I don’t follow the other Detroit teams enough to know here, but it’s hard to beat Table 2 for me.
Why are there no NHL games this weekend? League taking three-day hiatus for holidays – The Sporting News
Hockey used to be a staple on Christmas Day. From the 1920s to 1971, the NHL always had games on the holiday. In fact, during the 1960s, every team played on Christmas Day.
However, in 1972, the league decided to no longer schedule games on Christmas. One year later, the NHL got rid of contests on Christmas Eve as well. The game to be played on Christmas was a match between the Los Angeles Kings and California Golden Seals on Dec. 25, 1971.
Nowadays, the NHL has a league-wide hiatus on both days. Depending on the timing of the schedule, teams either get the 23rd or 26th off as well. This year, it is the 26th.
The entire article doesn’t answer the question why. It just explains a bit of the history of it. If you’re curious why, Article 16.5 of the CBA dictates that it’s so. That’s also not exactly an explanation why either. The easy guess is that it’s a player-driven ask for the CBA and the NHL is all to happy to give that to them because the league knows it would get smoked on ratings trying to compete.