Teams returned from the holiday break to practice Sunday. The NHL season was expected to resume with 14 games Monday, but those games have been postponed.
The holiday break began Dec. 22.
The NHL announced Sunday that the game scheduled for Tuesday between the Columbus Blue Jackets and Chicago Blackhawks has been postponed, as have the Pittsburgh Penguins-Toronto Maple Leafs and Boston Bruins-Ottawa Senators games scheduled for Wednesday.
The NHL has postponed 67 games this season. That led to the decision to not participate in the 2022 Beijing Olympics. The NHL was planning to pause the season from Feb. 6-22 to allow players to participate, but that block now will be used to reschedule some of the postponed games.
"We've sent out communication with clubs and we're trying to confirm their open building dates, which we have a sense of from earlier communications earlier in the season," NHL Deputy Commissioner Bill Daly said Thursday. "We obviously will work very close with the Players' Association. I do think we'll have to build in some off time during that three-week period for the players as they had anticipated previously. There are a lot of boxes to check there, but I expect that we'll be able to portion some portion of that break period to various clubs to get their players rested, and I hope to make full utilization of the period so that we can make up the games that we've missed."
