About 35 minutes before training scheduled for Monday, the Flyers announced that it had been canceled.
According to the Flyers, the team was “advised by the National Hockey League to resume training on Tuesday”.
If the Flyers had taken the ice on Monday, it would have ended the club’s six-day closure, imposed by NHL’s COVID protocols. The Flyers have been out of service since last Tuesday, when the game against the Capitals was postponed. They trained last Monday at Capital One Arena before traveling home on Tuesday afternoon.
Along with last Tuesday’s contest, the Flyers’ games Thursday, Saturday and Sunday last week were also postponed.
The Flyers ‘plan to resume training on Tuesday is in line with the Sabers’ seven-day break earlier this month. If the Flyers practice on Tuesday at 11 am Eastern time, as planned, the hiatus will also have reached seven days. Since February 9, Buffalo has been able to practice, despite having seven to nine players on the NHL COVID protocol list since that date.
Monday’s decision could be the Flyers and the NHL erring on the side of caution, making the stoppage officially seven days. The team still has Tuesday and Wednesday to train if all goes well. Once again, time will tell. Nothing seems to be written in stone at this point.
For a third consecutive day on Sunday, the Flyers had seven players on the NHL’s COVID protocol list. Travis Sanheim was removed from the list and Travis Konecny was added to it. The league updates the list at around 5-5: 30 pm Eastern Time each day, so Monday’s update has yet to be released.
There are several factors that contribute to why a player can be placed on the list of COVID protocols. A player absent because of the COVID protocol does not necessarily mean that the player’s test is positive for the coronavirus. According to the league protocols, all teams receive daily tests of COVID-19 PCR in the laboratory. The league also recently instituted the quick test of point of service on match days.
The Flyers’ next scheduled game is Thursday against the Rangers at the Wells Fargo Center. The team is due to travel to Stateline, Nevada, to play against the Bruins on Sunday at one of the NHL Outdoors games in Lake Tahoe this weekend.
As of Monday afternoon, those plans were still in effect. NHL Deputy Commissioner Bill Daly released the following statement to NBC10:
“We have remained in close communication with the Flyers for the past seven to 10 days regarding the state of testing and issues of player availability. It remains our intention that the Flyers resume their regular season schedule on Thursday and participate at Sunday’s game in Lake Tahoe. Of course, we will continue to actively monitor the situation. “
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