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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.

AHL Cancels 2022 All-Star Game

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Due to the ongoing COVID-19 situation in Quebec and across the continent, the AHL has announced that they will not hold the scheduled All-Star festivities in Laval this year. The events were set to take place over February 6-7 and though they have technically been listed as “postponed” that is only in regard to returning to Laval at some point in future years.

AHL president Scott Howson released a statement:

The Laval Rocket and Place Bell have done an outstanding job preparing to host our All-Star Classic festivities this year,” said Howson. “But with the event only six weeks away and faced with ongoing challenges pertaining to health and safety, international travel, and group gatherings, the League and the Rocket organization feel it is in everybody’s best interests to postpone the event. We remain committed to bringing the All-Star Classic to Laval in the future.

This will be the second year in a row that the AHL will not hold an All-Star Game after last year’s event was also canceled during the shortened season. The NHL, on the other hand, is very much committed to hosting its event in Las Vegas at the beginning of February. In fact, with the Olympics now out of the way, the All-Star festivities may be an easier logistics project for the league.

For those players that would have been headed to the AHL celebration, there actually may be a better event to attend this year. Since the NHL isn’t going to the Olympics, AHL players might end up being selected for their respective countries. Likely only those on AHL contracts will be able to attend, as they did in 2018, but for many, that would still be a dream come true (despite the obvious challenges of these Games).

NHL Officially Withdraws From Olympic Participation

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Though there have been signs for weeks and reports over the last few days, the NHL had not officially confirmed whether or not they will be participating in the Olympics–until now. The league has issued a statement from commissioner Gary Bettman explaining their withdrawal from the Games, noting the same “profound” disruption that they had warned about:

The National Hockey League respects and admires the desire of NHL Players to represent their countries and participate in a ‘best on best’ tournament. Accordingly, we have waited as long as possible to make this decision while exploring every available option to enable our Players to participate in the 2022 Winter Olympic Games. Unfortunately, given the profound disruption to the NHL’s regular-season schedule caused by recent COVID-related events — 50 games already have been postponed through Dec. 23 — Olympic participation is no longer feasible. We certainly acknowledge and appreciate the efforts made by the International Olympic Committee, the International Ice Hockey Federation and the Beijing Organizing Committee to host NHL Players but current circumstances have made it impossible for us to proceed despite everyone’s best efforts. We look forward to Olympic participation in 2026.

Our focus and goal have been and must remain to responsibly and safely complete the entirety of the NHL regular season and Stanley Cup Playoffs in a timely manner. Therefore, with stringent health protocols once again in place, we will begin utilizing available dates during the Feb. 6-22 window (originally contemplated to accommodate Olympic participation) to reschedule games that have been, or may yet be, postponed.

Of note, this is not a joint release with the NHLPA. The NHL has taken the lead here, even though there were obvious concerns from the players as well. For their part, the NHLPA has released a statement from executive director Don Fehr:

Since the CBA extension was reached 17 months ago, NHL players have looked forward with great anticipation to once again participating in the Winter Olympics. Until very recently, we seemed to be on a clear path to go to Beijing. COVID-19 has unfortunately intervened, forcing dozens of games to be postponed this month alone. No matter how much we wish it were not the case, we need to utilize the Olympic period to reschedule these games.

Certainly, the players and hockey fans are quite disappointed. But playing a full 82-game season this year, something the pandemic has prevented us from doing since the 2018-19 season, is very important. We expect that NHL players will return to the Olympics in 2026.​

The players will continue to push for NHL participation in the 2026 Games, something that seems very far away at the moment. Those games will be held in Italy, hopefully with the best players in the world participating. To be clear, players are not allowed to individually opt into attending the 2022 Games without facing punishment from the league.

With the vast amount of postponements recently, there will be serious changes to the schedule in February.

Brent Burns Placed In COVID Protocol

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Dec 21: Burns has been joined by Tomas Hertl and Jonathan Dahlen, both added to the protocol today. An additional Sharks staff member has also been added.

Dec 20: When the San Jose Sharks experienced their COVID outbreak earlier in the season, one of the key names that went unaffected and helped carry them through was Brent Burns. The veteran defenseman has played in all 30 of the team’s games so far this season, but that could be about to change. Burns has been added to the COVID protocol, though his placement there is apparently retroactive to December 17. That means he would be technically eligible to return for the Sharks’ next game, currently scheduled for December 27, should he pass all of the medical testing.

Burns, 36, has averaged nearly 26 minutes a night this season for the Sharks and is once again racking up points at a strong pace. The roving defender has 17 points in 30 games, good for 23rd in the league among defensemen. Should he have to miss any games after the holiday break, it would be a huge blow to San Jose’s chances.

Given that no other players have entered in the past few days for the Sharks, the hope is that this is a contained case. If that proves incorrect and other players enter the protocol in the coming days, they wouldn’t be available when the season resumes. For a team just barely hanging on in the Pacific Division playoff race, losing any more bodies could have a dire impact.

Photo courtesy of USA Today Sports Images

Coyotes-Kraken Game Postponed

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And then there were eight. The NHL has announced another postponement, this time between the Seattle Kraken and Arizona Coyotes. The game tomorrow night will be rescheduled for later this season, after another Seattle player tested positive for coronavirus. As Geoff Baker of the Seattle Times writes, the team abruptly canceled practice today–Yanni Gourde had already taken the ice–as they waited for confirmation on the positive result.

The Kraken canceled practice yesterday as well after Carson Soucy entered the protocol. They will now be silent through the holiday break after their Thursday game against the Calgary Flames was already postponed. Seattle is set to resume in a game against the Vancouver Canucks on December 27.

The Coyotes meanwhile can stay home to welcome in the Tampa Bay Lightning for Thursday night, their last game before the holiday break.

Forty-four games have been postponed this season. Eight remain on the NHL schedule this week.

Devils-Penguins Game Postponed

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Another day, another postponement. The NHL has announced that the New Jersey Devils and Pittsburgh Penguins will not play tomorrow due to “COVID-related issues” affecting the Devils. That means New Jersey is now off through the holiday break, as their game Thursday against the Montreal Canadiens was previously postponed.

Notably, these two teams played just last night, with the Penguins coming out on top 3-2. Nico Hischier, Ryan Graves, and Jesper Boqvist were all back on the ice today at practice after having been previously in the COVID protocol, but the announcement suggests there are more positive cases in the Devils organization.

The count is now at 43 for postponed games in the NHL, something that could certainly be classified as a “material disruption,” the term used by the league in regards to pulling the plug on the Olympics. There are of course other indicators that the players themselves don’t want to attend, but these postponements likely would have been enough anyway.

There are now just nine games scheduled for this week in the NHL.

Blue Jackets, Canadiens Shut Down Through Holiday Break

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Two more teams have been shut down in the NHL as Columbus Blue Jackets and Montreal Canadiens will be put on pause through the holiday break. The Blue Jackets canceled today’s morning skate while waiting for COVID results and did not actually even travel to Buffalo, where they were supposed to play this evening. The teams were set to play a rematch in Columbus on Thursday, but that game has also been postponed. The Blue Jackets have subsequently placed Eric Robinson, Andrew Peeke, and Joonas Korpisalo in the COVID protocol.

The Canadiens actually didn’t have any games scheduled as they had already been postponed, but will also pause team activities. Still, Mike Hoffman was added to the protocol today, joining Artturi Lehkonen and Laurent Dauphin.

More than 40 games have now been postponed through the early part of the season, many of those coming over the last few days as the NHL deals with a massive COVID-19 outbreak. Several teams have been shut down completely through the Christmas break and all games that required cross-border travel have also been postponed.

While there is hope that things can get back to normal in the coming weeks, confidence from the NHL and NHLPA that the season will continue, and some teams still not really affected by the outbreak, it’s certainly not a perfect scenario for the NHL schedule maker. Remember, even if the league doesn’t go to the Olympics, deputy commissioner Bill Daly said during a media availability earlier this month that it would be difficult to use that three-week break for many rescheduled games. Buildings have already booked events for many of those dates, though there will likely be some opportunities to make up some of these missed games.

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