The NHL has made what was obvious and inevitable official: Its players will not participate in the Beijing Olympics.
That decision, which a league press release said was made because the 2021-22 schedule was "materially disrupted" by COVID-19, will have a significant impact on the Penguins.
Mike Sullivan was scheduled to coach Team USA, while a number of players -- Sidney Crosby (Canada), Jake Guentzel (USA), Evgeni Malkin (Russia) and Teddy Blueger (Latvia) among them -- were expected to represent their countries.
The NHL's move had been expected for several days.
The Penguins have had two games postponed this week because of coronavirus outbreaks on the Devils (Tuesday) and Flyers (Thursday), and the league announced that what would have been the Olympic break will be used to reschedule games that have been, or will be, postponed because of the pandemic.
The Penguins' final pre-break game is scheduled for Feb. 1, at home against the Capitals, and their first after the break will be Feb. 24 in New Jersey.
Those games are more than three weeks apart, but fitting in a couple of makeup games during that time could be challenging because PPG Paints Arena, like a lot of NHL venues, has booked a number of other events during the time the league was supposed to be shut down in February.
Per the arena's website, events already have been booked for Feb. 8, 11-13, 17, 18, 19, 22 and 23.
That obviously leaves a number of open dates, but rescheduling games must take into account when the other club is available, and both the Devils and Flyers have two games to make up.
All told, 50 NHL games have been postponed because of the pandemic, which also prompted the league, in conjunction with the NHL Players Association, to switch its annual holiday break from Dec. 24-26 to Dec. 22-25.
"It was a shock to see how COVID-19 affected the NHL schedule almost overnight, and we understand the NHL's decision is in the best interest of the health and safety of its players," Luc Tardif, president of the International Ice Hockey Federation, said in a statement released by the IIHF.
The NHLPA endorsed the league's decision to skip the Olympics, which it also did in 2018.
"No matter how much we wish it were not the case, we need to utilize the Olympic period to rescheduled these games," NHLPA executive director Don Fehr said. "Certainly, the players and hockey fans are quite disappointed. But playing a full 82-game season this year, something the pandemic has prevented us from doing since the 2018-19 season, is very important. We expect that NHL players will return to the Olympics in 2026."
