Not that it’s a secret, but if the NHL is given the green light to restart the season, it’s not like there will be games the next day.
In fact, it very well might be closer to a month before games resume.
Players and coaches around the league have weighed in since the season paused two months ago about how much of a ramp up period they would need before games. The biggest issue in all of this is that most players haven’t had access to ice, so they’ve been unable to skate. And while keeping in good physical shape obviously is imperative, being in skating/game shape is a whole different animal.
On a town hall video call with Bruins season ticket holders Tuesday, Boston captain Zdeno Chara shared his thoughts on how long a training camp would need to be.
More Bruins: Chara Shares Thoughts On NHL Restart, Playing In Empty Arenas
“I think that we are so used to skating even in the summer months. Personally, for myself, I start skating sometime in mid-July, then I skate through all of August, maybe three times, sometimes four times a week. And then pretty much every day or every other day in September, and then once training camp starts we are on the ice every day.
“I don’t know how long it’s going to take if we get into it. Pretty frequently, every day I guess it has to be at least three, four weeks until we actually start feeling again very comfortable going back to the routines and feeling like ‘OK we are picking up the pace’ and feeling like we are connected on the ice again. So it’s one of those things, it will definitely need probably three or four weeks before we are ready for games.”
An NHL training camp in the dead of summer might feel a little unusual, but little, if anything, about a possible season restart would feel totally normal.
