This is a late night note that many will likely not come across until Monday morning when returning to work or whatever your morning schedule is on a Monday. Many fans are wondering just when to expect the NHL season to start, let alone curious about training camps (length, will there be preseason games, etc ).
It’s come to light this evening that the NHL has sent out a memo to all 30 member clubs, Elliotte Friedman reported on Twitter:
NHL sends memo to clubs indicating no camps before Saturday (and may not open until Monday), 48-game season to begin Jan. 19
— Elliotte Friedman (@FriedgeHNIC) January 7, 2013
What does that mean for Tampa Bay Lightning fans? That practices at the Ice Sports Forum in Brandon, impromptu workouts paid for by the locked out players, will continue through the week. Unless the league specifies otherwise, they’ll continue to be independent workouts (starting around 10:15 each morning). Not until Saturday, January 12th (or until Monday, January 14th), or later will the Tampa Bay Lightning hockey operations take over the whole process and make it an official team function leading up to the start of the 2013 NHL season.
We’ll be hearing other things like schedule details soon enough. We’ll keep you posted.
