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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.

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.

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