NHL teams will get a bye week next season
2015 NHL All Star Game- Mandatory Credit: Andrew Weber-USA TODAY Sports
NHL giving teams a bye week in the next season.
The league and the NHLPA have committed to building a “five-day bye week” for each team into the schedule next season. The league will schedule one for each club between Jan. 1 and Feb. 28 next season.
Players won’t have to report for practice until after 4 p.m. on the fifth day if they have a game on the sixth day, a source said. If the players don’t have a game on the sixth day, they would have the entire fifth day off.
Well I am sure there isn’t a player in the league who is going to complain about the extra time off next season. I definitely don’t hate this idea as a fan of the game though, due to the fact that the 82 game season gets more grueling year after year. For players who teams make the postseason the prior year, they get the least amount of offseason rest. This will be a good way to decrease the amount of injuries and the player fatigue by doing something so simple as giving them 5 days off during the season.
I’ve seen a lot of people complain that the all-star game is supposed to be that time off for the players, but how is that fair to the players who have played so well throughout the season, that they get recognized to represent their team in the all-star game. The same could be said for the players who are lucky enough to represent their countries in the world cup of hockey. The big difference between this and any other normal break with scheduling is the fact that the teams will not have to report to any kind of practice until after 4 p.m. on the fifth day, which makes it a true vacation for the players.
I applaud the NHL for this move by taking a page out of the NFL playbook, even though despite the fact that fans of their teams will whine about not having hockey for five days, it is a brilliant move to protect the players.
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