[airborne]

Each team will play 56 regular-season games instead of the usual 82. Each will play only division rivals, and the top four teams in each division -- realigned for this season as the North, West, Central and East because of travel restrictions -- will make the Stanley Cup Playoffs.

That means each game will mean even more than usual in a league already defined by parity, and that means everyone better be ready right away.

Teams have scheduled scrimmages in camp to replicate preseason games.

"It's not like a normal season," Anaheim Ducks GM Bob Murray said. "This is a sprint. The earlier you can get in front, the better."

Teams will have to navigate a unique set of challenges, from strict safety and travel protocols to taxi squads and reserve lists.

The NHL is not using bubbles like it did in Toronto and Edmonton for the 2020 postseason, when it had zero positives out of 33,174 COVID-19 tests to team personnel, so teams must make contingency plans for positive tests and close contacts.

That will start in camp, on top of the usual roster decisions.

[airborne]

Hockey Ping!

(let me know if you want on or off the ping list)

[alternatives?]

The author writes hockey books. “It’s about the mental psyche of community and society” seems overblown but if I wrote hockey books I would be trying to hype it as well.

While the NHL has been better than the other professional leagues regarding SJW issues, many have come to the conclusion that it is a waste of time to watch a game. They have concluded it is better to spend your time and money on gardening, raising chickens, or some other skill or just take a walk. To each their own.

[ConservativeStatement]

I assume the NHL will dismiss the tired “upper body injury” or “lower body injury” when issuing Covid reports. Part sarcasm.

[AC86UT89]

While covid is out of control, and regular people are enduring draconian restrictions in the cause of safety, wouldn’t it make sense to wait a little while longer before starting up pro sports again? Maybe start up again in the fall if the vaccines work out, it’s not too much to ask.

A bunch of multi-millionaires who got rich playing a kids game. It’s simply not that important under the circumstances.

[SamAdams76]

I liked hockey in the 1970s.

Nobody (but some of the goalies) work helmets or masks.

It was a much more wide-open game without every potential good play getting waved offsides.

Fights. Yes, there were the fights.

[Gay State Conservative]

Earlier this year,after having divorced most professional sport leagues,I tuned to an NHL game hoping to see sanity. But there it was..."black lives matter".

So now MLB,the NFL,the NBA,the NHL...among others...are on my permanent "pay no mind" list.

[foreverfree]

bump