NHL moves up 2 Coyotes games after Arizona has 4 games postponed
Feb 4, 2021, 8:02 PM | Updated: Feb 6, 2021, 3:02 pm
Arizona Coyotes right wing Conor Garland (83) celebrates his goal against the Vegas Golden Knights with defenseman Jordan Oesterle, right, and center Drake Caggiula, left, during the third period of an NHL hockey game Friday, Jan. 22, 2021, in Glendale, Ariz. The Coyotes won 5-2. (AP Photo/Ross D. Franklin)
(AP Photo/Ross D. Franklin)
The NHL has moved up two games for the Arizona Coyotes after the team had their next four games postponed.
The Minnesota Wild on Wednesday and Colorado Avalanche on Thursday had games postponed due to having players on the NHL’s COVID Protocol Related Absence List. That left the Coyotes without a game for over a week following Thursday’s against the St. Lous Blues.
With the Coyotes already in St. Louis, the NHL took meetings between the two teams scheduled for March 29 and 31 and moved them to Saturday and Monday. Saturday’s puck drop will be at 1 p.m. and Monday’s game will begin at 6 p.m.
The four games being postponed marked the first postponements for the Coyotes this season after starting off the season 3-5-1.
As of Tuesday, the NHL had postponed 18 games.
The challenge for the NHL will be when to make up these postponed games with the compact dynamic of its scheduling. The Coyotes were scheduled to play 56 games in 115 days, with two-game series in the same town against the same opponent filling the majority of it.
It’s a tight window to find space for other games, something the NHL has achieved thus far, with most of those postponed games already being rescheduled.
The Blues game being moved up is an example of how the league can shuffle the schedule to create more room for rescheduled games.
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