Hockey East to start play in 2020-21 season on Nov. 20

No schedules yet, but a start date!

Division 1 college hockey is back in the Northeast.

In a hype video posted on Twitter, Hockey East announced their return to play date as Nov. 20. No scheduling information was released.

Back in July, Hockey East said theyโ€™d prioritize conference play and minimizing non-essential travel.

According a Boston Globe article from Nov. 5, Hockey East hopes that each team will play each other twice for an 18-game schedule. If everything goes well, more games can be added to the schedule ahead of the playoffs, the Globe reported. They also said there will be not post game handshake lines due to COVID regulations.

Expect that fans will not be allowed at the beginning of the season. In addition, Boston University already announced fans will not be at any hockey games all season. BU did say in the same letter to their community that games will be streamed via CBS.

Yesterday, Clarkson and Quinnipiac, both ECAC teams, announced a four-game series starting Nov. 28. They are considered โ€œnon-league games,โ€ but Clarkson noted in their release that the games mark the beginning of their seasons. The ECACโ€™s path to as close to a regular season as possible is complicated by the fact that half of their teams - the Ivy League schools - cannot start until Jan. 1, at the earliest.