Philly defenseman Kimmo Timonen has been down this work stoppage road before, but one thing he wouldn’t care too much for is an NBA-like lockout shortened schedule.
CSNPhilly.com’s John Boruk hears from the Finnish blue liner about how a 48-game schedule like the NHL had in 1994-95 would do him well.
“It would be awesome,” Timonen said as he laughed at the idea, “But if you look at the NBA and their 66-game schedule [last season], it was a lock to play four or five games a week, so that’s not a good story to my body, either.”
That kind of rigorous schedule would be beyond brutal for hockey players who already have enough injury worries playing up to three or four games in a week. For older, more injury prone players that turns the season into a test of wills.
It’s hard to imagine a condensed schedule similar to what the NBA had being approved by the players should it come to that, but that’s another bridge to cross at another time.