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One day after NHL announced that Wednesday’s game between the Vancouver Canucks and the Calgary Flames would be postpoined after multiple members of the Canucks were sent into the COVID protocol, the league has extended those postponements even further. The NHL announced on Thursday, April 15 that Friday’s Canucks game has been postponed. The Canucks last took the ice on March 24.
The league wanted additional time for them to recover and prepare following the COVID outbreak.
“Additional changes are being made to the Scotia NHL North Division schedule and it is expected that a revised schedule will be released by tomorrow,” the league said in their statement.
The also noted, “The Canucks’ organization has, and will continue to follow, all recommended guidelines aimed at protecting the health and safety of its Players, staff and community at large as set by the NHL, local, provincial and federal agencies.”
They will be revising the schedule, but some players are worried about the changes to come.
“I don’t feel ready if I’m being honest,” J.T. Miller told reporters on Wednesday. “It’s kind of crazy. I know everyone has a job to do but to expect our entire team to be ready to play in one practice and a pre-game skate is a bit hard to comprehend.”
This news comes just after it was announced that Canucks forward Adam Gaudette tested positive for coronavirus. Gaudette was informed of his positive test Tuesday and he was pulled off of the practice ice as a result. In addition to the forward, another player and a member of the team’s coaching staff were sent to COVID protocol.
Before the change, the Canucks were expected to be able to return to practice starting on Tuesday, April 6 and will be able to resume playing games on Thursday, April 8, when the Canucks are scheduled to play the Flames.
The North Division alone has had two games over the last week impacted by COVID. The league said the decision to postpone was made by medical teams from the NHL, NHL Players’ Association and the Canucks.
Last week, it was the Montreal Canadiens at the center of COVID-related postponements. Four of the team’s games were postponed when forwards Jesperi Kotkaniemi and Joel Armia were added to the protocol list.