Conflicting reports regarding more potential postponements in the NHL.
Will we finally get some games?
We are all hoping to see the return of the National Hockey League as quickly as possible, but coming out of the weekend there appear to be some conflicting reports on that front.
First let's get to the bad news. NHL insider Frank Seravalli reports on Sunday night that a number of teams around the league are currently awaiting the results of some tests to confirm a number of positive cases, cases that he believes will be added to the NHL's Covid protocol list on Monday. That comes as little surprise given the fact that we have now seen over 40 NHL players land on the Covid protocol list today alone, but the bad news is that at least some of those teams appear to be waiting to travel for Tuesday's games due to a belief that their games could once again be delayed.
Sources say more players are expected to be added to the protocol on Monday once officially confirmed positive. Some teams are waiting on results before embarking on travel for games on Tuesday that could yet be postponed.
Many hockey fans around the world are already extremely frustrated at these recent developments, not only because they have led to significant delays in the NHL's regular season but also due to the fact that the current situation has once again deprived us of NHL players at the Olympic Games. A whopping 64 games have already been cancelled this season, and you have to wonder how many more the NHL can afford to push back before it runs out of time on the schedule.
There are some signs of hope however and perhaps the biggest one comes to us courtesy of New York Islanders general manager Lou Lamoriello. The veteran GM and long time NHL executive indicated on Sunday that he believes the intention is to now play the games that are scheduled, and there are very few people as well connected as Lamoriello in the entire league.
"It’s my understanding that every game that’s scheduled now will be played," said Lamoriello.
Hopefully that will indeed be the case and we can expect to enjoy some NHL hockey this week.
