eco's bones
Registered User
This is a beating the dead horse question, but when do you think next season starts? Dec? Do they then forget the ASG to squeeze in a condensed season, and maybe extend the regular season till late April, pushing the SCF to mid to late June?
I mean next year’s ASG is in the middle of a giant swamp. So yeah..
I'm not sure the NHL will start a 20-21 unless they can put asses in seats and have certainty that people won't catch a disease. There's a political component to this as well--two countries--17 states and DC and 5 Canadian provinces--with federal, state, provincial and local officials to work around on health and safety issues. If one of those states or provinces shuts down or can't go--what do you do? What if it's two or three or four or five? What happens if California is one of them?---that wipes out 3 teams in the Pacific. As well for the NHL to be viable for an entire season the AHL has to be too. Pittsburgh and Philadelphia almost always have several injuries. Who's going to replace the injured if the AHL isn't operating? Now we're adding a few more states.
Further--I really don't think you'll get 31 different owners to agree to play a 40-50 game season in 2/3/4 neutral ground empty arenas--to pay out of their own pockets for our entertainment. Most if not all will look at that dynamic the other way around---that we should pay for it. I also don't think a lot of players would be jazzed about the idea of months on end away from family, girlfriends and everything else.
So really I think there's going to have to be some certainty before a new season starts. Scientists really need to get cracking on a vaccine.