Pens Points: Wednesday’s Penguins/Toronto game postponed

Christmas has passed and now we enter that awkward week between Christmas as New Year’s where no one quite knows what day it is or what exactly is supposed to be happening. There is just as much uncertainty surrounding the Pittsburgh Penguins at the moment as we have yet to learn exactly when we will see them back on the ice.

While we all wait for hockey to resume, Pens Points is here to provide some form of normalcy during this increasingly uncertain time.

Read Pens Points to shake off the post-holiday blues...

In case Christmas festivities soaked up all your time on Saturday and you weren’t able to keep up on the latest NHL news, the league extended its December pause by an extra day, postponing all games scheduled for Monday. [Pensburgh]

Late last night the NHL officially postponed Wednesday’s Penguins/Maple Leafs game as well. Toronto currently has 14 players in COVID protocol. [NHL Media Release]

Teams were permitted to resume practice on Sunday even with the latest delay put in place by the league but the Penguins cancelled all activities for Sunday and instead will reconvene on Monday for the first time in nearly a week. [Trib Live]

As the Penguins seemed to be one of the teams keeping COVID at bay, it almost seemed too good to be true. Turned out it was as Evan Rodrigues was placed in league protocols on Sunday and will be out until he cleared. [Trib Live]

Three Penguins prospects have been selected to represent their countries in the 2022 World Junior Championships that began on Sunday. Goaltenders Joel Blomqvist (Finland) and Calle Clang (Sweden) join forward Kirill Tankov (Russia) at the annual tournament. [Pensburgh]

While Penguins fans tuning into the junior hockey action will rightly be focused on the three Penguins prospects, there is another name to keep an eye on. West Mifflin native Logan Cooley will be donning the red, white, and blue of Team USA. [Penguins]

Brock McGinn has gone from unknown to Penguins fans to one of the best value additions made in free agency this offseason. For McGinn, playing in the NHL runs in his blood and he’s garnered the reputation as a prankster throughout his career. [Pittsburgh Post-Gazette]

Before COVID became a league-wide problem, the Penguins were hit with their own virus issues earlier in the season. Perhaps no one was hit harder than Zach Aston-Reese, who is now healthy and finding his game at the right time. [Pittsburgh Post-Gazette]

News and notes from around the NHL...

As COVID continues to spread across the league and create all sorts of chaos, the NHL and NHLPA are in discussions about roster protection. This deal could see the reimplementation of a taxi squad system from last season along with a few other changes as well. [Sportsnet]