BHN Puck Links: Optimism For 2020-21 NHL Season Permeating!

As record numbers of Coronavirus cases and COVID deaths continue to be broken on a daily basis in the United States, NHL hockey fans got a much-needed dose of optimism on Friday. 

From an NHL source telling Boston Hockey Now that only COVID could erase the 2020-21 NHL season and not the current labor strife between the NHL and the NHLPA, to reports of schedule ideas and new target dates for the start of the season being exchanged between the two parties, in the words of Ice Cube, ‘Today Was A Good Day’!

That and more in the latest Boston Hockey Now Puck Links!

While it now appears that – and there’s a good chance it could – only COVID can derail the 2020-21 NHL season, NHL sources continue to tell BHN that NHL Commissioner Gary Bettman and his right hand man Bill Daly are fighting a three-front battle to ensure greed and money don’t wipe away another NHL season (Boston Hockey Now)

Could we see a 56-game NHL season starting on Jan.15? (TSN)

Another reason for optimism? If the outspoken and pessimistic NHL player agent Allan Walsh believes there will be a season, then so should we! (TSN 690)

Just because the chances for a season improved on Friday, doesn’t mean the players won’t forget that the owners, in their eyes, have reneged on the CBA that was signed this past July (Philadelphia Inquirer)

As colleague and buddy Adrian Dater pointed out, the owners had to come back to the players hat in hand because the simple truth is that the pandemic is ravaging their finances. (Colorado Hockey Now)

Just in case the owners do go nuclear and cancel the season, the NHLPA already has their lawyers hard at work (TSN)

Take me out to the hockey game? Could we see the Boston Bruins playing part of their 2020-21 home slate at Fenway Park? (Boston Hockey Now)

In Boston Bruins news, another Bruins prospect will be playing at the World Junior Championships later this month in Edmonton. My partner in crime Joe Haggerty has more! (Boston Hockey Now)

Every time December rolls around, this U2 classic always rings through my mind and soul. It’s ‘a cold, wet December day’ too so here’s today’s Murph’s Music Pick Of The Day!