COVID-19 is here to remind us all that it hasn’t gone away quite yet.
The NHL is acutely aware of that fact, with the league officially announcing on Saturday that they have postponed all of the New York Islanders’ upcoming games through at least November 30th in response to an ongoing outbreak ravaging the team.
With eight players in COVID-19 protocols after yet another positive test on Saturday morning, the Islanders would have simply been unable to ice a coherent lineup on Sunday versus the Philadelphia Flyers and on Tuesday versus the New York Rangers.
Those games will now be rescheduled at a later date.
This marks the second time this month that the NHL has been forced to postpone games due to COVID-19. On November 17th, the Ottawa Senators had their games postponed through November 20th after a whopping 10 players were forced to enter protocols. This is a significant hurdle that the NHL will have to face this season, with separate breaks for both the Olympics and the All-Star Game already making the schedule consensed as it is.
Now, with yet another two contests forced to find new dates, things get even tighter.
The NHL has a deadline of January 10th to opt out of sending its players to participate in the 2022 Beijing Winter Olympics. If more postponements happen, that could be a real possibility.