Canadiens announce tonight's game vs Philadelphia will be closed to fans

Two hours before puck drop for tonight's game against the Philadelphia Flyers, the Montreal Canadiens announced that no fans will be in attendance due to the rising number of COVID-19 cases in the province.

Quebec announced 2,736 new COVID-19 cases this morning, the highest number since January 8th of this year.

In a statement, the Canadiens said, "Faced with the spiraling rise of COVID-19 cases in the region, late this afternoon the Montreal Canadiens organization received a request from Quebec public health officials to host tonight's game against the Philadelphia Flyers in a closed setting with no fans in attendance at the Bell Centre. We have accepted this request in order to help ensure the safety and security of our fans and fellow citizens throughout our community. An update on the status of Saturday's scheduled game against the Boston Bruins will be provided tomorrow."

"We have obtained assurances that beginning with our games in January, we will return to a partial capacity scenario and be able to host fans once more. More details will follow in the days to come and as the portrait of this ever-evolving pandemic becomes clearer. In the interim we would continue to encourage everyone to get vaccinated, get their booster shots when possible, and be responsible with their social and family gatherings throughout the holidays. We hope that with rigor and a collective effort from all of us, we will be able to come together in a near future in 2022."

As the statement mentioned, an update regarding Saturday's game vs Boston will come at some point tomorrow.

Given the rising number of cases, this may be the right move for now, but it's certainly frustrating for many fans with tickets tonight, especially since they were given only two hours notice.

Update regarding Flyers-Canadiens gamehttps://t.co/Q9VfOOfvBk— Canadiens Montréal (@CanadiensMTL) December 16, 2021

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