The Canadian may have to postpone three more home matches in January

The Canadians still have three games left on the Bell Center schedule in January, but if the health situation does not improve, these games will likely be postponed.

Richard Lappie
Journalism

In an interview with Journalism Margaret Belanger, Groupe CH’s head of sports and entertainment, indicated Friday that given the current situation, all January games can be played at the Bell Center at a later time.

“No one can predict what will happen,” she explained in a phone interview. We want to show our matches in front of our fans, but wish we could postpone them to another date if we can’t. Of course we prefer playing in front of the crowd. Playing in front of empty stands, as we had a year ago, is not ideal. ”

Currently, a total of six meetings at the Bell Center have been postponed. With the National Hockey League still hoping to wrap up its schedule on schedule on April 29, it will soon be impossible to continue postponing games.

In an email sent Friday morning to JournalismNHL Assistant Commissioner Bill Daley has admitted that it would be impossible to postpone matches beyond January. “Nothing is scheduled at the moment, but [la fin de janvier]That seems to be the limit,” he wrote.

There is of course a financial quota for Canadian teams who have to submit matches without being able to sell a single ticket, as is the case for Canadians at the moment; In December, for example, the magazine Forbes The Canadians’ box office income at the Bell Center on game night was estimated at 5 million, including chests, a figure the Canadians did not want to confirm.

No emergency scenario

According to France Marguerite Bellanger, the Canadians’ management did not anticipate an emergency scenario that would lead to domestic matches being presented at an arena other than the Bale Center.

“At the moment, it is not a scenario that we go and play somewhere else…Since September, we have been able to present games at the Bell Center by asking for a vaccination passport and wearing a mask in the stands… We would like to be able to return to presenting matches in front of Akbar. as many fans as possible.”

At the moment, the Canadian remains on enforced rest due to the many cases of COVID-19 that have plagued the club, especially during the holiday season. If nothing changes, the club should resume training from Sunday at its center in Brossard.

Canadians are not the only club in the country dealing with these challenges. The Vancouver Canucks and Ottawa Senators haven’t played since 1^{is being} January, and in the case of the Canucks, their last home game was on December 14.

For his part, the Canadian has not played in front of the fans since December 9. The last game was played at the Bale Center, on December 16, in front of empty stands.

At this rate, everything indicates that the Canadian’s Olympic break, which was due to take place between 1 . matches^{is being} And February 26, to resume all domestic matches that have been postponed.

It remains to be seen if all these matches can be resumed in front of an audience, even if it is small.

“We will continue our discussions in this direction with the NHL and with public health,” France-Marguerite Bellanger added. We definitely hope we can find supporters in the near future. ”