Sports Time Radio

We’ve been waiting for some news from the National Hockey League on what their season might look like and when they may actually start. Well it looks like they have a plan in place and they’re just waiting for the proper approvals.

It looks like the NHL and it’s players have agreed to a 56 game season that would start on January 13th 2021. Now they’re waiting for the approval of each side’s executive board and Canadian health officials. The latter may be difficult to get.

The NHL’s Players Association had a “call” on Friday night where they supported moving forward with the agreed upon terms. It looks like the NHL Board of Governors could hold their vote on this plan sometime this weekend. Then all the NHL is waiting for is approval from health officials in the five Canadian provinces that have teams. Once the NHL gets these approvals they can go ahead with their season as they have planned.

Training camps for the seven teams that did not participate in last season’s playoff bubbles would open December 31st; while camps for everyone one else would open January 3rd.

The NHL has yet to say if teams will be in their home arenas or in “hub” cities. It is expected that an all divisional schedule will be played.

The biggest issue with any kind of agreement that the NHL and their players come to is where the seven Canada based teams will play. The original plan was to put them in the same division, but tougher pandemic restrictions in Canada put this plan in limbo this week.

“The resumption of sports events in Canada must be undertaken in adherence to Canada’s measures to mitigate the importation and spread of COVID-19,” the Public Health Agency of Canada said in a statement Thursday night. “NHL teams and other professional sports must operate within the rules of their provincial jurisdictions for sports or sporting events.”

Remember the Toronto Blue Jays played last season in Buffalo, New York while the Toronto Raptors have relocated to Tampa, Florida for the upcoming NBA season. If this is the case in the NHL they’ll have to find new homes for seven teams not just one like MLB and the NBA did.

The owners and the players agreed to a long term extension of the collective bargaining agreement in the NHL before the 2019-20 season resumed. That agreement was just financial as it deferred 10% of players salaries as well as putting a cap on money they pay into escrow along with a flat $81.5 million dollar salary cap. Unfortunately they didn’t agree on what to do if a team isn’t allowed to play games in it’s home country.

So it looks like we’re going to get an NHL season even though it’s going to be shortened, but that’s understandable with everything going on with the Covid-19 virus.

Are you ready for the NBA regular season to starts? I hope so because it’s just three days away. We’re getting two games to open the season. The first game has the Brooklyn Nets hosting the Golden State Warriors. The second game features the Los Angeles Clippers at the Los Angeles Lakers.

I know that one team has to be listed as the home team, but that always get a chuckle out of me since the Lakers and the Clippers play in the same building.

The NBA is really giving us their best match ups to open the season. Will get to see Kyrie Irving and Kevin Durant making their debuts for the Nets. Durant will also be facing his former team in the Warriors who themselves are returning multiple players from injuries. Then of course in the nightcap we get to see the defending champion Lakers with LeBron James and Anthony Davis take on Kawhi Leonard and Paul George.

They seem to be pretty good match ups to start the season off, but the big question is; will anybody watch?

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you can also find me on Twitter @Burketime