The Maple Leafs will play their first home game in three weeks on Wednesday as they wrap up the lightened January schedule which eliminated some most games due to the Scotiabank Arena having an crowd capacity cap in place which meant fans could not attend and spend millions of dollars that would go to the infamous “hockey-related revenue” pool, which is divided 50-50 between the players and owners of the league.
And it is millions per game; as reported by Elliotte Friedman on the weekend, a Leafs home game can take in over $3million gross, so moving as many home games to February and beyond preserves some of that cash flow as the attendance caps will be phased out in the coming weeks, as now confirmed by the Ontario government.
But all this makes for a a very busy February. Aside from a precious few days off around the All-Star Game, which is on Saturday next week, the Leafs will essentially spend all of February playing three or four games a week, with the schedule having a game every Monday, Thursday, and Saturday, plus one Tuesday game thrown in for fun too. Sundays, Wednesdays, and Fridays are the days off.
In the meantime, we await the arrival of the Anaheim Ducks here in Toronto in two more days.
Other News
Please don’t let the Habs get to draft this guy.
no seriously someone call the police on Shane Wright please pic.twitter.com/ZbRekUdXod
— Spoked Z (@SpokedZ) January 24, 2022
Beijing Olympic Committee lowers threshold for producing negative COVID-19 test - CBC
The Beijing Olympic Committee and Chinese authorities are lowering the threshold for producing a negative COVID-19 test for any participant arriving at the Games, dropping the cycle threshold (Ct) value from 40 to 35. 35 is still higher than what is used for testing in North American professional leagues which use 30 or less.
Canada's Brianne Jenner, women's hockey team embracing uncertainty of Beijing Games - CBC
In a career that already includes an Olympic gold medal and numerous accolades for club and country, 12-year veteran of the Canadian women's national hockey team Brianne Jenner describes this year as among the most impactful.
Puljujärvi Has Found A Home With The Edmonton Oilers - The Copper & Blue
It wasn’t that long ago that Jesse Puljujärvi and the Edmonton Oilers seemed destined to part ways. That day never came.
Ekblad Tempting Fate With Illegal Gloves - Scouting the Refs
Florida Panthers defenseman Aaron Ekblad is having a great season — but he’s doing it with illegal gloves with a hole cut out in on the palm side. [SPECIES: Brad Marchand was famously caught doing this in the 2015-16 season. The holes cut in the gloves can allow you to push your hand or fingers through to get a better grip on a stick, or to grab an opponents jersey, or punch them with your fist, all while still making it look like you are wearing the gloves.]
Independent panel finds ‘code of silence’ exists in CHL over abuse - TSN
Off-ice misconduct exists in elite junior hockey in Canada to the point that it has become a “cultural norm,” says an independent panel’s report on bullying, discrimination and harassment within major junior hockey. [Rick Westhead’s comments below are quite interesting. The management group of CHL teams generally believe that it doesn’t exist, yet 41% of “hockey families” (the parents or billet-parents of players) do believe it is regularly happening.]
Still absorbing the findings of the survey on hazing & abuse in the major-junior hockey.
— Rick Westhead (@rwesthead) January 23, 2022
41% of CHL families believe there is discrimination within the CHL but only 16% of team GMs believe this is true.
Why the huge divide?
Link to report & survey: https://t.co/5WbRsOLcuC pic.twitter.com/xdioctyhDy
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