Montreal Canadiens games are coming soon, but will they be played at the Bell Centre?
Montreal Canadiens hockey hasn’t been played since they lost to the Philadelphia Flyers in the first round of the Stanley Cup Playoffs. That happened in August, but still, we haven’t seen a Habs game in four months.
We should be watching the Canadiens in action again within a month, but where they will be playing remains up in the air.
There have been plenty of rumours about an All-Canadian Division that would see the Habs play the same six opponents all year. That makes sense, since traveling across the border into the United States is restricted. However, that plan is hitting a road block as well.
The Canadian Government is not allowing sports teams to play in most provinces right now. The Canadiens would not be allowed to hold training camp and play games at the Bell Centre if the current restrictions around Covid remain the same for the next few weeks. This has led to a new possibility, and that would see all of the Canadian teams move south of the border and adopt new homes for the foreseeable future.
Sources: The NHL could move games involving Canadian teams to the United States in 2021 if its unable to reach agreement with provincial health authorities.https://t.co/bcdciuQBZs
— Chris Johnston (@reporterchris) December 17, 2020
This is what the Toronto Blue Jays had to do for the 2020 MLB season. They were not allowed to cross the border all summer, so they played all of their home games in Buffalo, New York.
It was thought a division made up of seven Canadian teams would avoid this situation in the NHL, but pretty much every province that hosts an NHL team is setting records for new cases of Covid-19 this month. It wouldn’t make a lot of sense to allow teams to travel all over the country until the pandemic is more under control.
With the first doses of the vaccine being rolled out this week, it shouldn’t take the whole season to get the Covid numbers down. Maybe Canadian teams play the first month or two in the United States, and then move back to the Bell Centre later in the season.
It would obviously be a disadvantage for the teams that wouldn’t be in their home country for weeks, if not months, to begin the season. However, it would allow them to play in their regular division and not have to travel to Edmonton, Calgary and Vancouver repeatedly.
There was no mention of where the Habs would play in this situation. Since they are trying to avoid prolonged contact with other people, it wouldn’t make a lot of sense to share rinks with other NHL teams. The schedule will. be condensed as it is, trying to make a schedule where two teams are using the same arena would just be another speed bump in a season full of them.
We would likely see the NHL use cities that don’t have NHL teams. Cities like Kansas City, Baltimore, and Jacksonville would make sense for Eastern teams. A third try in Atlanta would be fun too. Out west, putting a team in Seattle makes too much sense, while other cities like San Antonio or Austin would have the infrastructure to support an NHL franchise for a few months.
It will be exciting to finally see the Montreal Canadiens playing hockey games again. They may have to become the Montreal Canadiens of Kansas City for a while, but we already know that the 2020-21 season is going to be a weird one. Why wouldn’t we see a temporary change of address for the Habs?