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The National Hockey League and NHL Players Association seemed to be on course to reaching an agreement and starting the 2021 regular season on January 13, but difficulties with COVID-19 protocols in Canada may delay the start of the campaign and could force the seven Canadian franchises to play some or all of the season in the United States.
The Canadian government reportedly has issues with teams travelling from city-to-city, which would be necessary for teams to play in their individual buildings, and that the provinces have differing standards of what they will allow. Sportsnet’s Brian Burke indicated on Friday that there is one province that will not allow their team to play games.
The NHL indicated that a potential backup plan would be to move all of the Canadian teams to the US, where they could freely play and travel between cities, but that would result in teams either playing in hubs, doubling up with other NHL teams in their buildings or finding homes in non-NHL cities like Kansas City.
The Buds are back#LeafsForever pic.twitter.com/QNu56KlNf1
— Toronto Maple Leafs (@MapleLeafs) December 17, 2020
The Toronto Blue Jays moved to their AAA affiliate stadium in Buffalo for the 2020 season and the Toronto Raptors will play their games in Tampa, but moving seven teams south of the border will be a much more complicated situation that could delay the start of the season to late January, potentially shrink the number of games from 56 to a lower amount, and eliminate the need for an all-Canadian division.
The Athletic’s Pierre LeBrun believes that the reports of moving clubs to the US was in part done to put pressure on the provincial authorities to loosen up restrictions. If the Leafs do have to move to an American location, it is possible that similar to the Blue Jays, the most logistically favorable location would be Buffalo.
The Key Bank Center has no other major sports tenant than the NHL Sabres, and with concerts not a concern, the building would have a number of open dates. If the league returns to the normal divisional set up, Buffalo also being in the Atlantic would allow other divisional rivals to play games against the Sabres and Leafs with no additional travel costs.
The NHL is hoping that this disaster scenario does not play out, but it appears that whatever the plan is will be decided in the next few days, as the clock is ticking.
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The new season is closing in.
— Norman James (@IamNormanJames) December 13, 2020
We pod again.
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