By Jordan Long
The American Hockey League (AHL) season has been on hold since March 12th due to the COVID-19 Pandemic. This was after the NHL decided to suspend the season on the same date. The AHL decided it was time to cancel the rest of the season today.
The AHL teams are the minor league affiliates of the NHL. This is where players are sent down or called up to play in the NHL. There are 31 teams in the league, the same number as the NHL. When play was halted, the Milwaukee Admirals, the AHL team of the Nashville Predators, were leading the league with 90 points.
The AHL was waiting to decide if they should go ahead and finish the season but chose to stop it. They didn’t wait for the NHL to figure out what they were doing. According to Yahoosports.com, a statement from the AHL said, “The AHL continues to place paramount importance on the health and safety of our players, officials, staff and fans and all of their families, and we all look forward to returning to our arenas in 2020-21.”
This is a smart ruling by the AHL. The biggest obstacle with them starting up again is a player who may contract COVID. If that happened, the league would need to shut down for a while and who knows if play would continue after that. It is better to call it off and wait for the 2021 season when the league might have a better handle on COVID.
The NHL must follow in the footsteps of the AHL. The NHL is still discussing a way for the rest of the season to be played and for the Stanley Cup to be raised. The only time it wasn’t was in 2005 when the NHL and the NHLPA couldn’t come to an agreement during the lockout which wiped out the season. They have thought about playing in July with the playoffs in August. The 2020-21 season would then start in December. Trying to play the rest of the year makes no sense especially when health is on the line. It is time to focus on next year. Hopefully, the NHL will.
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