The National Hockey League (NHL) season is finally beginning.
After 113 days, the dispute between the owners and the players is over.
Fans have been without hockey since Sept. 15; that’s when the NHL season was supposed to have started.
After months of negotiations, players voted in favour of a new “collective agreement” to end the lockout. Then to officially end the lockout, representatives for both the owners and players signed a document saying they agree to the proposal.
The 30 hockey teams that make up the NHL started training camps on Jan. 13. There are seven Canadian teams in the NHL: the Toronto Maple Leafs, the Montreal Canadiens, the Calgary Flames, the Edmonton Oilers, the Winnipeg Jets, the Ottawa Senators and the Vancouver Canucks.
Training camp is a time for teams to put together their roster. It also gives teams a chance to prepare for the upcoming season in hopes of winning the Stanley Cup (the NHL championship trophy). This camp will be shorter than usual as there is a rush to get the season started. As a result there will be no pre-season games.
Teams in the NHL usually play 82 games a season. This year teams will play a compressed 48-game schedule.
The shortened 2013 season starts this Saturday, Jan. 19.
Related link
For more information about the lockout, read TKN’s Sept. 24 article, here.
CURRICULUM CONNECTIONS
By Kathleen Tilly
Writing/Discussion Prompt
The article states, “Teams in the NHL usually play 82 games a season. This year teams will play a compressed 48-game schedule.”
How many fewer games will NHL teams play this year? How do you think this might change the season for the players, owners and fans?
Reading Prompt: Reading Unfamiliar Words
There may be some words or phrases you’re unfamiliar with in this story. Some of these words may include: collective agreement, roster, pre-season, league, dispute, negotiations, lockout.
Circle all of the words that you don’t know then try to figure out what they mean. If you need some help, use a dictionary or the Internet.
Primary, Junior and Intermediate
Predict the meaning of and rapidly solve unfamiliar words using different types of cues (OME, Reading: 3.2).
Grammar Feature: Canadian vs. American spelling
Read the following sentence and see if you can identify which word has a different American and Canadian spelling: “After months of negotiations, players voted in favour of a new ‘collective agreement’ to end the lockout.”
If you chose the word, ‘favour’, you are correct! Canadians spell it ‘favour’ and Americans spell it ‘favor’.
Can you think of any other words that have different American and Canadian spellings?
