On October 8, the puck dropped in Toronto, where the Maple Leafs were playing the Montreal Canadiens. The 2014/15 season had begun.
On June 3, nearly eight months later, the NHL is still going as the Stanley Cup finals begin on Wednesday night.
It is telling that the NBA season, the same 82 games in length, started 20 days later than the NHL’s but could finish as many as six days earlier.
Read more:
– Rob McKenzie: Three things the Tampa Bay Lightning have to do to win the Stanley Cup
– Poll: Chicago Blackhawks or Tampa Bay Lightning, who will win the NHL Stanley Cup finals?
It is perhaps churlish to point this out, after another fine batch of NHL play-offs, but the league’s season is far, far too long.
At minimum, it will last 247 days. If the final between the Chicago Blackhawks and Tampa Bay Lightning goes seven games, and many NHL series in recent seasons have, the season will end on June 17, after 253 days.
We know why, mostly, the NHL season drags on. The league’s television deal is worth far less than the others in North America sports, leaving hockey heavily dependent on ticket receipts, and a season stretched as long as possible allows the league to play more often on attractive weekend days.
But it also makes a mockery of the notion of hockey as a “winter” sport. It is summer when preseason games begin and many fans can go directly to the beach as soon as the Stanley Cup is awarded.
The league likely will continue to plan nine-month seasons as long as fans fill arenas in October, but the sense of marginal relevance during the regular season is particularly intense, around the NHL.
poberjuerge@thenational.ae
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