NHL
National Hockey League to Pause Wednesday, One Golden Knights Game Postponed
The National Hockey League and NHL Players Association have come to an agreement to postpone the current NHL season until after Christmas break due to COVID-19 issues. The postponement will start on Wednesday, December 22nd and players will return to their teams on December 26th.
All 32-teams in the league will not practice or meet within this time frame.
Sources tell @DailyFaceoff: #NHL, #NHLPA have agreed to suspend all operations for Dec. 22-25 and will re-open team facilities on Dec. 26 no earlier than 2pm local time. No practice, no testing during those days.
Tuesday’s 2 remaining games will be played – pending test results.
— Frank Seravalli (@frank_seravalli) December 21, 2021
The NHL had previously postponed 43 games leading up to this decision and canceled all cross-border games between Canadian and American teams. It is also looking less and less likely that the NHL will participate in the 2022 Winter Olympic Games.
As of 4:00 pm PST on Monday, the Golden Knights are still scheduled to play the Tampa Bay Lightning on Tuesday night. However, things can change quickly.
Thursday’s game against the Los Angeles Kings will have to be rescheduled. Make-up dates will be established at a later time by the NHL. The Kings currently have Drew Doughty, Philip Danualt, and Cal Petersen in COVID-19 protocols.
According to memo sent to teams/players, schedule resumes Monday, Dec. 27. Also: "Upon return from the holiday break to team facilities, no individual in the team's travelling party shall enter (other than for testing purposes) until they have a negative test result."
— Elliotte Friedman (@FriedgeHNIC) December 21, 2021
This is the first game of the season that the Golden Knights have had to reschedule due to COVID-19. The Golden Knights, thankfully, do not have any players in COVID-19 protocols. The NHL enhanced their COVID-19 protocols for stricter rules that will run through January 7th.
More updates will be made as soon as they become available.