The Lightning Meeting Their Family For The First Time Since Entering The Bubble Lets You Know That There Is ZERO Chance That Bubble Life Happens Again

This was a surreal video. It looked like the Lightning were meeting their families after doing a deployment in Afghanistan. It was absolutely adorable to see their kids melt into their arms and their wives and girlfriends looking half relieved and half happy. This scene makes you truly appreciate how hard it must have been for these players and their families to be in the bubble. I can't even imagine how shitty it must feel to be Dallas. The Lightning can look at these last two months of solitary confinement in Edmonton and justify it with a Stanley Cup Championship. The Stars have to feel on some level that it was all a waste of time and emotion to go through the bubble and come away with nothing except for an empty heart from missing your family.

There is ZERO chance the players will sign up for this for a full season and it's hard to say that I blame them. Even if living in the bubble was fun(it wasn't) being away from your loved ones for stretches that will last for theoretically months at a time feels like a non-starter for the NHLPA. The League has a lot of work to do when it comes to planning a season in 2021. When should they start? Should it be a condensed schedule? Should they try to get back on the regular Oct-APR regular season calendar? Winter is coming. The NHL obviously plays inside. No UV light to protect people. I am nervous about how the NHL re-starts their next season. Every day that goes by feels like we are farther away from normalcy with the NHL. Draft next week. Free agency whenever. Nobody knows anything about the start date. I just want to close my eyes and wake up a place where I can go to the United Center, yell at Colliton and Stan, and leave without worrying about covid or anything else.