Blackhawks: NHL made the right call with 2021 regular season

Chicago Blackhawks’ fans haven’t had any games to watch since August, but now hockey is finally confirmed to be back in 2021.

The NHL made the right call bringing back hockey for 2021. Having the league go into a lockout for a season would have hurt the NHL in growing a better fan base in the US. Hopefully, the Chicago Blackhawks are ready to start playing.

The NHL season will start on January 13th, 2021, and the season will be 56 games long. I have heard mixed reviews about a 56 game season from fans, but at the end of the day, it is better than the 48 the NHL had in 2013. Plus, this new division looks like a lot of fun for the NHL.

Chicago’s matchups in the Central Division will have them faceoff against teams like Carolina, Columbus, Dallas, Detroit, Florida, Nashville, and Tampa Bay. This is great if you disliked the late starts the NHL had when Chicago faced off against teams from the west coast. Chicago will now be playing many games out east in 2021, so starts shouldn’t go past 8 pm.

The Blackhawks’ new division is pretty wide open. Yes, Tampa Bay will probably run away with this and only lose 10 games all season, but besides that first spot, anything can happen within the next three top teams.

The way things will work next season is teams will only play their divisional opponents throughout the season. The top four will make the playoffs and compete against each other to name one division champion. Then the top four teams will compete against each other to name a Stanley Cup Champion.

The top 16 teams will still be making the playoffs like any other year, but now there is a higher emphasis on divisions than wild cards. With how much these teams play each other, it will be fun to see Chicago and Detroit have their rivalry sparked back to life.

What do you think of some of the other divisions the NHL has made for this season. The North (AKA all Canada) will be fascinating, and the East features so much talent it will be interesting to see who misses the playoffs.