January 1st start date still possible
The COVID-19 pandemic really threw a wrench into the plans of most professional sports leagues last March with the National Hockey League being no exception, after it was forced to shut down just a few short weeks before the start of the playoffs. Despite finding a way to conclude the 2019-20 campaign from inside bubbles in Edmonton and Toronto though, the league is still looking at the best way to proceed with the upcoming 2020-21 campaign as there are still a lot of questions to be answered.
The league is hoping to be able to start the season on January 1st, but according to NHL commissioner Gary Bettman that date remains a moving target. Bettman spoke for the first time since the Stanley Cup final on Wednesday in a virtual conference call to provide an update on the league.
“That is a work in progress influenced largely by what we’re hearing from the medical experts,” Bettman said of the January 1st start date, via Sportsnet.
“COVID is going through a second wave, which could be worse than the first wave, and between Thanksgiving and the aftermath and what they think is going to happen for Christmas and the aftermath, we are taking our time and making sure as we look to ways to move forward, we are focused on health and safety and doing the right things.”
It remains to be seen when the league will make a final decision, but fans and players await anxiously as January 1st quickly approaches. Teams would still need to gather ahead of time to practice and work out any preseason kinks prior to the regular season starting.
The commissioner was firm on his stance though that the league is not planning to renegotiate the six-year Collective Bargaining Agreement extension that had just been ratified by the owners in July.
“We’re not actually having negotiations and we’re not seeking to renegotiate,” Bettman said. “We made a number of assumptions collectively over the summer, most of which are not applicable anymore.
“Whatever the revenues are, the players only get 50 per cent. And if we overpay them and they don’t pay us back in the short term, they have to pay us back over time. There will be stresses on the system, and we’ve had discussions about what those stresses are, and how they might be dealt with. But we’re not trying to say ‘you must do X, Y and Z.’ We’re trying to look for ways to continue to work together.”
The NHL regular season typically starts at the beginning of October and runs through mid-April. A January 1st start date would require a condensed and shortened season, but it is still very manageable. The ramifications if the season gets delayed further remain unknown at this point though.
The Tampa Bay Lightning lifted the Stanley Cup from inside the NHL bubble in Edmonton this past summer, taking out the Dallas Stars in the final in six games. It was just the franchise’s second ever Stanley Cup victory and their first since 2004.
