It’s an early Christmas vacation with the Montreal game postponed

A quiet week for the New York Rangers got even quieter with the postponement of the game Wednesday between the Blueshirts and Canadiens at Madison Square Garden.  That means the Rangers will have nine full days off in between games, not resuming play until they host Detroit on Monday, December 27.

The break will give Artemi Panarin to get fully healthy after missing the last game with a lower body injury and it will allow even more recuperation time for Igor Shesterkin who  was activated from Injured Reserve yesterday.  The team will also be able to get in some much needed practice time after getting this weekend off.

The postponement is not due to an outbreak of COVID on either team, but because the NHL has suspended all games involving with teams crossing the Canada-United States border.  That included the Canadiens’ trip this week to the Metropolitan Area to face the three local teams.

The Canadiens have only left winger Artturi Lehkonen out and the only Ranger currently affected is defenseman Patrik Nemeth.

Now, the Rangers still have two postponed games to be rescheduled since they haven’t announced when they will squeeze in the game in Ottawa that was postponed on November 20.  This is not good news considering how tight the schedule is in the new year.  Having to play two more games will tax the team, already practically playing every other day in January, March and April.

That scheduling pressure will be alleviated if the NHL and the NHLPA decide to opt out of the Beijing Winter Olympics. They have a deadline of January 10, but a release today stated that “the NHL and NHLPA are actively discussing the matter of NHL Player participation in the 2022 Winter Olympics in Beijing, China, and expect to be in a position to announce a final determination in the coming days.”  It doesn’t look good for the Olympics.

WJC affected

The IIHF World Junior Championships are affected as well.  They have cancelled pre-tournament games that were supposed to start today (Sunday) and will instead schedule games on December 23 and 24 with the tournament beginning on December 26.

There are five future Rangers playing in Red Deer and Alberta in the tournament including forward Will Cuylle and goalie Dylan Garand on Team Canada, forward Brett Berard on Team USA, forward Kalle Vaisanen on Team Finland and forward Jaroslav Chmelar of the Czech Republic.