Staying In Canada

With the AHL announcing a few days ago the return date for hockey in that league, the one thing that the AHL didn't mention nor did I even think about was the AHL All-Star Weekend and Game that was scheduled for January 31 and February 1, 2021 at the Place Bell in Laval, Quebec. Clearly, that event won't be happening with the league returning to play on December 4 assuming everything remains fairly calm regarding the pandemic. With no All-Star Weekend for Laval, that's a big economic hit that they'd take if they lost that opportunity, so the AHL announced today that they're doing the right thing to rectify this unfortunate situation surrounding one of the premier AHL events.

The AHL announced today that the 2022 AHL All-Star Weekend will now take place in Laval, Quebec! Dates have yet to be finalized for the event, but the AHL will return to Quebec with the biggest and brightest stars of the AHL to hold their annual event at Place Bell. This should be an exciting event for city of Laval, and, despite being one year later than originally planned, should be just as exciting as every other year the AHL has run the event.

"The All-Star Classic is a signature event of the American Hockey League, and although the decision to postpone it was difficult, it was unfortunately unavoidable given the exceptional circumstances we are currently going through," France Margaret Belanger, Groupe CH Executive Vice-President and Chief Commercial Officer, said in today's statement. "Place Bell remains the perfect place to host an event of this magnitude. We are very grateful to our fans for their loyalty during this difficult time. We also want to thank the American Hockey League for their trust throughout this process."

It's weird how one may forget about all these extra events that happen throughout the year. The Florida Panthers were scheduled to hold the NHL All-Star Weekend on January 29 and 30, 2021 in Sunrise, Florida, but it's very unlikely that event will be held. It's likely that the Winter Classic scheduled for January 1, 2021 is up in the air as the Minnesota Wild were to host the St. Louis Blues at Target Field in Minneapolis, Minnesota. February 20, 2021 was supposed to see the Carolina Hurricanes host an as-yet-named team at Carter–Finley Stadium in Raleigh, North Carolina as part of the NHL's Stadium Series games, but it's hard to see that happening as well.

As we know, everything has been upset and changed thanks to this pandemic, but there are a lot of big economic sporting events that will need to be moved or altered in order to accommodate those cities and the fans in them. I don't envy the work by the schedule makers nor the safety people in trying to get these events off the ground, but here's hoping we'll see some fun hockey at some point in the 2020-21 season when it gets underway.

Until next time, keep your sticks on the ice!