Detroit Red Wings Put On Pause By NHL
The National Hockey League (NHL) announced on Sunday that they have paused the Detroit Red Wings season, effective immediately, due to mounting COVID-19 positives on the team.
The Wings have nine players currently in COVID-19 protocol (Robby Fabbri, Michael Rasmussen, Carter Rowney, Givani Smith, Alex Nedelkovic, Filip Zadina, Pius Suter, Sam Gagner, and Joe Veleno) as well head coach Jeff Blashill and assistant coach Alex Tanguay.
The Wings are 15-13-3 (33 points) after Saturday's 5-2 victory over the New Jersey Devils. They are currently in the second, and final, wild card playoff spot in the NHL's Eastern Conference.
This week's games against the Colorado Avalanche (Monday night) and the Minnesota Wild (Thursday night) have been postponed. Their next scheduled game is next Monday night (December 27th) at Madison Square Garden in New York against the New York Rangers. It is unclear as to whether that game or any future games will be postponed at this point. And there's no word as to if/when the postponed games will be made up.
There are seven teams currently shut down due to COVID-19. They are:
The Calgary Flames, Colorado Avalanche, Florida Panthers, Boston Bruins, Nashville Predators, Toronto Maple Leafs, and the Detroit Red Wings.
Despite all the teams being shut down, the NHL has said that they will not pause the season as a whole at this time. The season is scheduled to pause in February for the Winter Olympics.
But with more NHL players uneasy about traveling to Beijing, China for the Olympics for a variety of reasons, it is possible that, if NHL players decide to stay home, then the league could play any postponed games during the scheduled three-week Olympic break. Stay tuned.