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The extended vacation of the Ottawa Senators went on a bit longer.
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Senators learned that their scheduled Monday game against the Washington Capitals at Capital One Arena was postponed on Christmas Eve.
The club is still scheduled to skate on Boxing Day at the end of the day at the Canadian Tire Center, but the game against the Caps will be rescheduled.
Senators are still supposed to host the Boston Bruins on Wednesday and New Years Eve for the Pittsburgh Penguins, but it remains to be seen if that will be the case.
The league has chosen to postpone all games scheduled for December 27 and does not promise that it will resume on December 28.
Senators have five home games that need to be rescheduled due to the pandemic after their three pre-Christmas dates were postponed. The club also had two postponements in November when there was a COVID-19 outbreak in the room.
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“The league had planned to resume its schedule on December 27, but to give the league an adequate opportunity to analyze the league-wide test results and evaluate,” the NHL said in a statement on Christmas Eve.
“The willingness of the clubs to play, the deadline for the resumption of the game will be delayed one more day. The teams will return to practice on December 26 and the league is expected to provide an update on their return-to-play plans by the end of the day on Sunday. “
If the senators had taken on the Capitals, they would likely have been without coach DJ Smith behind the bench after he was added to the league’s protocol list earlier this week.
A father of three, he has stayed in an Ottawa hotel since the club came home from Philadelphia last Saturday night and is awaiting word from medical staff about his clearance to exit quarantine.
He is not the only one in the senators’ field who is isolated.
Goalkeeper Filip Gustavsson, who had COVID-19 last year while playing in Sweden, is among those on protocol alongside assistant coach Davis Payne and video coach Mike King. There were also three other staff members who tested positive when the club returned from a seven-day road trip that began in Fort Lauderdale and ended in Philadelphia.
Reference-ottawasun.com