The Vancouver Canucks will no longer face off against the Seattle Kraken on Monday, as the NHL pushes back its season restart by an additional day.
In a social media post on Friday, the NHL confirmed that its regular-season schedule will not resume prior to Dec. 28 as previously planned.
“The League had planned to resume its schedule on Dec. 27, but in order to allow the League an adequate opportunity to analyze League-wide testing results and to assess Clubs’ readiness to play, the target date for resumption of game play will be pushed back an additional day,” a news release read.
Earlier this week the NHL had announced the suspension of all games between Canadian and American clubs from Dec. 20 to 23 in response to a surge in COVID-19 cases among its players.
Teams are still set to return to practice on Dec. 26 after taking a holiday the two days prior and the league is expected to provide another update on its return to play plans by the end of the day on Sunday.
While the Vancouver Canucks confirmed Friday the team’s home game against Seattle will be postponed until a later date, the exact date has yet to be confirmed.
The Canucks next scheduled game will be played away from home and is set for Dec. 29 against the Anaheim Ducks.
The next home game for the team is currently Jan. 5 against the New York Islanders, but the arena will be at 50 per cent capacity due to the a new round of provincial restrictions announced late last week.
As of Dec. 18, the Canucks had seven people on the NHL’s COVID-19 protocol list, including defencemen Tyler Myers, Brad Hunt, Tucker Poolman and Luke Schenn, forwards Tyler Motte and Juho Lammikko, and assistant coach Jason King.