COVID-19 was enough cause for pause in the NHL season.

It's also cause for the cancelation of the league's participation in the 2022 Olympic Games in Beijing, according to multiple reports.

The players' association and the league agreed this week to forgo plans to play in the Games Feb. 4-20 in wake of a wave of COVID spread throughout NHL. The league hasn't participated in the Winter Games since 2014.

The league said it would suspend all operations after Tuesday's games in the wake of multiple teams, including the Nashville Predators, placing multiple players, coaches and others on the league's COVID protocol list. The schedule is set to resume two days after Christmas.

Eight teams had suspended operations as of Tuesday, with more than 18% of the league in COVID protocol and some 50 games postponed this season. The Predators were one of those teams to suspend operations after their entire coaching staff of four, along with eight players - Mark Borowiecki, Nick Cousins, Mikael Granlund, Ryan Johansen, Matt Luff, Michael McCarron, Philip Tomasino and Ben Harpur - were placed on the list.

As of Tuesday afternoon, 131 players were in protocol.

The Predators have had five games postponed because of COVID.

The time allotted in the NHL schedule in February for the Olympics now can be used to make up some of the games that were postponed because of COVID.

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Predators captain Roman Josi had planned to play for Switzerland in the Games, which would have marked his third Olympics. That his plans have changed wasn't exactly a surprise to Josi.

"Seems like there's a lot of questions from the league, from the players and the PA," he said last week. "It's a tough situation right now with everything going on with our team, around the league, everywhere."

Predators coach John Hynes was selected to be an assistant for USA Hockey.

The news was no surprise to NHL commissioner Gary Bettman and deputy commissioner Bill Daly, either. Bettman said in early December that an outbreak wreaking havoc on the schedule could be cause for opting out of the Games.

"We have an agreement that any material disruption to our season would certainly give us reason to withdraw," Daly said then.

Granlund and Juuse Saros (Finland), Mattias Ekholm and Filip Forsberg (Sweden) and possibly Eeli Tolvanen (Finland) were candidates from the Predators to represent their respective countries at the Games.

In light of the COVID outbreak across the league, the NHL implemented stricter protocols for players and coaches, including going back to daily testing and social distancing rules.

Josi mentioned last week that players and coaches weren't clear on protocols for the Games, which |also was a concern.

"Everything kind of seems up in the air," Josi said.

The Predators have won seven in a row for the fourth time in franchise history and the first time since 2018, when they won 10 in a row spanning February and March. Their next scheduled game is at the Dallas Stars on Monday.

Reach Paul Skrbina at pskrbina@tennessean.com and follow him on Twitter @PaulSkrbina.

This article originally appeared on Nashville Tennessean: NHL players, league agree to skip 2022 Olympics in wake of COVID