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Montreal Canadiens: Stanley Cup fatigue is going to be a factor

By Omar L |
GLENDALE, ARIZONA - OCTOBER 30: Jonathan Drouin #92 of the Montreal Canadiens celebrates with Joel Armia #40 and Max Domi #13 after scoring a goal against the Arizona Coyotes during the third period of the NHL game at Gila River Arena on October 30, 2019 in Glendale, Arizona. The Canadiens defeated the Coyotes 4-1. (Photo by Christian Petersen/Getty Images)
GLENDALE, ARIZONA - OCTOBER 30: Jonathan Drouin #92 of the Montreal Canadiens celebrates with Joel Armia #40 and Max Domi #13 after scoring a goal against the Arizona Coyotes during the third period of the NHL game at Gila River Arena on October 30, 2019 in Glendale, Arizona. The Canadiens defeated the Coyotes 4-1. (Photo by Christian Petersen/Getty Images)

The NHL pause has forced a lot of changes for the league, but not on the number of games played for the 2020-21 campaign, which is still set at 82.

With the Return to Play Plan as well as the new CBA on the verge of being voted on by the NHL and NHLPA, hockey is right around the corner. Thanks to Elliotte Friedman and Bob McKenzie, we know that if all goes well, training camp will start on July 13th while the season resumes on August 1st. That’s when the Montreal Canadiens begin their Stanley Cup Qualifier against the Pittsburgh Penguins as very much the underdog.

It’s going to be an adjustment seeing hockey played so deep into the summer, but that’s the adjustment the league had to make to allow hockey to return. The adjustments continue with the NHL Draft taking place some time in mid-October with free agency opening on November 1st.

There hasn’t been any confirmation of it being so, but if this is the projected timeline, we can assume the 2020-21 season (or the 2021 season) will start in January with a shortened amount of games to get things back to its usual format.

Well, you know what they say about assuming.

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This comes from Pierre Lebrun who tweeted whether next season starts in late December or early January, the league is committed to a full 82-game campaign. That’s going to be another very tight squeeze and likely means hockey going deep into the summer months.

Doing something similar to the 2012-13 season where there were only 48 games made the most sense at first. However, the NHL is committed to regaining as much hockey-related revenue as possible and playing a full season does that.

The first concern that comes to mind is fatigue for the players. They fought before for a bye-week in order to get a break during the year, but I don’t see how that’s honoured next year with everything being so congested. The same goes for the All-Star Break. Can the NHL accommodate days off while trying to get the Stanley Cup on the ice and in a captain’s hands by say, the end of July?

That’s going to be a very interesting development as the league, and it’s owners try to work on how to get things done. Personally, I don’t think it will be fair for the players who are likely going to jump from winning a championship in July to needing to be ready to compete for the next season in September.

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They are professional athletes, and getting through these kinds of things are part of the gig, but Stanley Cup fatigue will never have more of an impact on team performance than what we’re about to see.

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