The local Junior ‘A’ hockey league remains optimistic that they’ll be back on the ice next month.
The province will enter a stay at home order on Thursday morning. In addition to the lockdown announcement on January 7th, Northern Ontario will remain in Code Grey until at least January 23rd. That means hockey facilities are closed and all Hockey Northwestern Ontario programming is paused.
Commissioner Darrin Nicholas says right now the plan is to have the players stay put.
“My vision would be that we keep the players in the community and find a way on a local level to keep them engaged in the season. That way we don’t have to go through [the quarantine process] again,” says Nicholas. “For instance if the restrictions are lifted on February 11th, we can get the players on the ice for a few days and we could be playing games as quickly as February 14th or 15th.”
The Commissioner admits the idea of bubbling up all of the teams in a central location has been floated if and when they get the green light to resume the season.
“If we only have a short window to play games, maybe we can put together two or three showcase events back to back with three games in a day,” adds Nicholas. “Any and all options remain on the table. If there’s a way to give some meaningful hockey to the league and to our players we’ll be committed for that.”
