VANCOUVER – December 22, 2021
The NHL and NHLPA have officially announced that the NHL players won’t be participating in the upcoming 2022 Beijing Olympics via the commissioner of the league Gary Bettman on a zoom meeting availability. The NHL would have taken a 3 weeklong break in the season to send players over to China but now instead will playing the previous 50 postponed games on North American soil during that 3-week period to not extend the season into the summer like the last 2 years have been. During that 3 week break the NHL skills competition on Feb. 4 and all-star game on Feb. 5 were supposed to be held and as of now the plan is still for the players to play the all-star game and participate in the skills competition. The NHL wants the all-star weekend to proceed without any interruption because that weekend is a big cash generator for the entire league and with all the revenue lost last 2 seasons the league wants to capitalize on every chance they can get.
In Vancouver Canucks news the Canucks had their last practice yesterday on Tuesday before the NHL shuts down and pauses up until after Christmas. With even stricter rules and regulations in place now by BC health officials, it’s not clear if or when the Canucks would resume their season. The Omicron variant is spreading quick so we can only hope that this mini shutdown will deteriorate the rising numbers in Canada. The next Canucks game after the pause would be at home against the Seattle Kraken on Monday Dec. 27th If all goes well and according to plan, the game would be held at only 50% capacity.