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The COVID-19 pandemic caused disruption to ice hockey around the world, mirroring its impact across all sports. Around the world and to varying degrees, events and competitions were cancelled or postponed.
The IIHF Women's World Championship, IIHF World Championship Division IV and Women's Ice Hockey World Championships were all cancelled by the International Ice Hockey Federation due to the coronavirus. [1] [2] The federation also cancelled the 2020 event of one of its two official junior world championship tournaments, the IIHF World U18 Championship. [3] On 21 March, IIHF publicly announced that the senior men's world championships had also been cancelled. [4]
The 2021 World Junior Ice Hockey Championships were played behind closed doors. [5] [6] Belarus was pulled as a co-host of the 2021 men's world championship due to political instability and COVID-19 concerns, and the event was hosted solely by Latvia. It was played behind closed doors until partway through the event, when a limited number of fully-vaccinated spectators were allowed to attend. [7] [8]
The 2021 IIHF Women's World Championship was cancelled by authorities in its host of Nova Scotia, Canada. [9] The tournament was postponed to later in the year and moved to Calgary, where it was played behind closed doors. [10] [11]
Concerns over Omicron variant led to the cancellation of multiple IIHF tournaments in December 2021. The IIHF cancelled all tournaments scheduled for January 2022, including the 2022 IIHF World Women's U18 Championship for the second year in a row. The decision led to criticism by players and officials for stifling the growth of women's hockey, especially as the men's 2022 World Junior Ice Hockey Championships were still going on as scheduled. [12] [13] After multiple games were declared a forfeit due to positive tests, the IIHF cancelled the 2022 World Junior Ice Hockey Championships on 29 December 2021. [14]
As a result of the German government's ban on large events, the Deutsche Eishockey Liga announced on 10 March that it would cancel the remainder of its season, marking the first time in the league's history a champion would not be crowned. The top four teams at the time of the cancellation — EHC Red Bull München, Adler Mannheim, Straubing Tigers, and Eisbaren Berlin — would advance to the Champions Hockey League. [15]
The Swedish Ice Hockey Association suspended all remaining hockey, the playoffs and qualification rounds, in the Swedish elite leagues on 15 March; no awarding of the Le Mat Trophy for the 2019/20 season nor transference of teams from the leagues' qualification plays for the 2020/21 season will happen as a result. [16]
In early March 2020, the National Hockey League suspended media access to the locker rooms, saying that only official personnel would be allowed in after the games to limit person-to-person contact. On 12 March, the NHL, American Hockey League, the leagues of the Canadian Hockey League (Ontario Hockey League, Quebec Major Junior Hockey League, and Western Hockey League), the USHL, and ECHL announced that their 2019–20 seasons would be indefinitely suspended. [17] [18] [19] [20] On 12 March, the National Women's Hockey League postponed its Isobel Cup Final game indefinitely. [21] The ECHL announced on 14 March that the remainder of the season would be cancelled. [22] The leagues of the CHL announced on 18 March that they would cancel the remainder of their regular seasons. [23] On 23 March, the CHL confirmed that all playoffs and the 2020 Memorial Cup were cancelled. [24]
Hockey Canada, the governing body for amateur hockey in the country, cancelled the remainder of its season on 12 March. This included national championships such as the Telus Cup and Esso Cup, as well as all regional and provincial playoffs, the Canadian Junior Hockey League playoffs, and the 2020 Centennial Cup. [25] [26] On 11 May, the AHL announced the conclusion of the 2019–20 AHL season, awarding all regular season trophies. [27]
On 26 May, the NHL and the National Hockey League Players' Association agreed on a basic framework to stage the Stanley Cup playoffs in a bio-secure bubble. [28] The seeds would be based on each club's points percentage when the season paused on 12 March; with the 2019–20 season effectively ended on 11 March. The top four seeds in each conference would receive a bye into the playoffs and play in a round robin tournament to determine playoff seeding; while the next eight seeds in each conference would play in a best-of-five series for the remaining playoff seeds (Stanley Cup Qualifiers). On 8 June, the NHL authorised teams to reopen their training facilities under COVID-19 protocol. [29] On 10 July, the NHL announced that the games for the 2020 Stanley Cup playoffs would be hosted in two hub cities, Edmonton, and Toronto. Toronto's Scotiabank Arena hosted games for the Eastern Conference's playoff qualifiers, quarterfinals, and semi-finals; while Edmonton's Rogers Place hosted the same rounds for the Western Conference's, in addition to both conference's finals, as well as the 2020 Stanley Cup Finals. [30] Players that entered the hub city "bubbles" were required to agree to protocols governing how camps operate, and the environment around where games are played, separating the hubs into "secure zones". [31]
From 28 to 31 July 24 NHL teams each played one exhibition game before the Stanley Cup playoff qualifiers began on 1 August. [32] The league conducted over 7,000 tests for COVID-19 during the first week of return-to-play, with the NHL reporting no positive cases. [33] [34] The playoff qualifiers were concluded on 9 August, with the first round of the Stanley Cup playoffs beginning the day after. [35] The entire 2020 Stanley Cup playoffs (including the qualifier rounds) were scheduled to last 66 days. [31] The playoffs concluded on 28 September in Edmonton, when the Tampa Bay Lightning won the Stanley Cup.
The 2020 NHL Entry Draft was held remotely after being postponed. The draft began with the New York Rangers selecting Alexis Lafrenière with the first overall pick. [36]
On 20 December 2020, the NHL announced its 2020–21 season would begin on 13 January 2021 and run for 56 games per team, ending on 8 May. [37] To reduce travel and overcome international travel restrictions, all teams were re-aligned into four geographical divisions, with three consisting exclusively of U.S. teams, and all seven Canadian teams placed in a single North Division. [38] In the 2021 Stanley Cup Playoffs, the top four teams in each division played each other in the first two rounds, and the four division champions were reseeded based on their regular-season point totals for the semi-final round (which replaced the traditional conference finals). [39] The Canadian government granted a travel exemption for U.S.-based teams for the remainder of the postseason. [40] Teams were also allowed to temporarily have a "taxi squad" of reserve players, who could be called upon in the event a team player is unfit to play. [41] In total, 73 players including 47 forwards, 18 defensemen, and 8 goaltenders tested positive for COVID-19 during the 2020-21 NHL season. [42]
The NHL employed a variety of monitoring and testing techniques to manage and contain the spread of COVID-19 throughout the league. [43] No later than two hours before the use of team facilities, players, coaches, and league personnel must have checked their temperature. Players were tested daily for COVID-19 for training camp and the first four weeks of the season. Following the four week period, individual teams and their medical staff could decide to move to an every-other-day testing schedule if they deemed it was safe to do so. Testing techniques used by the NHL included PCR testing, antigen testing, and serology testing.If a player developed COVID-19 symptoms or tested positive, they were instructed to immediately self-isolate and contact their team's physician. This was done in compliance with the Canadian National Interest Exemption and Mandatory Isolation Order. [44] Self-isolation meant that said player is not permitted to leave their house or hotel room (if traveling). The NHL prevented quarantined players from using hotel amenities, and all food and medicine was given to the players contactless. The NHL impossed a seven day quarantine with testing on days 1, 3, 5 and 7. If the quarantined player developed no symptoms, and all four tests were negative, by day 8 the player attend a medical evaluation to be approved to play and practice. [45]
On January 20, 2021 the NHL announced that it had fined the Washington Capitals $100,000 due to violations of the NHL's COVID-19 protocols. [46] The league said that players interacting in close distance of one another without the use of face masks was the reason for the fine. [47]
The season did not include the Global Series, Winter Classic, Stadium Series, and All-Star Game, which were all postponed by the league. [48] The NHL scheduled two outdoor games at the Edgewood Tahoe Resort in Stateline, Nevada, which were intended as television showcases with no spectators, to supplant the scrapped special events. [49] In addition, the annual Kraft Hockeyville USA preseason game was postponed by one year; it was eventually rescheduled for 3 October 2021, to be played in El Paso, Texas. [50]
The 2020–21 ECHL season began on 11 December. At first, only 13 of its 24 member teams played, however, the Fort Wayne Komets decided just days before the season started to participate, and indeed ended the season by sweeping the South Carolina Stingrays to win the Kelly Cup. The 2021 AHL season began on 5 February, with three teams opting out, six others playing home games in alternate locations, and the two teams based in Ontario not allowed to play home games. [51] [52] There were no playoffs (except in the Pacific Division) and once again no playoff champion was crowned. The Hershey Bears won the Macgregor Kilpatrick Trophy as the league's regular season champion.
Hockey Canada cancelled its national championships for the second season in a row in February 2021, citing that it was "the safest decision given the ongoing uncertainty of the pandemic at a local level, as well as the uncertainty around each region being able to compete for a national championship." [53] The CJHL's Manitoba Junior Hockey League (MJHL), Saskatchewan Junior Hockey League (SJHL), and Superior International Junior Hockey League (SIJHL) cancelled their seasons in 2021, citing uncertainties or a lack of government approval to commence or resume play [54] [55] [56]
The QMJHL and WHL were the only two CHL leagues to go on with play this season; the QMJHL initially took advantage of the "Atlantic Bubble" for its Maritimes division, and was the only CHL league to play a postseason. However, the Maritimes division was disrupted by new health orders and travel restrictions which prevented interprovincial games, and their regular season was halted in mid-April—with all Nova Scotia-based teams becoming ineligible to compete in the playoffs, and the first round consisting of a nine-game round robin between the three New Brunswick-based teams to determine who would play the Charlottetown Islanders for the Maritimes division championship. They would join three Quebec-based teams for the President's Cup semifinals, with all games from then on being played at Videotron Centre in Quebec City. [57] [58] [59] [60] [61] The WHL played a shortened season between divisional opponents (with three divisions aligned to consist exclusively of Alberta, British Columbia, and U.S.-based teams respectively), used hub cities for teams based in British Columbia and the East division (Manitoba and Saskatchewan), and cancelled its playoffs due to interprovincial travel restrictions. [62] The OHL was unable to play a 2020–21 season at all due to the Ontario stay-at-home order, [63] [64] [65] and the CHL cancelled the Memorial Cup for the second consecutive season. [66]
The 2021–22 NHL season returned to a normal schedule and divisional alignment, [67] and the league anticipated that every team would be able to host spectators without capacity restrictions by the start of the season. [68] [69] [70]
The league announced COVID-19 protocols with a focus on vaccination in September 2021, allowing teams to suspend players without pay if they are "unable to participate in club activities" due to a COVID-19 infection or inability to travel resulting from not being fully-vaccinated (outside of religious and medical exemptions), and additional quarantine requirements and restrictions for non-vaccinated players. It was reported that the "overwhelming majority" of players had already been vaccinated over the offseason; [71] in October 2021, league commissioner Gary Bettman stated that only four players in the league were not fully-vaccinated. [72] On 18 October 2021, San Jose Sharks player Evander Kane was suspended for 21 games after it was found that he had submitted a forged vaccine record to the league. [73]
By early-November, outbreaks had begun to impact teams, and result in players being deactivated via placement on the NHL's "COVID-19 protocol list". [74] Pittsburgh Penguins star Sidney Crosby, one of the NHL's biggest stars, and teammate Brian Dumoulin tested positive for COVID-19 on 3 November 2021 and head coach Mike Sullivan was later placed in protocol. Crosby had just returned from wrist surgery that forced him to miss the first eight games of the regular season. [75] [76]
Due to the emergence of the Omicron variant, which led to more player unavailability and a large number of games to be postponed, the NHL postponed all games that had been scheduled for 22 and 23 December, and extended the usual break for Christmas and Boxing Day. That break was later extended again through 27 December, when the NHL announced that most teams would resume play on 28 December, and that the "taxi squad" rule from the previous season would be reinstated. [41] [77] [78] The NHL postponed a number of games or moved them to U.S. cities, specifically citing the implementations of capacity restrictions in multiple Canadian provinces. [79] [80] [81]
On 22 December, the NHL and NHLPA also announced that they would withdraw from participation in the 2022 Winter Olympics, citing COVID-19 concerns and the need to use the reserved break in the schedule to make up postponed games. [82] Also in December 2021, the AHL announced that its all-star game and skills contest would not be held as scheduled. The Laval Rocket was to have hosted the event on 6 and 7 February 2022. [83]
On 19 January, the NHL announced new dates for 121 games, or about 9 percent of the season total. Of those, 98 games had been postponed and 23 others were relocated to different dates to avoid new conflicts. Also, 95 of the 121 games were to be played during the Winter Olympics at which NHL players were to have participated. [84]
On 2 February, it was disclosed that Alex Ovechkin had tested positive for COVID-19 and would miss the 2022 NHL All-Star Game, for which he had been selected as team captain for the Metropolitan Division team. [85]
The World Cup of Hockey is an international ice hockey tournament. Inaugurated in 1996, it is the successor to the Canada Cup, which was held every three to five years from 1976 to 1991 and was the first international hockey championship to allow nations to field their top players. The World Cup has occurred thrice before on an irregular basis, with the United States winning in 1996 and Canada winning in 2004 and 2016. Following the 2016 tournament, it was uncertain if the series would be continued, after the cancellation of the 2020 tournament. It is tentatively scheduled to be held every four years, starting in 2028.
Anže Kopitar is a Slovenian professional ice hockey centre and captain of the Los Angeles Kings of the National Hockey League (NHL). The 11th overall pick in the 2005 NHL entry draft, Kopitar became the first Slovene to play in the NHL upon making his debut in 2006. Kopitar has spent his entire NHL career with the Kings, has led the team in scoring in all but two seasons and is second in franchise history in points, fourth in franchise history in goals, and first in franchise history in assists. He scored his 1,000th career point in 2021. Following the 2015–16 season, he was named the Kings' captain. Noted for both his offensive and defensive play, Kopitar was awarded the Frank J. Selke Trophy as the best defensive forward in the NHL in 2016, as well as the Lady Byng Memorial Trophy for gentlemanly play the same year. He won the Selke Trophy a second time in 2018 and the Lady Byng Trophy in 2023.
Jacob Anders Markström is a Swedish professional ice hockey goaltender for the New Jersey Devils of the National Hockey League (NHL). He was selected by the Florida Panthers in the second round, 31st overall, of the 2008 NHL entry draft. He previously played for the Panthers, Vancouver Canucks, and Calgary Flames.
Evander Frank Kane is a Canadian professional ice hockey winger for the Edmonton Oilers of the National Hockey League (NHL). He played for the Atlanta Thrashers, Winnipeg Jets, Buffalo Sabres, and San Jose Sharks. Kane was selected fourth overall by the Thrashers in the first round of the 2009 NHL Entry Draft.
Mark Scheifele is a Canadian professional ice hockey centre and alternate captain for the Winnipeg Jets of the National Hockey League (NHL). He was selected by the Jets in the first round, seventh overall, of the 2011 NHL Entry Draft, becoming the Jets' first-ever draft pick after relocating from Atlanta.
Teuvo Henri Matias Teräväinen is a Finnish professional ice hockey forward for the Chicago Blackhawks of the National Hockey League (NHL). He was selected in the first round, 18th overall, of the 2012 NHL Entry Draft by the Blackhawks after playing several seasons with the Jokerit organization in Finland. Also being drafted by the Kontinental Hockey League (KHL)'s Lokomotiv Yaroslavl in the 2011 KHL Junior Draft, he is known for his offensive abilities and play-making skills. In 2015, Teräväinen won a Stanley Cup as a member of the Blackhawks.
Oliver Bjorkstrand is a Danish professional ice hockey forward for the Seattle Kraken of the National Hockey League (NHL). Bjorkstrand was selected by the Columbus Blue Jackets in the third round, 89th overall, of the 2013 NHL Entry Draft. Bjorkstrand is the son of American hockey coach Todd and the brother of Patrick.
Brayden Point is a Canadian professional ice hockey centre playing for the Tampa Bay Lightning of the National Hockey League (NHL). The Lightning selected Point in the third round, 79th overall in the 2014 NHL Entry Draft. Point won back-to-back Stanley Cups with the Lightning in 2020 and 2021, leading the playoffs in goal scoring both times, including scoring the Stanley Cup-clinching goal of the 2020 Stanley Cup Finals.
Quinn Hughes is an American professional ice hockey defenseman and captain of the Vancouver Canucks of the National Hockey League (NHL). Hughes was drafted seventh overall by the Canucks in the 2018 NHL entry draft. Before the draft, he was considered a top prospect. Showing impressive offensive prowess as a defenseman since the beginning of his time with the Canucks, he was nominated for the Calder Memorial Trophy as the league's best rookie in 2020. He holds several franchise and NHL records for defensemen, and won the James Norris Memorial Trophy in 2024 as the NHL's best defenseman.
Alexis Lafrenière is a Canadian professional ice hockey winger for the New York Rangers of the National Hockey League (NHL). Selected first overall by the Rimouski Océanic of the Quebec Major Junior Hockey League (QMJHL) in 2017, he was awarded the QMJHL Rookie of the Year award and was named to the First All-Star team in his rookie season. He was selected first overall by the Rangers in the 2020 NHL Entry Draft and made his NHL debut with the team in 2021.
The 2021 World Junior Ice Hockey Championships were the 45th edition of the Ice Hockey World Junior Championship. It began on December 25, 2020, and ended with the gold medal game on January 5, 2021. This marked the 16th time that Canada hosted the WJIHC. Due to the COVID-19 pandemic in Canada, it was hosted in a "bubble" behind closed doors in Edmonton, Alberta, with no spectators admitted for any game.
Dylan Cozens, nicknamed the "Workhorse from Whitehorse", is a Canadian professional ice hockey centre and alternate captain for the Buffalo Sabres of the National Hockey League (NHL). The Sabres selected him seventh overall in the 2019 NHL entry draft. He is the first player from Yukon to be a first-round Western Hockey League (WHL) draft pick, a first-round NHL draft pick, and a member of the Canada men's national junior ice hockey team.
The ice hockey competitions of the 2022 Winter Olympics were played at two venues located in the Beijing cluster: the Beijing National Indoor Stadium, which seats 18,000, located at the Olympic Green area, and the Wukesong Arena, seating 10,000, with both arenas having been constructed for the 2008 Summer Olympics.
The 2020–21 NHL season was the 104th season of operation of the National Hockey League (NHL). Due to the COVID-19 pandemic, the regular season was reduced to 56 games and began on January 13, 2021. Due to COVID-19 cross-border travel restrictions imposed by the Government of Canada, the league temporarily realigned for this season, putting all seven Canadian teams into one division. COVID-19 outbreaks caused the games of most teams to be rescheduled beyond the regular season's original end date of May 8, with the last game being moved to May 19. The playoffs began four days earlier on May 15, under a 16-team format with the top four teams from each division.
Brandon Hagel is a Canadian professional ice hockey forward for the Tampa Bay Lightning of the National Hockey League (NHL). After making his NHL debut with the Chicago Blackhawks on March 11, 2020, the NHL season was postponed due to COVID-19.
The 2020–21 NWHL season was the sixth season of the National Women's Hockey League in North America. Due to the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic, the season was held in a bubble in Lake Placid, New York, from January to February 2021, with all five teams returning from the previous season, along with the Toronto Six expansion team as the first Canada-based team to play in the league. The season was suspended again due to positive cases of COVID-19 within the bubble. On March 8, 2021, the league announced that the Isobel Cup playoffs would re-commence on March 26 and 27 at Warrior Ice Arena in Brighton, Massachusetts.
The 2021–22 NHL season was the 105th season of operation of the National Hockey League (NHL). The league expanded to 32 teams with the addition of the Seattle Kraken. The league had an October-to-April regular season scheduling and a full 82-game regular season for the first time since the 2018–19 NHL season as the previous two NHL seasons were shortened due to the COVID-19 pandemic. The league also restored its pre-COVID-19 Eastern and Western conferences. The season began on October 12.
The 2020–21 Edmonton Oilers season was the 42nd season for the National Hockey League (NHL) franchise that was established on June 22, 1979, and 49th season overall, including their play in the World Hockey Association (WHA). The Oilers made the playoffs for the second straight year after being eliminated by the Chicago Blackhawks in the qualifying round of the 2020 Stanley Cup playoffs.
Connor Bedard is a Canadian professional ice hockey centre for the Chicago Blackhawks of the National Hockey League (NHL). Considered one of the greatest ice hockey prospects of his generation, he was selected first overall by the Blackhawks in the 2023 NHL entry draft and made his NHL debut that year. Bedard would go on to win the Calder Memorial Trophy as rookie of the year in 2024.
A bio-secure bubble, also known as a bubble, or hub city, was a hosting arrangement for sporting events that emerged during the COVID-19 pandemic, under which events were held at a centralized site, often behind closed doors, with strict quarantine and safety protocols in order to prevent the spread of COVID-19. A bubble was established for a single sports season, tournament, or for an ongoing series of events, allowing them to still be held and made available to broadcast audiences.