from Mark Lazerus of The Athletic,

By scheduling two- and three-game series rather than the usual one-offs, the Blues didn’t have to go Winnipeg three separate times. The Kings didn’t have to trek up to Alberta three or four separate times. Detroit didn’t have to schlep to and from Florida a handful of times. And for the most part, players loved it.

They just didn’t get a chance to enjoy it. Because of the pandemic restrictions, there were no leisurely team dinners. No beers with the boys. No raucous card games in the back of the plane. It was all, as Stamkos put it, a big tease.

But now those restrictions are gone. NHL players are once again able to descend on Chicago steakhouses by the dozen, to enjoy some live music and a beer or two at Tootsie’s or Legends in Nashville, or to set up shop on a patio in Glendale’s Westgate Entertainment District.

Only now the schedule’s back to the frantic, always-on-the-move style of old. Instead of staying overnight after a game, it’s time to load up the bus and drive straight to the tarmac for a 2 a.m. arrival from Denver or Raleigh or Boston. Instead of getting a couple of full days of sunshine in South Florida, it’s maybe an hour by the pool between the morning skate and the pregame nap after an evening arrival the night before.

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