The NHL extends the postponements of the Buffles Sabers, Minnesota Wild and New Jersey Devils as these teams recover from COVID-19 outbreaks among players.
The league announced Monday that two additional Sabers games (Feb. 11 and Feb. 13 against the Capitals); three more Devils games (February 11 and February 13 against the Flyers and February 15 against the Bruins) and two wild games (February 11 against the Blues and February 13 against the Kings) s’ have postponed because of COVID-19 protocols.
The Sabers had originally been postponed to at least Feb. 8, the Wild until at least Tuesday, and the Devils at least this past Saturday. The NHL, NHLPA and medical teams will make the decision on the resumption of practice and play of the three teams in the coming days.
According to the report of absences related to the protocol COVID-19 of the league of Sunday, the Sabers had nine players in the list, whereas the Devils had 16 players and the Wild had nine.
The Avalanche, who had three players on the roster, has his games on hold at least until Thursday as well.
Wild general manager Bill Guerin said there was a plan to get his team back on the ice, but that additional positive cases meant more time off the track.
“I think it will be better to just take the extra time and make sure our boys are healthy. If we have to wait a few more days, we have to wait a few more days,” he said Monday. “I don’t think that’s something we want to put a round peg in a square hole. Wait and be patient and we do the right thing and in the end we’ll be fine.”
The NHL has postponed 33 games since the season began on January 13th. There are 15 matches that have not yet been rescheduled.