The count is now 71. The National Hockey League has postponed another game, this time between the New York Islanders and Detroit Red Wings on Wednesday. The Islanders continue to place new players in the COVID protocol – Brock Nelson went in on Tuesday. Elliotte Friedman of Sportsnet and Pierre LeBrun of The Athletic add that other postponements are expected Tuesday night, mostly among the Canadian teams that cannot currently hold full (or even half, in some cases) attendance.
The Islanders are expected to get two players out of the protocol on Wednesday but still will have Nelson, Anthony Beauvillier, Cal Clutterbuck, Zach Parise and Oliver Wahlstrom unavailable. The Red Wings, meanwhile, added Lucas Raymond and Nick Leddy on Sunday and have several other players still in the protocol.
For the Montreal Canadiens and Winnipeg Jets, in particular, moving home dates to later this season would give them a chance to collect some if not all of the expected revenue. With the players still owning a huge amount of escrow debt to the owners, keeping hockey-related revenues as high as possible is important if the league is to rebound to the high levels commissioner Gary Bettman explained earlier this month.
Bruce Garrioch of Postmedia tweets that Ottawa Senators games against the Pittsburgh Penguins on Friday and Minnesota Wild on Monday are also in doubt.
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