Having a date to start training camps, the season etc along with announcing plans for a full schedule is good news but it also allows the fans the opportunity to hold the league and government accountable.
Now it's up to the governments to make a full push to get people vaccinated and take it a step further get the vaccine into people's arms around the world.
Right now there's only a couple of major hurdles that have the potential to hold things up.
First of course is vaccinations. The US is ahead of Canada but needs to keep pushing. Canada is in catch up mode and needs to get a constant and steady stream of vaccines from their partners in the international community. Canada, once thought to be the most prepared in terms of securing enough doses has struggled to get doses to put in people's arms while the US seemed to be on track for a mediocre roll out has enough doses stockpiled to vaccinate everyone twice with a fair size portion of the population having at least one dose and a third or so having both doses where required. That's on the politicians to figure out. Until a significant part of both countries are fully vaccinated the border remains an issue.
The second issue revolving around vaccines is the international community. This isn't so much about Canada and the US but the rest of the international community and the ability for the hospitality industry to open back up. Hotels and a lot of attractions etc need hotel capacity to be able to accept visitors. In turn hotels need attractions open so they have guests available to justify opening their facilities. Bars and restaurants etc will follow suit. The OHL/CHL needs accomadations available for their teams as well as out of town fans but no hotels are going to open up for the league alone. While it's looking like midsummer for many major attractions to be ready to open it shouldn't be an issue for the league but if there's any delays then many places may hold off further plans to open until more normal travel patterns develop.
Vaccine passports is likely going to cause more issues than it resolves. If vaccines are getting into people's arms and the numbers show that the majority of people are getting them, combined with international access to vaccines allowing for the world to see major declines in transmission then the idea of vaccine passports when people are being told vaccines get us back to normal will see a lot of push back. Until the whole world shows consistent drops in transmission then vaccine passports to enter the country makes sense. Having people visiting from countries that are still struggling with transmission showing a vaccine passport plus rapid testing makes sense to avoid transmission of any new variants. Canada and the US would need to be on the same page. Having proof of players and billets being vaccinated makes sense due to the close interactions players have on and off the ice. If all precautions like this are taken and the majority of the population has been vaccinated and the numbers have been reduced to minimal amounts and shown to be under control over a long term sample size then asking fans to prove they've been vaccinated when statistics should show they most likely have will only create animosity amongst the fans as well as visitors to other attractions. You can't sell vaccines as the way to return to normal then tell fans or the general population they need to prove they're in compliance when the stats should bear out that they likely are.
If vaccine passports for Canadian and American citizens become a requirement the economic damage done will only continue to get worse and will continue to give people an excuse not get vaccinated. Think of it this way, if you don't need a vaccine to go to work, go shopping etc but you need one to attend an event then the hypocrisy of our entire economic and health care systems becomes glaringly apparent. Not vaccinated? go to work anyways. Not vaccinated? Spend your money at those big box stores so they can keep their profits rolling in. Want to go to a sporting event or take in some of other form of leisure activity but can't prove you're vaccinated? Too bad, go home and sit all alone.
As long as numbers drop, transmission slows and people get vaccinated and precautions are taken to limit physical interaction between nations that haven't reached the level we should be at until they do reach those same numbers then there's no reason at all they can't be ready to open with full arenas and no restrictions by October. Anything saying otherwise shows a lack of faith in the vaccines and the idea of herd immunity being successful.
The good thing in the end is there is a stated date, a stated goal and there's now something to be used to hold those making decisions to account.
