In case you missed it, and I wouldn’t blame you if you did, the Tulsa Oilers opened the 2020-2021 hockey season on Dec. 11, in what is a scaled down version of the ECHL.

Due to the pandemic and with many cities and states still under strict COVID lockdowns, several of the teams in the ECHL have elected not to play this season.

While others delayed the start of their season and won’t begin until Feb. 12.

Because nobody knows what the future may hold, the league decided to release its schedule in segments.  First, a schedule was compiled for the teams that began play in Dec. and that ran through Jan. 14.  Then a second schedule was released for games to be played through Feb. 10, and just last week, the ECHL announced the schedule of games from Feb. 12 through April 4. At that time, the Fort Wayne Comets will begin play.

A schedule for games through the completion of the regular season on June 6, as well as the format for the 2021 Kelly Cup Playoffs, will be announced at a later date.

Unlike the typical total points system, this season, the standings will be determined by winning percentage.

The bottom line is, the Tulsa Oilers are in action at the BOK Center, with a limited number of tickets being sold for each game to allow for distanced seating of fans, and other CDC protocols are being observed.

The Oilers are home this Friday and Saturday to play the Indianapolis Fuel. Game times are 7:05 p.m.

NHL BEGINS SEASON

Following a delay to the start of the National Hockey League season, the NHL got underway on Jan. 13, with newly realigned divisions. The divisions are more regionally aligned and all teams will only play the teams in their own division during the regular season, to cut down on travel and COVID exposure across the country.

Because of a mandatory ban on non-essential travel into Canada, and a two-week quarantine period once arriving in Canada, none of the U.S. teams will be playing any of the Canadian based teams during the regular season. All of the Canadian teams are in one division by themselves.

Although I understand why the NHL is doing this, I’m not a fan of the watered-down version of the regular season schedule. You really don’t get a good overall picture of the quality of individual teams, if they are only playing the same six teams over and over again, instead of opponents from all across the league.

It is better, however, for the teams to be able to play games in their home arenas and not have to be isolated in a bubble in two Canadian cities, as they did last season. Hopefully, this will allow some fans to attend games, even if it is on a limited basis.

The pandemic has already affected one NHL team and its schedule. The league announced on Jan. 8, that the Dallas Stars had six players and two staff members test positive for COVID-19, causing a delay to the start of the Stars season, and forcing the league to reschedule a handful of their games. As of this writing, the Stars’ schedule has the team opening its 2020-21 season at home on Jan. 22 against Nashville.