About 35 minutes prior to Monday's scheduled practice, the Flyers announced that it had been canceled.
Per the Flyers, the team was "advised by the National Hockey League to resume practice on Tuesday."
If the Flyers had taken the ice Monday, it would have ended the club's six-day shutdown enforced by the NHL's COVID protocols. The Flyers have been out of commission since last Tuesday, when their game against the Capitals was postponed. They practiced last Monday at Capital One Arena before traveling home Tuesday afternoon.
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SIGN UP HERE Along with last Tuesday's contest, the Flyers' games Thursday, Saturday and Sunday last week were also postponed.
The Flyers' plan to resume practice on Tuesday falls in line with the Sabres' seven-day pause earlier this month. If the Flyers do practice Tuesday at 11 a.m. ET as planned, their hiatus will have also reached seven days. From Feb. 9, Buffalo has been able to practice despite having seven to nine players on the NHL's COVID protocol list since that date.
Monday's decision could be the Flyers and the NHL erring on the side of caution, making the shutdown officially seven days. The team still has Tuesday and Wednesday to practice if all goes well. Once again, time will tell. Nothing seems to be written in stone at this point.
For a fourth straight day Monday, the Flyers had seven players on the NHL's COVID protocol list. There were no new additions. Travis Konecny, Oskar Lindblom, Scott Laughton, Morgan Frost, Jakub Voracek, Claude Giroux and Justin Braun remained on the list. Konecny on Sunday was the team's most recent addition to the league's COVID protocol list, while Travis Sanheim came off of it. The league updates the list around 5-5:30 p.m. ET each day.
NHL
There are a number of contributing factors for why a player can be placed on the COVID protocol list. A player being out because of COVID protocol does not necessarily mean the player tested positive for the coronavirus. Per league protocols, all teams receive daily lab-based PCR COVID-19 tests. The league also recently instituted point of care rapid testing on game days, as well.
The Flyers' next scheduled game is Thursday against the Rangers at the Wells Fargo Center. The team is then scheduled to travel to Stateline, Nevada, to play the Bruins on Sunday in one of the NHL Outdoors at Lake Tahoe games this weekend.
As of Monday afternoon, those plans were still in place. NHL deputy commissioner Bill Daly released the following statement to NBC10:
"We have stayed in close communication with the Flyers during the last seven to 10 days regarding the status of testing and player availability issues. It continues to be our intention that the Flyers will resume their regular season schedule on Thursday and will participate in Sunday’s game in Lake Tahoe. We will of course continue to actively monitor the situation."
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