NHL announces second Covid postponement of the season.

The National Hockey League has been forced to shut down a team's activities due to the spread of Covid for the second time this season, with the league now finally acting in the ongoing situation surrounding the New York Islanders.

The Islanders have been battling with Covid for a number of days now and their organization has made it clear that they were hoping the league would intervene at some point earlier in the week, something the NHL had declined to do until now. It would appear the addition of a number of Islanders players to the Covid protocol, as well as the fear of a continued spread in the locker room are the motivating factors behind today's announcement.

Here is the league's official statement on the matter:

The National Hockey League announced today that as a result of an additional New York Islanders Player entering COVID Protocol this morning, and up to eight Players potentially unavailable to play due to COVID Protocol, as well as the possibility of additional cases due to spread, the team’s games will be postponed at least through Tuesday, Nov. 30. The decision was made by the League in consultation with the NHLPA’s and Club’s medical groups.

The League is in the process of reviewing and revising the Islanders’ regular season schedule.

The Islanders organization has followed, and will continue to follow, all recommended guidelines aimed at protecting the health and safety of its Players, staff and community at large as set by the NHL, local, state and national agencies.

The Islanders were scheduled to face the New York Rangers on Sunday, and the Philadelphia Flyers on Tuesday, both those games will now need to be rescheduled.

I have to believe that New York Islanders general manager Lou Lamoriello played an integral role in today's decision from the league. Not only has Lamiriello been working behind the scenes to get the league to postpone the team's games, but he also spoke publicly this week about the situation and appeared dejected when trying to explain why the Islanders had not been shutdown.

Lamoriello has long been an influential figure in the National Hockey League and I have no doubt that his words during his media availability this week carried a great deal of weight.