Maple Leafs-Canadiens nine times during a 56-game season can be seen as a ratings winGETTY IMAGES
The Canadian NHL teams being in one division during the upcoming season is a "gift from the gods of marketing," according to Cathal Kelly of the GLOBE & MAIL. Maple Leafs-Canadiens nine times during a 56-game season is a "ratings win." This is the NHL "returning to its concentrated, pre-expansion self." Hockey that "matters played for viewers who really care." Kelly: "Pure hockey." Also, U.S. teams "will play." But Kelly writes, "You can already see the wedge developing." All the "early talk in the ‘Our Game’ portion of the NHL landscape involves who will top the Canadian division." There is "relatively little chatter about how the other 24 teams are shaping up." The NHL "could use a boost," and a "permanent all-Canadian division means that ... the regular season starts to matter again." The real issue standing in the way of a permanent all-Canadian division is "no longer the logistics of getting started again," but the "eventual politics of going back to the way things were" (GLOBE & MAIL, 12/11). In Toronto, Damien Cox asks if the Canadian teams being "clumped together" turns out to be "successful, what are the chances that the all-Canadian alignment could become a permanent feature of the NHL?" Canadian NHL teams "supply much of the league’s oxygen in terms of excitement and interest." There "aren’t many strong rivalries between U.S. and Canadian teams," but the ones that do exist "are important." One NHL division "stretched across three time zones for the long term" just "doesn’t make a lot of sense" (TORONTO STAR, 12/12).
COMING TO AMERICA: In Ottawa, Bruce Garrioch noted the NHL’s 31 teams "haven’t made a formal request for those suiting up in Europe to start making their way back to North America." The league "doesn’t want that happening until there’s an agreement in place," but many of these players are "consulting with their agents and are being encouraged to come back to North America." The players with Canadian-based teams are "looking at coming back because they want to get their 14-day quarantine completed so they don’t have to miss any of training camp." The NHL is "hoping to negotiate a change to that period with the government of Canada, but there’s nothing in place" (OTTAWA SUN, 12/13).
GETTING THE VACCINE: The GLOBE & MAIL's Kelly in a separate piece asks if the NHL is "vaccine shopping right now?" NHL Exec VP/Communications Gary Meagher said, “We would only look at the possibility of accessing vaccines in the context of the availability of excess capacity so as not to deprive health care workers, vulnerable populations and symptomatic individuals from access." That "sounds an awful lot like a ‘Yes’." Of course the NHL has "discussed getting a vaccine," but there is a "difference between what you can do, what you ought to do and what you can get away with" (GLOBE & MAIL, 12/14).
