Sabres forced to postpone more games due to more COVID list additions
It looks like we will have to wait longer than we initially thought we would have to for Buffalo Sabres hockey to be back. The Sabres were forced to add two more players to the NHL’s COVID-19 health and safety protocol list over the past two days.
On Sunday, the team announced that Casey Mittelstadt was added to the NHL’s COVID protocol list. He was the eighth player to be added to the list.
Only about 24 hours after Mittelstadt, Buffalo announced that they had placed Rasmus Dahlin on the NHL’s COVID protocol list. Players on this list cannot travel with the team, practice with the team, or play in any games the team may have scheduled while they are still in health and safety protocol.
The Sabres recently rescheduled 12 games in response to their COVID pause. Their next scheduled game was set for Thursday, February 11th, vs. the Washington Capitals at KeyBank Center in Buffalo. But due to more players entering health and safety protocol and being unable to participate in team activity, the Sabres have postponed their next two scheduled games against the Capitals.
The next scheduled game for the Sabres is set for Monday, February 15th at 7 pm against the New York Islanders at KeyBank Center in Buffalo. But as we have seen, that could change very quickly. Buffalo has not played a game since January 31st vs. the New Jersey Devils.
If the Sabres do end up playing on February 15th, they will have missed out on six games between then and the last game they played. They were supposed to have two games against the Islanders, Bruins, and the Capitals since the team’s last game that they actually got to play.
The Sabres are up to nine players plus head coach Ralph Krueger in health and safety protocol. Hopefully, we don’t see any more additions to the team’s COVID list, and everyone can recover fully, and we can get back to Sabres hockey as soon as it is safe to do so.