officially revealed the new taxi squad rules. As previously reported, they will be in place from today through each team’s final game prior to the All-Star Break. It will have a maximum of six players at any time, will be subject to normal waiver requirements and no player may spend more than 20 cumulative days on the taxi squad.

There have also been temporary modifications to the CBA, allowing some salary cap relief for clubs dealing with COVID absences. Roster Emergency Exception recalls are now allowed to be players with a cap hit of up to $1MM (previously it had been limited at $850K). Teams can now recall a goaltender under emergency conditions–i.e. if they have fewer than two goaltenders on the active roster–without playing a game short. That means we won’t continue to see EBUGs pop up around the league (or at least not as often).

The full changes can be found here.

NHL Extends Holiday Break, Postpones December 27th Games

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The NHL announced per a tweet Friday evening that all games scheduled to take place on Monday, December 27 are postponed in order to provide for adequate COVID-19 testing results after teams return from the holiday break.

Teams are still permitted to return to practice on Sunday, December 26.

There were 14 games scheduled to happen on Monday. Only the Chicago Blackhawks, Montreal Canadiens, New York Islanders, and Tampa Bay Lightning are unaffected by these postponements.

The league said in their press release today that a further update on their return to play plans will come on Sunday. If an additional rash of positive tests come in that weekend, it’s exceedingly likely that further postponements will happen.

50 games had already been postponed this year, bringing the total number of postponements to 64.

Snapshots: Canadiens, Kane, Sustr

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In their final game before being shut down, the Montreal Canadiens welcomed the Philadelphia Flyers to town. Things were going normally until the provincial government instructed that the game be played without fans. That caused “a lot of grumbling” according to Elliotte Friedman of Sportsnet, who writes that there is real worry about the reduced capacity in Canadian markets affecting the league’s revenue projections.

Pierre LeBrun of The Athletic adds that if the Canadiens are still not allowed to have fans at their home games in January, some of them could be rescheduled to later in the season. Montreal is set to return after the holiday break on a three-game road trip, before the Washington Capitals come to town on January 4.

  • COVID-19 outbreaks are obviously not limited to the NHL, as many AHL teams have also seen players move in and out of the protocol throughout the year. One notable name today was Evander Kane, who entered the protocol along with Nick Cicek and Jasper Weatherby of the San Jose Barracuda. Kane, if you’d forgotten, has been playing in the AHL since his suspension ended last month and has eight points in five games with the Barracuda–the first five minor league games of his entire career. Now 30, Kane remains a potential trade candidate but he’ll have to isolate for the time being as he goes through the protocol.
  • There won’t be many minor league transactions today as the league goes dark, but the Tampa Bay Lightning did sneak in one more before things closed. Andrej Sustr has been reassigned to the AHL for the break, saving the Lightning a few dollars. The 31-year-old has been used in spot duty throughout the year, playing eight games for Tampa Bay and 12 for the Syracuse Crunch.

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