What A Season Would Look Like if Hockey Kicks Off with the New Year -NHL Special
A few optimistic comments by big figure authorities recently have given new hope to depressed fans and players all around the world, that have so far, have been forced to keep out of hockey for over three months now.
Bill Daly’s comments on Sportsnet’s Hockey Central @ Noon earlier in December were probably the most liberating in quite a while since nothing came out of the two stakeholders, the National Hockey League (NHL) and Players’ Association, ever since everything
collapsed following the team owners and players face-to-face meeting.
Whether or not both sides are working towards it behind closed doors and without the media knowing, it is expected that some sort of hockey should come about with the turn of the year. Hopefully for many fans, hockey will make a comeback with the New Year
kicking off and with the looks of it, both sides are now more desperate than ever for a new collective bargaining agreement to come into play.
Both sides have lost a huge amount of money now as the lockout has persisted for over three months now along with talks having kicked off as early as June of this year.
For most players, the current situation is extremely frustrating and has forced them to just sit around waiting until something comes around. But if a season does come around, here are some things people should expect due to a cut hockey year.
A ‘meaningful’ season, according to experts, should be more or equal to half a normal regular season, meaning 40-plus games at the very least. Without that, the league risks in extremely low levels of viewership and a much less dedicated fan base who would
instead, prepare for the season ahead instead of wasting time on a hockey year that would just have teams playing within their respective conferences and just entering the playoffs in a matter of months.
Another aspect of a meaningless season would be that usually those teams that fail to remain consistent by the end and never see the playoffs would probably be on top by that time if a season is less than 35 to 30 games.
For now, there is no telling what may come up in the upcoming days or even weeks, but for fans, hopefully it will be a season worthy of following and staying dedicated to.
The views expressed in this article are the writer's own and in no way represent Bettor.com's official editorial policy.
Tags: