Yes, the Vancouver Canucks will play at Rogers Arena this season
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There won’t be fans but for the first time since March 2020, it seems the Canucks will hit the ice at Rogers Arena for NHL game action in January.
After discussions between the league, the players’ association and public health officials from the five provinces that are home to NHL teams, a tentative agreement was reached Thursday to move forward with games being played in the seven home arenas across the country beginning Jan. 13.
Wednesday, the top medics from Alberta, British Columbia, Manitoba, Ontario and Quebec
sent a letter to the NHL
detailing two options for the league to move forward with their approval of games being played in home arenas but without fans because of ongoing COVID-19 restrictions: either increased testing for the players’ contacts and some suggested modifications to the regular season schedule, or a delay to the start of the season.
It appears the NHL agreed to do more testing, leading multiple sources to confirm Thursday to Postmedia that there is “alignment” between the league and the provinces and that the seven Canadian teams would get approval to play games in their home arenas but without fans.
Later, NHL deputy commissioner Bill Daly released a statement via the league’s official public relations Twitter account, confirming the news.
“We believe we are aligned and in agreement on the conditions on which each of our Canadian franchises can being play in their own buildings,” he said.
Statement from Deputy Commissioner Bill Daly on NHL Canadian Clubs Playing in Home Arenas. pic.twitter.com/mtCLTwlLcB
— NHL Public Relations (@PR_NHL) December 24, 2020
Reached by phone on Saturday, Canucks general manager Jim Benning said he didn’t have an update beyond what the league had said to that point.
CBC News reported Thursday they’d confirmed a tentative agreement between the league and provinces but it seems it still needs final clearance and the ministries of health hadn’t yet commented.
It appears the NHL has the go-ahead to play in Canadian cities in the new year.
— Bartley Kives (@bkives) December 24, 2020
CBC News has confirmed a tentative public-health agreement between the five Canadian NHL provinces and the league.
Sportsnet’s Chris Johnston
reported Thursday
that it doesn’t appear that there will be a
re-jigging of the schedule
that the NHL had announced on Wednesday, which sees the seven Canadian teams playing each other exclusively this season. Public health officials had suggested the schedule should feature more “blocking” of games between teams.
The NHL’s schedule already has teams playing two or more games during each visit to an opposing city: for example the Canucks’ first two games of the year are both in Edmonton, their next two are then in Calgary.
The NHL does not believe it has to rework the North Division schedule announced yesterday as part of the agreement to have Canadian teams playing out of their home arenas.
— Chris Johnston (@reporterchris) December 24, 2020
That had been among the suggestions in a letter from provincial health authorities.
The NHL’s protocols already called for visiting teams to not leave their hotels while in away cities. Teams have long travelled only on charter flights and the league is enhancing protocols around team travel as well.
The Canucks will open their home schedule Jan. 20 at Rogers Arena against the Montreal Canadiens.
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