NHL to shut down from Dec. 22-25

The outbreak of COVID-19 cases across the NHL have finally come to a head. Multiple sources, including Sportsnet’s Elliotte Friedman and Daily Faceoff’s Frank Seravalli, are reporting that the league will announce a shutdown from Wednesday, Dec. 23 though Christmas Day on Saturday, Dec. 25.

While many of the games originally scheduled for the rest of this week have already been postponed, the early shutdown will mean that the five games still on the docket for Thursday, Dec. 23, will now be postponed as well. That includes Flyers-Penguins, Capitals-Islanders, Stars-Blackhawks, Lightning-Coyotes and Kings-Golden Knights. The two games scheduled for Tuesday, Capitals-Flyers and Lightning-Knights, will proceed as scheduled before operations are suspended on Wednesday.

Rather than hold to the initial holiday break of Dec. 24-26, players and staff will return to action a day early to resume testing. In addition to games, practice, and all other team activities being suspended during the shutdown testing will also not occur, but the league will be eager to check in on its players before returning to action.