NHL nixes All-Star Game in Sunrise, Winter Classic

The NHL won’t take it outside and open 2021 with the Winter Classic in Minnesota but still hopes to get the hockey season going around the start of the new year.

The league on Thursday canceled the Winter Classic scheduled for Jan. 1 at Target Field in Minneapolis and All-Star Weekend that was to be hosted by the Panthers in late January at the BB&T Center. It said those moves don’t change the league and players’ target date to begin on or around Jan. 1 in the hopes of each team playing a full 82-game season.

No guarantee of being able to host fans led to the cancellation of the two signature events. The league hopes to bring them back to those cities in future years.

“Because of the uncertainty as to when we will be able to welcome our fans back to our games, we felt that the prudent decision at this time was to postpone these celebrations until 2022 when our fans should be able to enjoy and celebrate these tentpole events in-person, as they were always intended,” NHL senior executive vice president and chief content officer Steve Mayer said. “We are also considering several new and creative events that will allow our fans to engage with our games and teams during this upcoming season.”

The Minnesota Wild were supposed to host their first Winter Classic next season at the home of Major League Baseball’s Twins against the 2019 Stanley Cup champion St. Louis Blues. That will have to wait until at least 2022.

Canceling All-Star festivities was anticipated, along with forgoing the five-day “bye” week each team had gotten in recent years on either side of that break. The schedule is expected to be condensed in order to get in as many games as possible and stage a full 16-team playoff without going too deep into the summer.

Elsewhere: The New

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Jersey Devils added experience to their defense, signing Russian Dmitry Kulikov, a former Panther, to a one-year, $1.15 million contract.

BOSH’S NEW SPORT

Former Miami Heat star Chris Bosh is jumping into the Drone Racing League (DRL) to lead its STEM (science, technology, engineering and math) program, the Atlanta Business Chronicle reported. Bosh, who won NBA title in 2012 and 2013 as part of the Heat’s Big 3 era, was named the Dean of the DRL.

“I love engineering and technology and believe every kid should be given access to STEM education,” Bosh said.

ETC.

●N●SC●R: Picking the car number for Michael Jordan’s new racing team was a slam dunk: Bubba Wallace will drive the No. 23 car when the team makes its debut next season.

Soccer: Gareth Bale

● had a quiet first start for Tottenham since returning to the London club, while

Carlos Vinicius made a more impressive debut by setting up two goals in a 3-0 win over LASK in the Europa League. … North London rival Arsenal opened its fourth consecutive Europa League campaign with a 2-1 comefrom-behind win at Rapid Vienna in an opening round of games affected by the coronavirus pandemic. … On a good night for Premier League clubs, Leicester earned a comfortable 3-0 home win over Zorya Luhansk. AC Milan earned a 3-1 away win at Celtic, while Roma came from a goal down to win 2-1 at Young Boys — as did Granada to upset PSV Eindhoven away.

Tennis: Diego

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Schwartzman returned to action after his run to the French Open semifinals by beating Oscar Otte 6-3, 6-2 at the Cologne Championships. Third-seeded

Denis Shapovalov lost 6-1, 4-6, 2-6 to French veteran Gilles Simon. Yoshihito Nishioka beat seventh-seeded Jan-Lennard Struff 2-6, 6-3, 7-6 (3).