The NHL and NHL Players Association are in agreement that the league's players will not participate in the 2022 Beijing Winter Olympics amid the rise in COVID-19 cases and the league-wide pause impacting the 2021-22 season schedule, per Frank Seravalli of the Daily Faceoff. 

An official announcement could come Tuesday or later this week, Seravalli added. 

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Several teams have already been shut down because of a rise in COVID-19 cases among players, and a league-wide holiday shutdown will begin Wednesday and run through Dec. 26. 

That means the NHL needs the vacant two weeks in the February schedule, which would have been used to let players attend the Olympics, to make up the lost games.