League-Wide Shutdown Could Be Announced Tuesday

According to Frank Seravalli of Daily Faceoff, the NHL is currently contemplating the idea of having a league-wide shutdown starting on Tuesday. This of course is in response to the plethora of COVID-19 cases currently occurring in the league.

This week alone, there have been 39 games postponed. Before then, the league only postponed five others for the entire season. Thus, it's apparent that things are getting hectic. With that, a total of eight teams have been shut down entirely for the holiday break already.

Sources say there has been conversation today about a possible league-wide shutdown effective tomorrow. The situation remains very fluid. No decision yet.

Now just 7 games left before Christmas break.

44 games have been postponed this season, 39 in last 7 days. https://t.co/orrTu46gjb
— Frank Seravalli (@frank_seravalli) December 20, 2021

Seravalli also noted that they are currently discussing a few different possibilities. The first one is that each remaining NHL team would suspend play through the holiday break. However, they also are considering making this shutdown last until New Year's Eve and open up again by starting with the Winter Classic.

There are a few options on the table.

One is to suspend play through the holiday break (Dec. 24-26) and return on Dec. 27.

Another is to go through New Year’s Eve and return with the Winter Classic on Jan. 1.

Lots of opinion for/against both. Teams with few cases want to play
— Frank Seravalli (@frank_seravalli) December 20, 2021

There are pros and cons to each and every situation. It will be interesting to see what the NHL opts to do, but at the end of the day, health comes first. Here's to hoping each and every player out will the virus feels better very soon.