Toronto Maple Leafs: Fat Chance of the NHL Season Starting January 1st

The Toronto Maple Leafs have not played a game of hockey in a very long time.

It’s been about nine months, and during that time the Toronto Maple Leafs have played about nine NHL games.  It was a two week blip, but during August, you may remember the Leafs playing five games against the Blue Jackets.

In the Leafiest way possible, the boys in blue went down to an inferior team after that inferior team produced the best goaltending in an NHL playoff series ever.  So after multiple years of hearing about how the Leafs were one dimensional and couldn’t play defense, they played great defense, got the goaltending they needed but had their biggest strength (scoring) let them down.

And again, if we weren’t averaging one game every two months, perhaps it wouldn’t seem like such a big deal……but as it is, it stings a little.  No matter, however, because hockey is on the horizon……..or is it?

The New NHL Season

For the longest time the NHL season was set to begin on January 1st, 2021.  However, not only has the pandemic gotten worse, but there appears to be some kind of labour dispute going on.

Gary Bettman, speaking at the Dealmakers in Sports Panel (whatever that is) said that the season was a “work in progress,” which is a political answer that says nothing. (TSN.ca).

As much as I hate to do it, I have to side with the owners here. The players and owners are partners, but the owners seem to be the ones taking the financial hit.  It doesn’t make sense for a player to get his full salary when buildings are empty and revenue is down by over half.

To be honest though, I don’t really care.  If the NFL and the NBA can play, the NHL should be able to as well. I am more concerned with how they will pull this off medically than I am about how they are going to divvy up our money between themselves.  The fact is that the United States government has failed to control the virus as well as most other countries, and since that is where most NHL games are played, it is going to be hard to keep players safe when they eventually start up.

Without a bubble, and without the comparatively low numbers we were seeing in the summer, the logistics are going to be very difficult to manage.  With less than a month to go before the season was supposed to begin, it’s looking pretty doubtful that the January 1st goal will be met.