The NHL postponed Monday night’s Chicago Blackhawks’ game at the United Center after six Calgary Flames players and a staff member entered the COVID-19 protocol.
No makeup date has been announced.
The Flames announced that Elias Lindholm, Andrew Mangiapane, Brad Richardson, Adam Ruzicka, Chris Tanev and Nikita Zadorov — a defenseman with the Hawks last season — and a member of their training staff entered the league’s protocol.
The league postponed the Flames’ schedule games through at least Thursday, which also includes a road game against the Nashville Predators and a home game against the Toronto Maple Leafs.
That makes eight games the NHL has postponed since the Ottawa Senators game at the New Jersey Devils was moved from Nov. 16 to Dec. 6, but it’s the first pause to include the Hawks.
“I went home with the day off and coming in this morning I got the text,” Hawks interim coach Derek King said. “The positive out of it is we get a day of practice; a couple days of practice. We can work on a few things that we felt needed to work on, but it’s the whole make sure we remind our guys: masks, wash your hands, stay out of crowded areas. We’re following the protocols to a ‘T’ as best as we can, so touch wood. Hopefully we don’t get something like that.”
King said the Hawks will work on net-front presence, getting more shots through, defensive zone coverage and other drills. But he’s hoping he doesn’t get any more impromptu practices days down the road.
“It’s a concern, but like I said we’re doing all our diligence on this,” King said. “We’re on top of these guys. Hopefully it doesn’t happen, but if it does, we’ll deal with it when it happens.”
The Hawks had their own bouts with COVID-19 since September.
Players who’ve entered the protocol at some point this fall include: Jonathan Toews, Patrick Kane, Ryan Carpenter, Erik Gustafsson, Tyler Johnson, Isaak Phillips, Jujhar Khaira, Riley Stillman, Kevin Lankinen, Henrik Borgström and Mike Hardman.
That list also has included Marc Crawford and several other assistant coaches.
“We’re doing everything we can to prevent it, but sometimes this stuff happens,” Alex DeBrincat said. “Just got to roll with the punches and go about it.”
Some Hawks already have gotten their boosters.
“I’ve gotten mine,” King said. “I know some of the other staff members and some of the players I believe have gotten theirs too.
“I don’t know if it’s all the way through yet, but we’ll do whatever it takes obviously.”
The Hawks had planned to celebrate goalie Marc-André Fleury’s 500th career win before tonight’s game, but the tribute has been moved to Wednesday’s home game against the Washington Capitals. As for the delay with his tribute, Fleury sheepishly said he’d “like to get it over with, maybe.”
“So many people reached out and congratulated me. It’s very crazy, right, to get all that attention when maybe one doesn’t love it,” Fleury said.
“But it’s good. I got to thank a lot of people for helping me get there. It’s many years, many ups and downs, and a lot of people on ice or off ice have helped me.”
