UPDATE: The NHL players, in conjunction with the Hockey Diversity Alliance (HDA), have announced their decision to postpone Stanley Cup playoffs games on Thursday and Friday.
TSN's Darren Dreger said the league is "working on" its slate of games scheduled for Saturday, meaning that would be the earliest playoff hockey would resume. This situation is certain to evolve from here and we'll update this story accordingly.
This is from the Twitter account of Colorado Avalanche forward Nazem Kadri:
Players decision https://t.co/hsdBLO3vId
— Nazem Kadri (@43_Kadri) August 27, 2020
And from Ottawa Senators forward Anthony Duclair:
We the @TheOfficialHDA have formally requested the @NHL to suspend all playoffs games today. We strongly feel this sends a clear message to that human rights take priority over sports. We should not stay silent towards systemic racism and any racial inequalities in our society.
— Anthony Duclair (@aduclair10) August 27, 2020
In protest to the shooting of 29-year-old Black man Jacob Blake by police in Kenosha, Wisconsin earlier this week, several major professional sports across the United States have postponed games, but the NHL until Thursday had kept its current playing status.
According to a report by TSN's Darren Dreger, NHL commissioner Gary Bettman and NHLPA Executive Director Don Fehr spoke on Wednesday and expected there to be a number of discussions between the NHL/NHLPA and players on Thursday.
The postponing of games began when the NBA's Milwaukee Bucks, whose city is about 40 miles north of Kenosha, decided to boycott/forfeit their Round One Game 5 to the Orlando Magic on Wednesday in protest to the shooting. As a result, three other games were postponed that were originally scheduled on Wednesday, and the postponing continued for games scheduled through Thursday as well.
Several WNBA, MLS and MLB teams then followed suit, postponing games in protest.
After a large players' meeting on Wednesday night and Thursday morning, the NBA players then decided to resume its season, with games likely starting back up on Friday.
According to Sportsnet's Chris Johnston, the league held a moment of reflection before Wednesday night's games between the Tampa Bay Lightning and Boston Bruins and Colorado Avalanche and Dallas Stars in the wake of the Jacob Blake shooting. Johnston also reported that teams like the Lightning and Bruins, who learned of other league's boycotting close to their game time, stated they did not have the proper time to decide if they wanted to postpone their own game.
