The NHL is expected to postpone the Ottawa Senators next three games due to a rash of positive COVID-19 cases amongst the players. Ottawa was scheduled to play New Jersey, Nashville and New York however those 3 games will be replayed at a later date in order to allow the team to get a handle on the outbreak.
In the past 10 days, Ottawa has had 10 players and assistant coach Jack Capuano test positive. As a result, the team had to promote a slew of players from their AHL affiliate Belleville, leading to many skaters making their NHL debuts in the last few games. The postponements will be the first games the NHL has had to reschedule in the 2021-22 season due to COVID.
For the time being the league has not set dates for the matchups to be made up down the line. The announcement comes on the heels of the Senators dropping a 4-0 matinee contest to the visiting Calgary Flames. According to Bruce Garrioch, the team will reportedly stay off the ice until later this week in an attempt to contain the spread:
Through 15 games this year, Ottawa has a 4-10-1 record, which puts them in bottom of the Atlantic Division and 31st overall in the standings. Only the lowly Arizona Coyotes currently have a worse record at 1-13-1.