Montreal Canadiens have been shut down through the holiday break. This news came on Monday afternoon. This adds to the growing list of postponements throught out the NHL.
Montreal Canadiens Shut Down Operations
In an unfortunate trend of teams getting caught in a Covid outbreak, the Montreal Canadiens are the latest team to be shut down.
SCHEDULE UPDATE: @BlueJacketsNHL and @CanadiensMTL shut down through the holiday break. Details: https://t.co/gpeYOpswqr pic.twitter.com/UM1a7WovQi
— NHL Public Relations (@PR_NHL) December 20, 2021
Monday night’s game with the Canadiens and Columbus Blue Jackets has been postponed. All hockey operations for the two teams are shut down till at least Dec. 26. The league will make a decision in the coming days as to when each teams’ training facilities will re-open. The league is also in the process of reviewing and revising the regular-season schedule.
COVID continues to rear its ugly head as it wreaks havoc on the NHL’s players, personnel, and fans. The Montreal Canadiens are the latest team to be shut down in a continually growing list of teams getting shut down.
Canadiens Join Long List of Affected Teams
The two teams join a long list of teams being shut down. The Colorado Avalanche, Florida Panthers, Boston Bruins, Nashville Predators, and Calgary Flames (who’ve been hit the hardest) are among the teams shut down until at least December 26.
There have been multiple single-game postponements as well. The Toronto Maple Leafs and Vancouver Canucks had their game postponed, including their games against the Seattle Kraken and Arizona Coyotes.
With the number of COVID cases rising, the NHL has been quick to re-implement the restrictions used last season. Daily testing, mask-wearing, and social distancing are some measures being used. Before being shut down, the Montreal Canadiens took it a step further and restricted all fans from attending games.
Frustration Growing
Most of the league is vaccinated now, so the number of restrictions and postponements has caused a growing frustration from some players and management. Detroit Red Wings general manager Steve Yzerman is one of the more prominent figures that’s been outspoken over the current COVID situation in the NHL.
Yzerman exclaimed “Players are testing positive with very little symptoms if any symptoms at all. I don’t see it as a threat to their health at this point. So I think you might take it a step further and question why are we even testing for guys that have no symptoms?”
The NHL hasn’t made any plans to deviate from how they’ve gone about reacting and preventing the spread of Covid. As of now, the NHL will continue to postpone and shut teams down as their way of putting a halt to the spread.
More Games Cancelled
In other news, the NHL has postponed the New Jersey Devils and Pittsburgh Penguins game tomorrow.
SCHEDULE UPDATE: @NHL postpones tomorrow’s @NJDevils vs. @Penguins game. https://t.co/FhWrKNDe7l pic.twitter.com/mLARHYVhit
— NHL Public Relations (@PR_NHL) December 20, 2021
The Devils, who the Penguins just played Sunday, are dealing with “COVID-related issues,” the league said.
Tuesday’s game back-end of a home-and-home at PPG Paints Arena got called. Wednesday’s game between the Seattle Kraken and Arizona Coyotes has also been called off.
No makeup date has been set yet. The increase in COVID-related issues continues to put the Olympics in jeopardy. The League has a growing list of games to make up and will likely need the Olympic break to reschedule games. The NHL has postponed 45 games this season and 40 in the last seven days because of COVID-19 concerns. There were 55 games postponed last season, but all were made up as part of a 56-game schedule.
