Flyers at Capitals postponed due to NHL COVID protocol

The Philadelphia Flyers are the latest NHL team to be affected by COVID.

Defenseman Travis Sanheim was forced to miss Sunday afternoon’s game against the Washington Capitals due to COVID protocol. The game played on, however, despite Sanheim practicing with the team on Saturday.

That may turn out to be a poor decision because Tuesday night’s game between the Flyers and Capitals has been postponed.

The National Hockey League announced today that as a result of a second Philadelphia Flyers Player entering the NHL’s COVID Protocols earlier today, the team’s game tonight against the Washington Capitals will be postponed. The decision was made by the League’s, NHLPA’s and Club’s medical groups out of an abundance of caution while the League continues to analyze test results in the coming days.

The rescheduled date will be announced when available.

Darren Dreger was the first to report the developments.

The Flyers already had two upcoming games this week postponed on Thursday and Saturday against the New Jersey Devils. They will now go at least one week between games with their next game scheduled for Sunday, February 14th at 6 p.m.

Shayne Gostisbehere was the only Flyers player on the NHL’s COVID Protocol list prior to Sanheim. He missed the beginning of the season and got his legs back under him in recent weeks.

Several NHL teams have been affected by COVID. The Devils and Sabres are the two teams in the East to be impacted the most after their two-game series during the last weekend of January. The Devils had as many as 16 players on the COVID list, while the Sabres had upwards of nine of their own. The Minnesota Wild are also currently affected.

The NHL has already needed to postpone 33 games less than four weeks into the season. The bubble for the playoffs worked, but this season may be in jeopardy of pressing the pause button.

As of now, the Flyers are scheduled to play three games in the next two weeks:

• Sunday, February 14th, 6 p.m. at New York Rangers
• Thursday, February 18th vs. New York Rangers
• Sunday, February 21st vs. Boston Bruins (At Lake Tahoe)

State of the Flyers: The Good, The Bad, and The Unknown

Hopefully, the Flyers and NHL were able to catch the issue early enough and prevent an even bigger outbreak. Stay tuned for updates.