Toronto Maple Leafs: NHL Moves Closer to Return

The Toronto Maple Leafs took a step closer to playing again today.

The Toronto Maple Leafs and the NHL (and I’m guessing most of the entire world) breathed a sigh of relief when the media (finally) called the election in favor of Joe Biden.

Now, normally I wouldn’t discuss politics or elections in relation to the NHL, but it is currently November 7th and we should be roughly 15 games into the 2020-21 NHL season right now, but we are not.

In fact, we don’t know when the next NHL season will begin, in what format it will take, or how many games it will be.  The reason for this is the worldwide Covid 19 pandemic, obviously.

Toronto Maple Leafs Will Play Sooner Now

No matter what your political affiliation, you are not entitled to your own facts.  The United Stats has done an objectively bad job containing Covid, and that is (at least according to the entire medical establishment) made worse by the current US Administration’s politicizing of the virus.

From super-spreader rallies, to politicizing the wearing of masks, to outright calling the disease a fraud despite being on tape admitting that it wasn’t , Trump has done little to curb the spread.

While this has many horrible consequences that go far beyond the NHL or any sports (in terms of importance), for our purposes here it’s worth saying that a better response from the current administration would mean that the NHL would be playing right now.

So regardless of what you or I think of either person, the fact that Joe Biden won and also happens to respect science and doctors, means that hockey will be played sooner than later.

We don’t now how Biden’s administration will improve the situation, but we do know that a Trump win wouldn’t have done anything to alleviate it.  There is at least now a possibility of improvement, and that means that the NHL is likely going to resume sooner than if Trump had won.

The NHL and the Toronto Maple Leafs are likely not going to be playing a full season, and its likely not going to start until at least January, maybe later.  But the fact that the country where 23 of the league’s 31 teams reside will now (assumedly) do more to contain and fight the virus is a good thing for the NHL.

We still don’t know when hockey will be back, but it just got significantly closer.