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Training on December 26: the NHL is investigating Peter DeBoer and the Stars

 Mathis Therrien
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Training on December 26: the NHL is investigating Peter DeBoer and the Stars
Credit: The Christmas break is quite significant in the National Hockey League. Every season, all the teams and therefore all the players in the NHL take a break from games, training, and travel on December 24, 25, and 26 for Christmas. So there is no action and no activity in the NHL during these three days, […]
The Christmas break is quite significant in the National Hockey League.

Every season, all the teams and therefore all the players in the NHL take a break from games, training, and travel on December 24, 25, and 26 for Christmas.

So there is no action and no activity in the NHL during these three days, allowing players to spend Christmas with their families.

This break is thus a mandatory rule to be respected in the NHL as it is part of the collective bargaining agreement (CBA), which is the basic contract between the NHL and the NHL Players’ Association.

Normally, all teams unequivocally adhere to this rule, but this year, we learned in recent days that Peter DeBoer, the head coach of the Dallas Stars, held an optional practice on December 26.

Indeed, DeBoer himself confirmed this during his press conference on December 27 after practice.

This naturally reached the ears of the NHL and the Players’ Association, which have opened an investigation into this “illegal” practice.

DeBoer, who is an experienced head coach (17 seasons leading an NHL team), thus likely made a mistake.

He himself stated that if the NHL is investigating this optional practice on December 26, he probably made an error.

Even though it was just an optional practice, the rule is strict that no activities whatsoever can take place during the Christmas break (December 24-25-26).

In the end, DeBoer stated that the young players on the team showed up for this optional practice as they are supposed to.

In short, let’s see what happens with this situation, as the NHL could very well decide to take action and fine the Dallas Stars or directly fine DeBoer.

This would not be the first time a team has been fined, as in 2015, the Philadelphia Flyers received a fine, and two years ago, the Toronto Maple Leafs were fined $100,000 for traveling to St. Louis on December 26.


In Brief

– Phew.

– This will clearly be a nice three-way battle.

– Note for tonight’s game starting at 7:30 PM.

– CF Montréal will soon be back in action.

– Obviously.

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