Wild-Panthers game on Saturday postponed because of Florida team's COVID outbreak

Not one but two Wild games have now been postponed due to COVID-19.

A Saturday matinee with Florida at Xcel Energy Center has been called off, and the Panthers have been shuttered through at least next weekend after an uptick in positive cases.

On Tuesday, the Wild didn't play host to Carolina as planned after the Hurricanes had four players test positive.

Makeup dates for both games haven't been announced.

The Wild is next scheduled to play on Monday at Dallas before returning home to face Detroit on Thursday and then going on a three-day league-wide holiday break from Dec. 24 to 26.

"I don't know if anyone knows what the right thing to do is," Wild defenseman Matt Dumba said. "But we'll take these games off and keep the focus on our team and preparing ourselves. It gives us a little time to rest up, get the bodies right."

Florida and Colorado were put on hiatus Friday, with the NHL citing a concern for continued spread, and neither will be in action through the holiday shutdown.

Same with Calgary, which had its pause extended after another player and staff member joined the COVID protocols. In total, the Flames have 19 players, three coaches and 10 staffers out. The Avalanche is down five players.

As for the Panthers, they have seven players sidelined and had to play Thursday with one less forward and defenseman due to salary cap restraints.

This is a reoccurring issue for teams dealing with COVID-19 outbreaks because players on the COVID list still count against a team's salary cap and a team can't make an emergency recall from the minors until playing one game shorthanded.

Last season, teams were able to add players from taxi squads to offset COVID absences. But that rule applied to only that season. The league also didn't bring back taxi squads, although it did leave open the possibility of creating them at some point.

Overall, the NHL has postponed 20 games — including a Saturday tilt between Boston and Montreal — and more than 60 players have been added to its COVID protocols this week.

"It's a tough deal right now with a lot of cancellations," Wild winger Nick Bjugstad said. "So, you just have got to take the best precaution you can as a player."

Bjugstad and Jared Spurgeon, who is dealing with a re-aggravated lower-body injury the captain hopes won't keep him out of the Winter Classic, were both at Target Field on Friday afternoon where the process of building an ice rink for the New Year's Day showdown has begun.

Being available for that marquee matchup against St. Louis is already on the Wild's radar.

"You don't want to miss any games regardless," Bjugstad said. "Obviously, this is a big event and you don't want a lot of the team to go down to where it couldn't happen. As a team, we had a conversation and we're going to try to be as safe as possible going forward regardless of the outdoor game and just more in honor of our regular season."

Despite this latest round of postponements and shutdowns, the NHL hasn't announced a plan to suspend the season, nor its intention to pull out of the upcoming Winter Olympics.

Those scenarios could be linked.

Without using some of the Feb. 3-22 break currently allocated for the All-Star Game and Olympics, the league might not have room in its schedule to make up a substantial number of games; tacking them onto the end of the regular season could delay the 2022-23 start.

Participation in the Olympics was negotiated between the NHL and players last year during talks that extended the collective bargaining agreement, but the NHL and NHL Players' Association can opt out if COVID-19 conditions worsen or the league needs the Olympic break to reschedule canceled games. The NHL can walk away from the Olympics before Jan. 10 without facing a financial penalty.

What could also be a factor is arena availability. Some buildings have events on their calendar during that February break.

That makes the future look murky but considering the current state of the NHL, the present is also uncertain.

"We just hope that this doesn't continue, this trend, because we want to play hockey, everybody," coach Dean Evason said. "We want to get back to where we are, and hopefully we can catch this before it gets too far out of hand."