NHL Releases New Schedule of Games Following Postponement

After the NHL players stood together and decided not to play scheduled games on Thursday night, the league and the players came together and decided to postpone the games on Thursday and Friday.

All of this was in response to protests initiated by NBA players over the shooting of Jacob Blake and other social injustice issues that they believe take priority over playing and talking about sports right now.

The protests were not meant to be permanent and there’s no talk of the players refusing to continue the playoffs. These two days were more meant to send a statement, especially in a sport where athletes are predominantly white.

Things will get back on track Saturday and the NHL released a new schedule for games starting Saturday and going through next Saturday, September 5.

This Saturday’s updated NHL schedule:

• 12 p.m. ET — Boston vs. Tampa
• 7 p.m. ET — N.Y. Islanders vs. Philadelphia
• 9:45 p.m. ET — Vancouver vs. Vegas

Updated #NHL #StanleyCup schedule: pic.twitter.com/LQnnOWFsJi

— Frank Seravalli (@frank_seravalli) August 28, 2020

Related: NHL Cancels Two Days of Scheduled Games, Will Resume Saturday

For the NHL, it appears they are doing their best to keep the games moving and staying on schedule. They were a bit ahead based on the series’ that had been played to date.

Some are asking why the league would require two Western Conference games on September 4 but one thing to keep in mind is that the entire league still left in the playoffs at that time will be moving to Edmonton for the Conference Finals. The NHL likely wants to give adequate time to prepare for the two Eastern Conference teams to fly in, get settled and not have to jump on the ice immediately after landing. Of course, there is also a great deal of testing that must go into bringing the Eastern Conference teams into the Western Conference bubble.

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