NHL fans may have to stomach a too short 48-game season in 2020-21

Start preparing for a very truncated season, NHL fans.

We should be used to being dealt bad news in 2020 and, as such, we shouldn’t be surprised if we get a very short NHL season in 2020-21.

I’ve already covered in depth the current issues hindering the NHL’s push to start the new season on Jan. 1, 2021, with the NHLPA unhappy at being asked to make changes to a CBA that was only signed, sealed and delivered back in the summer.

Now, that has been disputed by NHL Commissioner Gary Bettman and we’ll get to what he had to say in a separate post but, for now, we want to deal with the very real possibility of having a shortened season in 2020-21.

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We’re now three days in to December and both the NHL and the NHLPA have a plethora of issues to resolve it seems before an agreement is reached, and even then they have a boatload of logistical issues to thrash out and work through before a puck can even be dropped.

Teams will likely want at least a two or three week Training Camp and a couple of postseason games chucked in, and then there’s the small matter of making sure players are back in the country with a lot of prospects and young players currently playing abroad.

We haven’t even touched on the fact that a decision will need to be made on whether or not games will be played in teams’ home cities and arenas, or whether a number of temporary bubbles will be set up and established.

It is already common knowledge that Division Realignment will be likely with an all-Canadian Division a near certainty, although there is hope that fans will be allowed back to games at some point during the season or the Stanley Cup Playoffs, especially given all the positive vaccine news we’ve received over the last couple of weeks.

However, all of the above just perfectly illustrates that there is still a hell of a lot of work to be done with not a lot of time left on the clock.

We’re basically in fourth down territory now with the NHL needing to launch a Hail Mary if they are to somehow pull off their desired target of a Jan. 1, 2021 start.

While we’ve seen time and time again that anything can truly happen in the year that is 2020, I have little to no confidence that the NHL and the NHLPA will be able to stop butting heads, stop bickering and come to an agreement in enough time that we get hockey as soon as New Years Day.

Now, let’s be crystal clear here, I do think an agreement will be reached and I do think we will get hockey in 2020-21 because both parties know the absolute devastating impact a lost season will have on the sport, but I doubt that it will get done in time given that we’re only a few weeks away from Jan. 1, 2021.

Therefore, it seems increasingly likely that we will have to cope with a shortened season this year with 48 games seeming the most feasible option given that the season and the Playoffs will have to be done by the time the Tokyo Olympics start in July, although maybe a 50-60 game schedule could be crammed in somehow, someway.

The New York Islanders (Photo by Bruce Bennett/Getty Images) /

But, as we saw in the MLB and as we’re witnessing first hand with the NFL on a daily basis, there will be outbreaks in the first couple of months of the season with COVID-19 peaking throughout the country, so there will need to be a period of time at the end the season to make up for postponed games.

As a result, if the NHL miss their target of a Jan. 1, 2021 start and have to settle for a February start, then rolling out a truncated 48-game regular season in order to fit in both a mini Training Camp, preseason and the Stanley Cup Playoffs seems the most realistic outcome.

And, ultimately, the NHL are now in a position where their main priority must be to ensure a full 82-game schedule is rolled out in 2021-22 given that will be the year both a bumper new TV deal and the Seattle Kraken franchise enter the league.

Now, the interesting caveat out there is we ran a poll on our Twitter page on Wednesday asking how people would feel about a 48-game season, and an overwhelming 84.2 percent of you voted that you don’t care, you just want to see hockey in 2020-21.

And I think that sums things up nicely right now. This year will go down as one of the toughest years in the history of mankind and it is probably going to get worst before it gets better.

So, with that in mind, we’re lucky to get any sports at all so while many of us may fear that a 48-game season won’t exactly protect the integrity of the Stanley Cup and we could see some teams make the postseason that normally wouldn’t, these are the times we live in and we have to deal with whatever we are given.

Next. The Canes are the most entertaining team in the NHL. dark

There’s bound to be plenty of twists and turns over the next couple of weeks as the NHL frantically bids to keep the play alive and gain a new set of fresh downs but, if it is our fate to be given a 48-game regular season in 2020-21, then that is what we will have to accept and be happy with.

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