Breaking: No fans allowed tonight in Montreal for Canadiens vs Flyers
And now it's official. Buckle up, hockey fans.
HockeyFeed
This just in, the Montreal Canadiens have announced that no fans will be allowed to attend tonight's game between the Canadiens and the visiting Philadelphia Flyers at the Bell Centre.
From the team's website:
MONTREAL - Faced with the spiraling rise of COVID-19 cases in the region, late this afternoon the Montreal Canadiens organization received a request from Quebec public health officials to host tonight's game against the Philadelphia Flyers in a closed setting with no fans in attendance at the Bell Centre. We have accepted this request in order to help ensure the safety and security of our fans and fellow citizens throughout our community. An update on the status of Saturday's scheduled game against the Boston Bruins will be provided tomorrow.
- Montreal Canadiens
We have obtained assurances that beginning with our games in January, we will return to a partial capacity scenario and be able to host fans once more. More details will follow in the days to come and as the portrait of this ever-evolving pandemic becomes clearer. In the interim we would continue to encourage everyone to get vaccinated, get their booster shots when possible, and be responsible with their social and family gatherings throughout the holidays. We hope that with rigor and a collective effort from all of us, we will be able to come together in a near future in 2022.
Today's news from the Habs comes hot on the heels of yesterday's announcement from the Ontario government that they are limiting capacity at large events to just 50%. This, of course, means that the Toronto Maple Leafs and the Ottawa Senators will be forced to play to half capacity buildings at least until the New Year as the province of Ontario struggles to gain control over the Omicron variant that is spreading across Canada.
In the province of Quebec, new cases of COVID-19 have spiked to nearly 3,000 a day in this recent "4th wave". With that in mind it's really not surprising to see the Habs follow the public health order requested of them by the provincial government.
