Pens Points: Postponed

Here are your Pens Points for this Tuesday morning...

Well, if the headline and the subhead weren’t enough to go on, yes, there will be no game tonight between the Pittsburgh Penguins and New Jersey Devils. The NHL has postponed the contest due to COVID concerns within the Devils’ organization. [PensBurgh]

In an update to the above Pens Point, Sportsnet’s Elliotte Friedman has reported that the NHL and NHLPA will pause all operations from Wednesday through Christmas Day, meaning Pittsburgh’s game against the Philadelphia Flyers, originally scheduled for Thursday the 23rd, will also be played at a later date. [Sportsnet]

While the league deals with the ups, downs, and unknowns of this recent COVID surge, the Penguins have remained largely unscathed throughout the ordeal. [Trib Live]

In some more positive news, however, Brian Boyle, Bryan Rust, and Jake Guentzel all hit the practice ice yesterday. [Trib Live]

Forward Drew O’Connor is a New Jersey native. As such, he had quite the homecoming ahead of Sunday night’s away contest against the Devils, including a massive order of custom jerseys. [Penguins]

News and notes from around the NHL...

Should the butterfly go the way of the dodo? [The Hockey News]

The NHL and NHLPA are hours away from announcing an expected withdrawal from Olympic participation. With players set to stay in North America, what will happen to the hockey games that are set to be played in Beijing? [Deadspin]

Bruce Boudreau, the Vancouver Canucks’ newest head coach, has been nothing but a positive since being hired on December 5. The Canucks, now winners of six straight games, will take the NHL-mandated pause to fine tune some things and better familiarize themselves with Boudreau’s tactics. [NHL]