As the NHL pause becomes longer by the day, more questions arise about the start of the next season.
There were 18 regular-season games left on the NHL schedule when operations were halted due to the coronavirus pandemic. There’s no timeframe for when — or if — the season will resume, and it’s worth questioning what is going to happen to next year. Especially considering we’d be in the midst of the Stanley Cup playoffs right about now.
Boston Bruins president Cam Neely said during a Zoom call last week that the 2020-21 season didn’t want to be compromised and an 82-game season still could happen even if it begins a little later than originally planned.
And it appears it may happen.
According to The Athletic’s Pierre LeBrun, “the idea of delaying next season’s start until December has indeed been discussed by the NHL with its teams as a possibility, multiple sources around the league confirmed.”
A December start, according to LeBrun, would put the end of the regular season in May with the postseason ending in July. The All-Star weekend and the bye-weeks would have to be stopped and the Christmas break also would need to be tightened.
LeBrun pointed to two reasons why December would be viable:
“The length of time it will take to complete the 2019-20 season (if resumed at all),” and “a lot of teams feel they need fans back in their arenas next season before opening the doors.”
Some Bruins players have expressed that it would be weird to play without fans in attendance.
Of course, there’s still a lot of unknown surrounding the pandemic. We have no idea where we’ll stand in December, if there will be tests available for everyone or if there will be a vaccine plus a slew of other questions.
Only time will tell what the future holds.
