NHL announces the postponement of their 2020 Global Series games

Friday morning, the NHL and NHLPA announced that they are postponing all international events that are scheduled for the remainder of 2020. This includes the 2020 Global Series games the Colorado Avalanche were set to play in Helsinki next November.

Thanks to the global spread of the COVID-19 pandemic, the NHL is going to be forced to rework a lot of their plans for the coming seasons. This is the first shoe to drop. With so much uncertainty as to how and when we’ll see the NHL over the next couple of years, this decision was inevitable.

As part of their 2020-21 schedule, the Avalanche were set to face off against the Columbus Blue Jackets at the Hartwall Arena in Helsinki, Finland. That trip will no longer take place.

As well as the games between the Avalanche and Blue Jackets in Helsinki, the Boston Bruins and Nashville Predators had been scheduled to play a couple of preseason games and then open their regular season schedule in Prague, Czech Republic. Those games have also been postponed.

The league didn’t do much to elaborate but they gave the following press release:

The NHLPA and the NHL remain committed to maintaining and growing our international presence. We hope that our fans overseas understand the need to postpone the 2020 games, but we look forward to being back with them in 2021.

The league sounds as if they are still committed to playing regular season games in Europe and that these same teams could have their trips rescheduled for a season later.

What we’re all wondering is how does this impact the Pesäpallo season?