Attendance restrictions north of the border have led the NHL to move a whole slate of games in the eternal quest to retrieve Hockey Related Revenue.
Four games from the New York Islanders’ upcoming road trip to the northwest have been postponed as part of the NHL’s response to government-ordered attendance restrictions in Canada relating to how the pandemic is affecting those communities.
In all, nine (new) NHL games are postponed — eight in Canada and the Islanders’ visit to Seattle which was part of this swing. Here are the affected Isles’ games, which may or may not create openings to make up other previously postponed games:
- Tuesday, Jan. 4: New York Islanders @ Seattle
- Wednesday, Jan. 5: New York Islanders @ Vancouver
- Saturday, Jan. 8: New York Islanders @ Edmonton
- Tuesday, Jan. 11: New York Islanders @ Calgary
The Isles next play New Year’s Day afternoon, as the Oilers visit. (Leave your First Islanders Goal picks for that one here.) After that…they’re not scheduled to play again until Jan. 13.
With more #NHL postponements, #Isles 4-game homestand that became a 2 game homestand that became a 5 game homestand that became a 4-game homestand is now a 9-game home stand.
The next scheduled road game is January 22nd in Toronto. By then NYI will have played 17 of 33 at home.
— Eric Hornick (@ehornick) December 31, 2021
These games could be played, but the NHL has no interest in doing so under current restrictions.
As this is a purely revenue-oriented move — the league and presumably the NHLPA do not want to lose the revenue and complications of suddenly reducing attendance at those games — it’s sure looking like this will be a very, very, very long season. If it ever ends.
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