Source: NHL / Twitter
By: Patrick Donnelly | Follow me on Twitter @PatDonn12
The National Hockey League and Players’ Association announced on Friday morning that the league has postponed its 2020 international events to the 2021 season due in the wake of the COVID-19 pandemic. Among other teams included in the Global Series, the Boston Bruins and Nashville Predators were supposed to kick off the 2020-21 campaign at O2 Arena in Prague, Czech Republic.
Before meeting the Preds in Prague, Boston was slated to wrap up training camp in Manheim, Germany, and face off against Adler Manheim at SAP Arena in an exhibition contests. Nashville was scheduled to travel to Bern, Switzerland, and play an exhibition showcase against SC Bern at PostFinance Arena to conclude camp.
Boston’s David Krejci and David Pastrnak are both natives of the Czech Republic, while Nashville’s Roman Josi and Yannick Weber are from Switzerland.
The Columbus Blue Jackets and Colorado Avalanche were set to meet in a pair of regular season games later in the fall at Hartwall Arena in Helsinki, Finland. Colorado’s Mikko Rantanen and Joonas Donskoi as well as Columbus’ Markus Nutivaara and Joonas Korpisalo are all natives of Finland.
Last fall as part of the 2019 Global Series, the Philadelphia Flyers and Chicago Blackhawks began the 2019-20 seasons in Prague after finishing their training camps in Switzerland and Germany, respectively. In November, the Tampa Bay Lightning and Buffalo Sabres squared off in a pair of regular season games in Stockholm, Sweden.
The 2020 Global Series would have marked the fourth-straight season that the NHL and ninth overall that the NHL has traveled to Europe to play regular season games.
Check out the new Black N’ Gold Hockey Podcast episode 177 that we recorded below on 5-3-20! You can find our show on many worldwide platforms such as Apple Podcasts, Google Podcasts, iHeart Radio, Spotify, SoundCloud, and Stitcher!
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