NHL Lockout Finally Comes to an End

The National Hockey League (NHL) had gone over 100 days and nearly four months now without a single regular season game, which had fans, team owners and especially players furious as to what exactly was going on.

Struggling to reach a deal during that time frame as the previous labour deal, which was signed following a 2004-2005 lockout, the league and labour union finally agreed on crucial aspects of what would be part of a new labour deal and have the season back on track.

Just yesterday, the NHL Board of Governors also made a major move by ratifying the new collective bargaining agreement, bringing the regular season closer to being kicked off and players finally returning on the ice in their official team jerseys.

A large number of players took off during the lockout as they signed on with different teams around the world in various leagues from the Russian, Kontinental Hockey League (KHL), to the Finnish Elite League in Finland and many other countries as well. Most will now be returning as sources cite that the regular season could kick off by the 19^th of January and from a normal 82-game regular season, fans could expect to see at least 50 or 48 games being played before the playoffs.

For many, this season is going to be extremely fast paced and even more exciting as players will give it their all to perform to the most of their ability in what would normally have been a half season as everyone is yearning to get back to their routine of playing hockey.

While it may not be a full hockey year as normal, but fans are just happy that they did not lose the entire hockey year, as things could have been much worse.

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Posted by Syed Hassan Bokhari on Jan 10 2013. Filed under Sports, World. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0. You can skip to the end and leave a response. Pinging is currently not allowed.