Ontario Scotties Tournament of Hearts suspended due to provincial restrictions

The latest sports news:

• Ontario Scotties Tournament of Hearts suspended
• Senators-Kraken postponed after Ottawa places 3 players, assistant coach in COVID protocol
• Leafs' Matthews, assistant test positive for COVID-19
• Exhibition game between Canada's women's hockey team, Calgary junior team cancelled
• Panthers add 2 players, coach to NHL protocol
• American skier Shiffrin set to return, others to miss Tuesday's World Cup race
• NBA reschedules postponed games, makes other adjustments
• Eagles put 12 on COVID-19 list with playoff spot in hand
• Barcelona, Bayern hamstrung by more virus cases

The 2022 Ontario Scotties Tournament of Hearts provincial women's curling championship has been suspended due to new provincial COVID-19 restrictions, the Ontario Curling Association (CurlON) announced Monday.

It was determined that the tournament scheduled for Jan. 5-9 in Thornhill, Ont., could not proceed after the province announced new restrictions and measures on Monday amid rising cases due to the Omicron variant.

"After consideration for the safety of athletes, supporters, volunteers and staff in mind and the Province's guidelines it was a clear decision that hosting the event was impossible and could not a guarantee a success for any party," CurlON said in a press release.

CurlON also said the decision was pending further review with the possibility of hosting the tournament at a later date.

The Ontario representative for the 2022 Canadian Scotties Tournament of Hearts will be decided after a review on Jan. 7. The national women's curling championship is scheduled for Jan. 28 to Feb. 6 in Thunder Bay, Ont.

Two-time national champion Rachel Homan and her Ottawa team were among the field set to compete at The Thornhill Club. Homan's team represented Ontario at last year's national women's curling championship.

Sens-Kraken postponed, 9 Ottawa players in protocol

The NHL has postponed the Ottawa Senators game against the Seattle Kraken on Jan. 6 due to 'COVID-related issues' affecting the team, the league announced on Monday.

The Senators had placed defenceman Thomas Chabot, forwards Zach Sanford and Chris Tierney and assistant coach Bob Jones in the NHL's COVID-19 protocol earlier Monday.

Ottawa now has nine players in the protocol. Chabot, Tierney and Sanford join goaltender Anton Forsberg, forwards Josh Norris, Tyler Ennis and Nick Paul and defencemen Dillon Heatherington and Jacob Bernard-Docker.

This is the second significant outbreak of COVID-19 on the Senators this season. The team had three of its games postponed in November after 10 players entered the league's COVID-19 protocol.

The Senators recalled defenceman Michael Del Zotto and forward Scott Sabourin from the American Hockey League's Belleville Senators. Del Zotto was added to Ottawa's roster while Sabourin was assigned to its taxi squad.

The Senators were scheduled to host Minnesota on Monday, but that was one of several Canadian-based games postponed by the NHL due to arena capacity limits in Canada.

The Senators' last game was a 6-0 defeat at Toronto on Saturday. They are next scheduled to face the Canucks in Vancouver on Jan. 8.

WATCH l NHL playing schedule left in disarray due to COVID-19:

NHL playing schedule left in disarray by COVID-19

3 years ago

Duration 2:12

More than 90 NHL games to date have been postponed due to COVID-19, as more players — including Toronto Maple Leafs superstar Auston Matthews — test positive.

Leafs' Matthews, assistant test positive for COVID-19

Toronto Maple Leafs star centre Auston Matthews was held out of Monday's practice after testing positive for COVID-19.

Head coach Sheldon Keefe said Matthews and assistant coach Dean Chynoweth, who also wasn't part of the on-ice session, produced positive results from their rapid antigen tests after arriving at the team's facility in the morning.

Keefe, who said both were asymptomatic, added the Leafs will now await PCR test results expected early Tuesday.

The club initially called the absences "precautionary" on Twitter, but did not provide further details.

"There have been some instances where those rapid [test] positives have been false," Keefe said on a post-practice video conference call with reporters. "That's why at this point it was just precautionary.

Toronto has been working through a COVID-19 outbreak that saw 14 players and seven staff members placed in the NHL's coronavirus protocol at its height. Leafs defenceman Timothy Liljegren, who returned to practice Monday, was the only player still in isolation when Toronto beat the visiting Ottawa Senators 6-0 on Saturday.

Matthews is coming off an outstanding December that saw him named the NHL's first star of the month after putting up 10 goals and four assists in seven games.

The 24-year-old tested positive for COVID-19 in June 2020 at home in Arizona while the 2019-20 season was suspended due to the pandemic.

The Leafs are set to host the Edmonton Oilers on Wednesday. Toronto's home game scheduled for Monday against the Carolina Hurricanes was one of a number of contests postponed by the NHL due to arena capacity restrictions in Canada.

AJHL team, women's national team game cancelled

The final contest of a four-game exhibition series between the Canadian women's hockey team and the Alberta Junior Hockey League has been cancelled due to COVID-19 concerns.

The women's team was scheduled to face the Calgary Canucks on Jan. 10.

Canada lost 8-0 to the Drumheller Dragons on Oct. 18, 7-1 to the Olds Grizzlies on Oct. 29 and 2-0 to the Camrose Kodiaks on Nov. 3 in its other matchups against AJHL teams.

The Canadians were using the games to tune-up for the upcoming 2022 Beijing Olympics.

Panthers add 3 to protocol, Stars get 10 players back

Florida Panthers forwards Sam Reinhart and Mason Marchment and assistant coach Tuomo Ruutu entered the NHL's COVID-19 protocol on Monday.

All three are unavailable for Tuesday's game against the visiting Calgary Flames.

Meanwhile, the Dallas Stars removed 10 players and two support staff members from the COVID-19 protocol Monday.

Captain Jamie Benn is the only player still on the list for the Stars, who have not played since Dec. 20 due to the outbreak-related postponement of their last six games.

Dallas is scheduled to return to the ice at home Thursday against the Florida Panthers.

The players cleared to return Monday were Radek Faksa, Luke Glendening, Jani Hakanpaa, Miro Heiskanen, Roope Hintz, Joel Kiviranta, Esa Lindell, Michael Raffl, Jason Robertson and Ryan Suter.

Shiffrin set to return following positive COVID-19 test

Mikaela Shiffrin is set to return to the women's World Cup at a slalom on Tuesday, eight days after she announced she tested positive for COVID-19 and was forced out of two technical races in Austria last week.

Shiffrin had a negative test on Monday afternoon before the American's name appeared on the official start list for the race released by the International Ski Federation.

However, Shiffrin's American teammate, Nina O'Brien, is among a group of racers missing Tuesday's race as the coronavirus is increasingly affecting the women's circuit, less than five weeks before the Beijing Olympics.

The group sidelined for Tuesday's race also includes at least three Swiss skiers — Camille Rast, Aline Danioth and Melanie Meillard — as well as two Austrians, a Norwegian, and an Italian.

One of the Austrians, Franziska Gritsch, said in November it was her "personal decision" not to get vaccinated against the coronavirus. She was not allowed to travel to the Nov. 27-28 tech races in Killington, Vermont, for that reason.

Shiffrin missed a giant slalom and a slalom in Lienz last week but remained in the lead of the overall World Cup standings, 93 points ahead of Sofia Goggia. The Italian speed specialist, who has not competed in slalom for five years, is absent in Croatia.

No spectators will be allowed at the race on the outskirts of the Croatian capital, which usually is among the best-visited races on the women's calendar.

NBA reschedules 11 games postponed in December

The NBA has rescheduled all 11 games that were postponed in December for virus-related reasons and either shifted the times or dates of 10 other games to help accommodate those changes.

Toronto had six games affected, Chicago had five and Brooklyn had four. In all, 18 of the league's 30 teams had at least one game date changed by the postponements or future adjustments, all of which were revealed Monday.

There are now seven teams that have at least one stint of playing four games in five nights: Chicago, Toronto, Brooklyn, Cleveland, Miami, New Orleans and Denver. The original NBA schedule didn't call for any such stretches, though it was unavoidable with the changes.

"The objective and priority here was to avoid teams playing three games in three nights and look for a middle-ground approach," said Evan Wasch, an NBA vice president who helps oversee the league's scheduling.

The Nets — who couldn't play at Portland last month because they were missing nearly a dozen players with virus-related issues — have a most unusual schedule coming next week.

Brooklyn plays Sunday against San Antonio at home — then will fly across the country to play the rescheduled game at Portland the next day, Jan. 10. The Nets then come back East and visit Chicago on Jan. 12.

Eagles hit by COVID-19 outbreak

The Philadelphia Eagles have placed defensive tackle Fletcher Cox and tight end Dallas Goedert along with 10 others on the reserve/COVID-19 list Monday ahead of Saturday's regular-season finale against Dallas.

The Eagles (9-7) already have a playoff berth clinched with only the seeding still to be decided Saturday night when they host the Cowboys (11-5) as either the sixth or seventh seed in the NFC. Under the NFL's revised COVID-19 protocols, the Eagles could get all 12 back before kickoff.

Joining Cox and Goedert on the reserve list are linebackers Genard Avery and Alex Singleton, safeties Marcus Epps and Rodney McLeod, guard Nate Herbig, running backs Jordan Howard and Boston Scott, center Jason Kelce, cornerback Avonte Maddox and tight end Jack Stoll.

COVID-19 hampers German soccer clubs' return

Pedri Gonzalez and Ferran Torres joined Barcelona's list of players with COVID-19 on Monday, while German clubs' preparations for the Bundesliga's resumption after the winter break are being hampered by infections.

Torres tested positive hours after his official presentation in front of several thousand fans at Camp Nou following his transfer from Manchester City. Barcelona said the forward and Pedri "are in good health" and isolating at home.

Of the Bundesliga's 18 clubs, 13 have reported infections.

Defending champion Bayern Munich is among the worst affected. Monday's training session was put back until the late afternoon so players and coaching staff could be tested upon their return.

The team's return was already delayed by a day after the Bavarian club reported five infections: Captain and goalkeeper Manuel Neuer, players Kingsley Coman, Corentin Tolisso and Omar Richards, as well as assistant coach Dino Toppmöller, all tested positive.

It's unclear if the five have the Omicron variant and whether they will miss Bayern's game against Borussia Mönchengladbach to resume the league on Friday. Neuer, who said he was suffering from light symptoms, will miss the match.

Gladbach reported four virus cases: Joe Scally, Mamadou Doucoure, Denis Zakaria and Keanan Bennetts, all in quarantine.

Stuttgart has four players in isolation ahead of its visit to last-placed Greuther Furth on Saturday: Silas Katompa Mvumpa, Naouirou Ahamada, Konstantinos Mavropanos and Mateo Klimowicz.

Borussia Dortmund will likely have to do without the infected Dan-Axel Zagadou for its game at Eintracht Frankfurt on Saturday. Frankfurt has two players in quarantine.

Both Berlin clubs were also affected by positive test results. Hertha Berlin new signing Fredrik Andre Bjørkan was among its players in quarantine.

Tottenham has more COVID-19 concerns ahead of the first leg against Chelsea in the English League Cup semifinals.

Spurs had an outbreak that affected nine first-team players in December, and manager Antonio Conte said on Monday there were more issues in the squad.

The game was being played on Wednesday at Chelsea's Stamford Bridge and the club was awaiting the results of PCR tests.

It comes as the Premier League saw its first week-on-week decrease in COVID-19 cases in eight weeks, with 94 players or club staff testing positive from 14,250 checks last week.