Monday’s game between the Pittsburgh Penguins and the Boston Bruins at Boston’s TD Garden was postponed.
With the NHL inundated with well over 100 players testing positive for covid-19 over the past two weeks, the league postponed all games for Monday and essentially extended its ongoing holiday break by one day.
In a statement, the NHL explained its decision was made “in order to allow the league an adequate opportunity to analyze league-wide testing results and to assess clubs’ readiness to play.”
This is the third consecutive game the Penguins have had postponed. They were scheduled to host the New Jersey Devils on Tuesday and the Philadelphia Flyers on Thursday at PPG Paints Arena.
No makeup dates have been determined.
After dealing with disruptions for the better part of 22 months because of the pandemic, the Penguins were very cognizant that further postponements were possible.
“You can kind of expect the unexpected, I guess, at this point,” Penguins forward Brian Boyle said Monday.
The Penguins’ next scheduled game is a road matchup against the Toronto Maple Leafs on Dec. 29.
All NHL teams are scheduled to resume practicing Sunday. The league is also expected to announce a more detailed plan on returning to play that day.
