NHL postpones 9 games in Canadian cities due to pandemic attendance restrictions
CBC
The NHL postponed nine upcoming games, citing attendance restrictions in some Canadian cities, on Tuesday as COVID-19 continued to sideline players.
The league also postponed Wednesday's Detroit Red Wings game at the New York Islanders two days after the home side placed four of its players in the NHL's COVID-19 protocol and isolated them from their team — bringing the total number of postponements this season to 80.
The NHL and the NHL Players' Association agreed this week to allow teams to form temporary "taxi squads" to help avoid more disruptions to the season, after players returned from an extended holiday break on Sunday.
Last week, the league said it would not be sending players to the men's ice hockey tournament at the Beijing Winter Olympics in February, citing the pandemic's "profound disruption" to its schedule.
The nine postponed games awaiting a new date include:
The Canadiens game against the Bruins on Jan.12 will also be played in Boston instead of Montreal, with the league planning to find a make-up date for the Canadiens' home game against the Bruins.
Two hockey games between the Canadian and U.S. women's hockey teams in Alberta have been cancelled
Canada and the U.S. were scheduled to conclude their Rivalry Series on Jan. 3 in Edmonton during the world junior men's hockey championship and Jan. 6 in Red Deer.
Both games were called off because several Canadian players and staff were in COVID-19 protocol, Hockey Canada said Tuesday in a statement.
"The risk associated with playing the final two Rivalry Series games with less than one month before our teams are set to compete in the 2022 Olympics is too high to finish our series with the United States," said Gina Kingsbury, director of hockey operations with Hockey Canada.
"Changing our schedule and not being able to play the United States is always difficult, as our players and staff want to play against international competition and put on a great show for hockey fans.
"Unfortunately, we need to do what is right for our athletes from a health perspective and for our team preparation in order to ensure everyone remains healthy and eligible for Beijing."
The announcement came the same day the U.S. junior men's team forfeited a preliminary-round game at the under-20 championship to Switzerland because two American players tested positive for the COVID-19 virus.
What was a nine-game series between the Canadian and American women to help both prepare for February's Winter Olympics in Beijing and choose a roster for it was limited to six games.
Canada's Kevin Drury battled his way to a gold medal that left him in tears at a World Cup ski cross event on Friday in Val Thorens, France.
Soccer fans have accused FIFA of a "monumental betrayal" after latest prices for World Cup tickets began to circulate on Thursday.
NHL commissioner Gary Bettman is “disappointed” that the main arena slated to host ice hockey at February’s Olympics isn’t yet completed with less than two months to go before the Games are scheduled to be played.
A two-year suspension from competitive swimming has forced Penny Oleksiak to answer questions about drug use, train by herself in public pools and defend her legacy as Canada’s most decorated female Olympian.
Hockey, one of the premier events at the Winter Olympics and one that is welcoming NHL players back for the first time in more than a decade, will take place on ice shorter than NHL-regulation size.
Summer McIntosh capped swimming’s U.S. Open with the event record in the women’s 200-metre butterfly on Saturday in Austin, Texas.
Some bronze medals are worth their weight in gold. Valerie Grenier's third-place finish in women's giant slalom at the Mont-Tremblant World Cup certainly fits that category.
The men’s World Cup draw in Washington D.C. was going well for Canada until Pot 4.
The draw for the 2026 World Cup takes place Friday at 12 p.m. ET at the Kennedy Center in Washington, for the purpose of dividing the 48-team field into 12 groups of four. Once the tournament starts, 32 teams will advance from those preliminary groups to the single-elimination knockout rounds.
The Kennedy Center in Washington, D.C., buzzed with activity and speculation on Thursday in advance of Friday’s all-important draw for the 2026 men’s World Cup.
By the time the management group for the Canadian men’s national hockey team emerges from marathon meetings on Tuesday, as much as 80 per cent of the roster going to Italy next February should be written in pen.
Canada’s ski mountaineering athletes have their Olympic dreams on the line this weekend at a World Cup event in Solitude, Utah.
Goalie Carter Hart, one of five 2018 Canada world junior hockey players acquitted of sexual assault in July, will make his first NHL appearance in nearly two years when he starts in goal Tuesday night for the Vegas Golden Knights, who host Chicago.