The NHL is hoping to avoid a league-wide pause in their schedule and the steps taken over the last 24 hours indicate that would only be done as a last resort. The rapid rise of players entering COVID protocol exploded during the week, causing teams to play with less than 18 skaters, postpone games, or shut down completely.
On Friday, the Calgary Flames, Carolina Hurricanes, and Florida Panthers were all shut down through the three-day Christmas break because of widespread positives.
The NHL & NHLPA announced “enhanced COVID-19 measures given the emergence of the Omicron variant….through the Holiday season and the New Year, to be re-evaluated no later than Jan. 7, 2022… and the Athletic’s Pierre LeBrun indicated that more postponements are expected to be announced today.
While the spread of COVID is wreaking havoc with the league, shutting down for 10 days or until the New Year is only going to allow players currently ill to recover and not stop the spread to other players.
According to Elliotte Friedman, the NHLPA was not pleased that Thursday’s Philadelphia – Montreal game was played in front of no fans because the gate at the Bell Centre would have brought in over $2 million, and was one of the reasons why the Bruins – Habs game on Saturday was postponed until a later date.
It is clear and understandable that the league and the players are going to go as far as they can to get games played and only postpone as a last resort. The more games pile up, the longer the odds become that the NHL will go to the Olympics, since the only time that games can be rescheduled is during the three-week pause in February.
If the players still opt to go to China, the league may have no option than to play makeup games during the break without clubs having their star players available to them.