The NHL's already-extended Christmas break will end later than planned ©Getty Images

The National Hockey League (NHL) has postponed all of tomorrow's matches as the COVID-19 crisis, which led to the league preventing players from competing at Beijing 2022, continues to wreak havoc on the schedule.

There were 14 games due to be played tomorrow, which would have brought an end to an impromptu five-day pause.

Four games are scheduled for Tuesday (December 28), although with the NHL poised to give a further return-to-play update later today their status is still somewhat uncertain.

NHL teams have been allowed to resume training today.

The league, considered the best in men's ice hockey, has teams in Canada and the United States.

It had been due to pause for the Winter Olympics, allowing its players to compete at Beijing 2022, but this has been abandoned to instead play many of this season's throng of postponed games in that window.

NHL players will not be able to compete at Beijing 2022 ©Getty Images
NHL players will not be able to compete at Beijing 2022 ©Getty Images

Sixty-four NHL matches have now been called off this season because of COVID-19.

More than 15 per cent of NHL players had entered the league's COVID-19 protocol when an early Christmas break was taken on December 22, ESPN reported.

NHL players missing Beijing 2022 means that there will have been two Olympic men's ice hockey tournaments in a row shorn of the world's best players, as NHL stars also could not play at Pyeongchang 2018.

The Olympic Athletes from Russia team won the gold medal at Pyeongchang 2018.

As well as finding new, NHL-free playing squads for Beijing 2022, several teams must also now appoint new head coaches.