NHL, NHLPA come to terms on 56-game season for 2020-21

Training camps to open Dec. 31 for non-playoff teams, Jan. 3 for playoff 

teams with season to begin Jan. 13; Blues expected to play in Pacific Division

By LOU KORAC
ST. LOUIS -- It appears -- finally! -- as if hockey will hit the ice.

And soon.

The NHL and NHL Players' Association reached a tentative deal Friday night to hold a 56-game season, pending approval from both sides and Canadian health officials, which would begin Jan. 13, per multiple reports.

Training camps would open Dec. 31 for the seven non-playoff teams from last season that didn't make it into the bubble, and Jan. 3 (including the Blues) for the remainder of the 24 teams. 

The Blues are reportedly going to play in the Pacific Division along with Anaheim, Los Angeles, San Jose, Arizona, Colorado, Vegas and Minnesota. It's also been reported that the top four teams from each division will make the playoffs and advance against one another until each division champion prevails into the Stanley Cup semifinals.

The NHLPA held a conference call Friday night to discuss the framework of it all, and the league's Board of Governors could hold a vote as soon as Sunday.

The main sticking point now appears to be getting approval from the five provinces in Canada before the league can go ahead with the plan. As part of a one-season only realignment, an all-Canadian division with seven teams has been proposed along with Western, Central and Eastern Divisions to make up the remaining 24 teams from the United States.

It's yet to be determined whether teams would play in their home arenas or in a proposed divisional hub city, with the expectation of an all-divisional schedule to be released, meaning from the Blues' perspective that they'll face each of their divisional opponents eight times.
Teams will hold camp for 10-14 days, and head straight into the regular season with no exhibition games beforehand.

Blues general manager Doug Armstrong said the majority of Blues players are already in town and skating on their own in preparation, aside from a couple that were sent overseas to play during the coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic. Armstrong said he and the players are ready to get going.

"You bet I am," he said Thursday. "It's been a long off-season, a strange off-season. We try and eliminate the white noise of in-bubble, out of bubble, how many games are going to (be) played. We're focused on Jan. 3rd having some form of training camp and starting on the 13th. The one thing that excites me as a manager and part of an organization like the Blues is the true feeling of leaving something on the table last year as an organization. The number of players we have here skating and their singular focus on getting off to a good start has been impressive. I can't wait for them to be able to put their skates on for real and go and prove that they're the team that I think that they can be."

The Blues, who won the Stanley Cup for the first time in franchise history in 2019 with a seven-game series win over the Boston Bruins, were eliminated by the Vancouver Canucks in the Western Conference First Round at the bubble in Edmonton in six games.