(Reuters) -The Calgary Flames on Monday became the third team in the last month to have games postponed due to COVID-19, which does little to quell concerns regarding the NHL’s plan to send the world’s top players to next year’s Beijing Olympics.
Six Calgary players, including some who are expected to be at the Feb. 4-20 Beijing Olympics, and one staff member entered the NHL’s COVID-19 protocol within a 24-hour period.
As a result, the NHL postponed the team’s games through Dec. 16, a stretch that would have seen Calgary play at Chicago later on Monday and at Nashville on Tuesday before returning home to host Toronto on Thursday.
“As an appropriate precaution, the team’s training facilities have been closed, effective immediately, and will remain closed for players until further notice,” the NHL said in a statement. “The league is in the process of reviewing and revising the Flames regular season schedule.
Barring a postponement of further games, Calgary will return to action on Saturday at home to Columbus.
The NHL agreed to a break in its schedule to make way for players to compete in Beijing with the caveat that it could withdraw on its own if an abundance of COVID-19 disruptions forced games to be rescheduled during the Olympic window.
The postponed Calgary games bring to eight the number that need to be rescheduled following outbreaks at the Ottawa Senators and New York Islanders.
NHL Commissioner Gary Bettman said last week that the decision on participating in Beijing will ultimately come down to the players but added that the league’s concerns had “only been magnified” by the COVID-19 outbreak.
The NHL has also said it remained unclear what would happen should one of its players test positive for COVID-19 in Beijing, including the length of any potential quarantine, and that some players were also expressing concerns.
Earlier on Monday the Flames, who hosted Boston at the weekend, announced that Elias Lindholm, Andrew Mangiapane, Brad Richardson, Adam Ruzicka, Chris Tanev, Nikita Zadorov and a member of the training staff entered the protocol.
Of those individuals, Swedish forward Lindholm, Slovakian forward Ruzicka and Russian defenseman Zadorov are considered strong bets to make their respective Olympic teams.
“The Flames organization has followed, 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 national agencies,” the NHL said.
(Reporting by Frank Pingue in Toronto; Editing by Ken Ferris)
