The day after ruling out such a move, the NHL announced its U-turn in a press release. According to this, all 32 teams have to take a complete break from December 22nd to 25th, are not allowed to train and are only allowed to travel again or go on the ice from the afternoon on December 26th. For the interruption, the NHL canceled the five games scheduled on Thursday. On Wednesday there was no game left anyway because of the cancellations of the past few days.
Olympic break unlikely
The number of canceled games since the start of the season has risen to 49. The participation of professionals from the world’s best ice hockey league in the Olympic Games is becoming increasingly unlikely. The NHL had agreed with the players’ union on a season break in February to enable stars like the German national players Leon Draisaitl and Philip Grubauer to travel to China. But if the risks as a result of the pandemic or the number of games to be caught up becomes too great, the league can say goodbye to this promise – and both now seem to be the case.
The last two remaining games on Tuesday should still take place, the only match on Monday evening lost Minnesota Wild 4: 7 against them Dallas Stars. The Augsburg Nico Sturm remained without a goal participation for the game.
Closure of the training facilities
Even before the extended Christmas break, the NHL had ordered other teams to close their training facilities and canceled games. the Columbus Blue Jackets and the Montreal Canadiens are no longer allowed to train as teams and are not allowed to do so until at least December 26th. Two games of the Blue Jackets against them Buffalo sabers therefore do not take place. The games of the Canadiens had previously been canceled. The game scheduled for Tuesday (local time) will also not be played New Jersey Devils both Pittsburgh Penguins.
dpa
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Status: December 21, 2021, 7:30 am