HELLO NHL HOCKEY SEASON!!

 It’s official! We’re going to have an NHL Season! (Yes, I know I’m a few days late with this news).

I woke up Sunday (okay, late Sunday morning) to the news that the NHL season is officially going to start on January 13. I was happy and excited knowing that there will be NHL hockey this year!

First of all, the 2020-21 NHL Season is going to be a 56 game season without any preseason games. The goal for the NHL is to get back to a September training camp, October regular season start, April end of season/beginning of Stanley Cup playoffs with the season officially ending with the Stanley Cup being awarded sometime in June. The upcoming schedule should be released today (Dec. 22. They also have a couple of contingency schedules in case the Canadian/provincial governments don't allow the Canadian teams play in their home cities). 

The critical dates for 2020-21 (courtesy of nhl.com)

The other major difference is that the divisions are going to be different just for this season. I believe it’s something about reducing travel. However, if you look at the realignment for this season, the Minnesota Wild got the short end of the stick being stuck out in the Western Division (and stuck with late night games, but that will be determined once the schedule is officially released on December 22). These divisions are only for this season. What will be interesting is all of the Canadian teams being in one division for this season. 

The divisions for the 2020-21 season (courtesy of nhl.com)

As a hockey fan, this is great news! It means I'll have something to watch on TV (or have on in the background when I'm working evenings), along with having topic ideas/material for this blog (as I've stated previously  in this blog post, I'm tired of football already). 

I also mentioned in a previous blog post that I appeared on episode 105 of The Sota Pod podcast, but I didn't post the link. The link to it is here. I come on half way through after Isha and @StateofHoppy (twitter) discuss Malt Madness. 

This season, it should be a national holiday! 

Are we going to see any kind of a season for the NHL this year?

 

Two weeks ago, I wrote my last piece about what should the NHL do about the 2020-21 season. I also discussed this very topic when I made my debut on The Soda Pod podcast on November 29h.. This first week of December is basically going to be “do-or-die” for both sides to get a deal done so that the season could potentially start on January 1, like the NHL has been eyeing.

 Since November 29, I’ve seen everything ranging from another *GASP* lockout to the season possibly starting in mid-February. There had been reports that both sides (NHL commissioner Gary Bettman and NHLPA executive director Don Fehr) had not spoken for over a week. I had been seeing so much out there that I had to rewrite this post twice…

During that time, players were traveling to their team cities. There was the whole thing on social media about new Vancouver Canucks goalie Braden Holtby needing U.S. Federal paperwork to bring his two tortoises across the border into Canada (read about it here)

 

Kirill Kaprizov skating at the
Wild's practice
facility (courtesy of the Minnesota Wild)

Now, I’m rewriting this for a third time with the news that the NHL and the NHLPA are looking at starting on January 13 with a 56 game season. The divisions for this season have been redone apparently to reduce traveling (as usual, the Wild got the short end of that stick with being in a division with Anaheim, Vancouver, Los Angeles, San Jose, Vegas, Dallas, and Colorado).  According to TSN’s Pierre LeBrun, training camps could open as early as January 1. From what I’ve seen from the Minnesota Wild’s social media, players have already been skating at their practice facility in downtown St. Paul (yes, including Kirill Kaprizov!) 

There are still some other items to be worked out and the NHL board of governors are meeting soon (December 9^th I believe via conference call).

 As of right now, it looks like we’re going to have a NHL season for 2020-21!

 And this hockey fan is excited!!