We have a 2021 NHL season. The plan is for 56 games running from January 13 to May 8. An all-Canadian division shall prove intriguing.
The landscape looks a lot different. Rogers can only have a maximum of 3 Hockey Night in Canada games on a Saturday night. Hometown Hockey is on hiatus. NBCSN might be mostly picking up Canadian feeds, not a bad thing at all.
There weren't going to be any outdoor games, Winter Classic or Stadium Series. Now 4 U.S. teams will gather in Lake Tahoe, CA on February 20-21.
We like the idea of outdoor games but not when Canada is excluded. The league and its outlets do a poor job at promoting what few outdoor games come to Canada. The U.S. games force other games not to be televised. Reason #324 why Gary Bettman hates Canada.
The U.S. games are daytime encounters in 2021 so they hopefully won't get in the way of Hockey Night in Canada.
Can't get a Heritage Classic in Montréal or anywhere else in Quebec. The NHL rarely schedules a Heritage Classic; rare treats unlike the regular candy of the U.S. outdoor games.
No All-Star Game. A reduced impact Hockey Day in Canada on February 13.
We know 4 Canadian teams will make the playoffs and 3 won't. You can pretty much count out Montréal and Ottawa unless the dynamic shifts.
Each Canadian team will play each other 9-10 times in a season. The NHL Network will likely still be afraid to carry the Battle of Alberta, maybe a change of heart. The channel has traditionally been afraid to carry all-Canadian matchups unless both Montréal and Toronto are involved. The pandemic might surprise us; hopefully the NHL Network will be less afraid in 2021.
Joe Thornton and Wayne Simmonds to Toronto. Corey Perry and Joel Edmundson to Montréal. Braden Holtby to Vancouver. Tyson Barrie to Edmonton. Yes, Barrie was traded to Toronto but signed with the Oilers. Matt Murray was traded from Pittsburgh to Ottawa, but signed a 4-year extension.
The common theme in these transactions were Canadian hockey players voluntarily signing with Canadian NHL teams. This doesn't happen too often: John Tavares (Toronto) is a rare exception.
Some of these players have had more wear on the treads than others. The pandemic might be a factor. The players get to stay in Canada and have a decent chance at a significant playoff run.
"It's something that I didn't want to turn down," Perry said in a video conference call with reporters. "I've always wanted to play in a Canadian city."
We're not disputing Perry's words but that could have happened in Perry's prime.
A chance to win a Stanley Cup for a Canadian team as a Canadian has to be very tempting. 2021 could be that case thanks to the Northern Division with help from some Canadians.
There had been a significant rumour about a year ago that Rogers would gravitate to keeping the Edmonton Oilers rights at the expense of the Calgary Flames rights.
Last week, Rogers announced a multi-year regional broadcast rights extension with both teams.
The potential of TSN getting the Flames might have involved Rick Ball jumping ship and also doing CFL games. Rick Ball likely has been promised a lot for national telecasts for Hockey Night in Canada but Rogers has fallen short of those opportunities. With only 3 maximum games on Saturday nights, Ball will get few to zero chances short of a Calgary-Winnipeg game. Ball might get more time on Wednesday nights.
TSN signed a new deal to continue as the Winnipeg Jets TV home. The radio rights went from TSN Radio 1290 to 680 CJOB and Power 97. 680 CJOB, owned by Global, had been the radio home for the Jets 1.0. The move means Dennis Beyak won't move to radio when Winnipeg is on national TV.
Brian Munz had been the TSN radio voice for the Jets, now out of a job. Munz would be an in-house candidate to help out with Senators and Habs regional games, especially out west. Munz is not on any TSN press releases.
We were hoping TSN would rehire Dave Randorf, who Rogers let go quietly early on in the pandemic. Randorf is the new TV voice for the Tampa Bay Lightning. Randorf might be a factor in replacing Chris Cuthbert at NBCSN.
Randorf could have helped out with NHL and CFL in the space vacated by Chris Cuthbert. Cuthbert left holes at TSN and NBCSN to fill this season as well as CFL coverage.
Speaking of Chris Cuthbert, he takes over for John Bartlett on the Rogers Sportsnet telecasts on Toronto Maple Leafs on Rogers Sportsnet Ontario. Cuthbert used to call some Leafs games on TSN4.
As a public service, we present the local schedules in Canada for TSN and Rogers Sportsnet.
TSN schedules for Maple Leafs, Canadiens, Senators, and Jets.
SN schedules for Maple Leafs, Flames, Oilers, and Canucks.
NBCSN has matchups we would never dream the network would actually do. The April 7 doubleheader is poignant with an Ottawa home game. For the first time in the modern era, a U.S. broadcast outlet will carry the Battle of Alberta on March 17.
The network would likely pick up Rogers Sportsnet or TSN feeds. Gord Miller and Ray Ferraro would likely do the Wednesday telecasts.
Even in this miracle year of extra Canadian telecasts, 4 teams (Vancouver, Calgary, Winnipeg, Ottawa) have a single telecast. Montreal and Toronto have 2 telecasts. Connor McDavid and the Edmonton Oilers have 4 telecasts.
The U.S. channel will have open lots in the first week of May so other Canadian telecasts could be added.
| Date |
Matchup |
Time |
| January 20 |
Edmonton @ Toronto |
7p |
| January 21 |
Montréal @ Vancouver |
9:30p |
| February 17 |
Winnipeg @ Edmonton |
10p |
| March 17 |
Edmonton @ Calgary |
10p |
| April 7 |
Edmonton @ Ottawa |
5p |
| April 7 |
Montréal @ Toronto |
7:30p |
The all-Canadian division and the border restrictions changes the dynamic of the NBCU family covering Canadian teams. Unless Gord Miller can call a game off a monitor, NBCSN won't use him unless they have Miller and Ray Ferraro call a game in Canada involving Canadian teams. That could happen twice in Toronto with visitors coming in from Edmonton (January 20) and Montréal (April 7). Conveniently, Gord Miller and Ray Ferraro are available on Wednesday nights.
The usual NBCSN drama, especially in the final season for the current NBC contract with the NHL, will be confined mostly to the United States. John Forslund and Kenny Albert will dominate the play-by-play coverage on the network. Doc Emrick had a limited schedule toward the end of his run. NBCSN has holes to fill with Gord Miller's limited availability and the loss of Chris Cuthbert. Miller and Cuthbert covered a lot of NBCSN games before the pandemic.
Gord Miller is on NBC's official roster of announcers. Ray Ferraro is not. Also, Mike Milbury is not. The latter piece of news is very good. Anson Carter will get a chance to be an analyst: also good news.
Geoff Ward is the Calgary head coach sans interim tag. Ward signed a 2-year deal. He replaced Bill Peters in November 2019.
Mark Donnelly is now the former Vancouver Canucks anthem singer after his participation at an anti-mask rally. The decision on both ends feels like s shame. Donnelly certainly has a right to participate in the rally but the masks aren't going away.
You might recall that Hometown Hockey announced a shutdown just before the league shut down back in March. Crowds are not a good idea, even if the events are outdoors. I can tell you from having been outside at the event in Windsor that you can't do that in a pandemic.
There are a number of Sundays where no Canadian teams play anyway. We love Hometown Hockey; unfortunately, we will have to wait for that to come back.
After Hours has always had a nice intimacy in the interview show after the late HNIC game. Scott Oake has had a pandemic version online that has proven successful.
Oake and Louie DeBrusk likely won't be in the same space without distance. The player could be in a different spot.
We hope for a return to the original format once the pandemic lessens significantly.
If you thought we ignored the NHL preseason schedule, there was no schedule to ignore. The Ottawa Senators got a 3-day jump on the rest of the Canadian teams for not having played since March.
Fans may be excited to see the NHL get started but the quality of play will suffer for awhile thanks to limited practice time and no competitive activity until opening night.
Our NHL coverage has a guide that explains how the coverage has changed. The guide has been updated to reflect Chris Cuthbert's status.
photo credit: NHL
Twitter captures: @PierreVLeBrun; @Sportsnet
