First game for the winter season is usually the weekend after Labour Day.
I would imagine teams start practising and stuff the first Tuesday after Labour Day
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Take the piss (out of someone) vb. British -- to mock, deride, poke fun (at). This vulgarism has been in widespread use since the late 1940s. The original idea evoked by the expression was that of deflating someone, recalling the description of a self-important blusterer as 'all piss and wind.'