Common sense has prevailed in the NHL.
After weeks of uncertainty and reports of doom and gloom, we were offered a rather tantalizing slice of hope on Monday night when it was revealed that the NHL and NHLPA had agreed to put their financial differences aside.
As first reported by Darren Dreger of TSN, a truce was called between the NHL and the NHLPA with there to be no more discussions on making changing to the CBA that had only been signed, sealed and delivered back in the summer.
To be more specific, Jan 13 is the target date for start of season. However, nothing has been finalized. https://t.co/0wzAXlMPnW
— Darren Dreger (@DarrenDreger) December 8, 2020
As a result, the 2020-21 NHL season was given the green light and both sides will now thrash out logistical details such as length of Training Camp, preseason games and, most importantly, a start date.
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Per Dreger, and a plethora of other experts out there, it looks likely that Jan. 13, 2021 will be the official start date of the 2020-21 NHL season, so only a handful of days removed from the league’s original target of Jan. 1.
That shouldn’t disrupt things too much, especially as multiple hockey insiders have reported that the league will give the thumbs up to either a 54 or 56 game schedule.
While not quite 82 games, we were never going to get a full schedule in 2020-21 due to the ongoing chaos caused by the COVID-19 Pandemic, while 54 or 56 games are certainly better than 48 or no games as was the fear only a week ago.
We delved into the exact making of the peace between the NHL and the NHLPA here, but yesterday’s news was great for not only hockey fans who are craving their favorite sport right now, but also great for the game of hockey.
As I mentioned here, a lost season in 2020-21 would have been catrosphric for the NHL and the long-term health and reputation of the sport we all so dearly love and cherish, so downing tools for a year was never really an option.
Also, while it seems that the changes the NHL requested to the CBA was a standalone thing and could certainly rear its ugly head again, the fact that both sides eventually decided to remove financial decisions from the conversation about the 2020-21 season was absolutely the right move.
After all, we are in the midst of a global Pandemic right now where all of us have lost so much, from loved ones to jobs and income and every single one of us have had to deal with a great amount of adversity.
Therefore, billionaires arguing with millionaires was never a good look and we saw how ugly it got in Major League Baseball, and the incredibly bad taste it left in the mouth of their fans, many of whom felt betrayed by the sport they have invested so much in.
While reports of bad blood between the NHL and the NHLPA certainly wasn’t a good look, they have managed to get ahead of it and snuff it out before it became too damaging.
We as fans don’t care about the financial logistics at the best of times, but to hear the two sides air their dirty laundry about money is just damn offensive, especially with so many other things going on in the world right now.
It becomes even more frustrating when the NBA, who boast so many more outspoken personalities than the NHL do, managed to get their 2020-21 season off the ground pretty quickly, coupled with the fact that we all miss hockey and just want it back.
Granted, there’s still a great many things to thrash out and be agreed upon before we can look forward to an actual drop of the puck, but the NHL and the NHLPA have certainly made giant strides this week and we can now see the light at the end of the tunnel when it comes to there being a 2020-21 NHL season.
Damage control was fully initiated and the NHL managed to just avoid a PR own goal like that achieved by MLB, and all will be forgiven (maybe) if they can now clear that final hurdle by delivering a season and a Stanley Cup Champion in 2020-21.
Because, at the end of the day, that’s all we as fans really care about and to have missed out on that this year because of money would have been an embarrassing travesty.
So, you have to give both the NHL and the NHLPA some credit for learning from the MLB and recent history with other lockouts and for putting pride and money aside to give us what we all need and want right now.
And that’s the main thing.