PITTSBURGH — The Penguins already entered the holiday break two days early. Now, they’ll see the pause extended at least one more game.
On Friday, the NHL announced that game play will not resume before Tuesday, one day later than planned. As a result, the Penguins’ game originally slated for Monday in Boston and 13 others around the NHL will be postponed. No make-up dates have been announced.
The league has been forced to shape its schedule and rethink Olympic participation in the past week amidst rising COVID-19 cases. As of Dec. 22, when the NHL entered its holiday break, 140 players (19% of the league) and six coaches were in the active protocol.
All players will have to test negative in order to rejoin their clubs following the break. The NHL said, in a release, that it’s pushing back the schedule a day to “allow the league an adequate opportunity to analyze league-wide testing results and to assess clubs’ readiness to play.”
Teams will return to practice Sunday. The league said it will provide an update on its return to play plans by the end of day on Sunday.
That language, coupled with COVID-19 concerns in Canada, could pose issues to additional games on the Penguins’ schedule. The Penguins are now planning to resume game play on Wednesday in Toronto, followed by another road game in Ottawa on New Year’s Eve. However, the Leafs' significant COVID-19 concerns and possible border obstacles could put future games in question. Before the pause, the league had suspended all cross-border play until after the holiday break.
In total, 64 games across the league have been postponed. The Penguins represent three of those: New Jersey and Philadelphia before the holiday break and now the game against Boston.
Earlier last week, the NHL and the NHL Players Association jointly agreed to nix participation at the 2022 Olympics in Beijing because the postponements and positive tests had “materially impacted” the league calendar. The NHL plans to utilize this newly created three-week window in February to slot in postponed games and, possibly, restructure additional games in the second half.
