If the doors to the Coliseum are locked this weekend because of a strike by unionized city workers, B.C. Hockey League games between the Prince George Spruce Kings and Chilliwack Chiefs will be canceled.
Depending on rink availability and the schedule of both teams, they will be rescheduled for later in the season.
Mike Hawes, general manager of the Spruce Kings, said he hopes to avoid such a scenario.
"I'm hoping that the job action isn't severe enough that it's going to have that effect and I don't think it will," Hawes said on Wednesday. "I'm fairly confident that we're going to play our games this weekend. That's the way we're proceeding -- everything as normal right now."
The Spruce Kings and Chiefs are scheduled to play Saturday at 7 p.m. and Sunday at 3 p.m. If the games are canceled, the Kings won't skate at home again until Jan. 10, when the Surrey Eagles will be in town.
The Saturday contest is the Spruce Kings' annual Drop the Gloves and Sock it to 'Em game, in which fans throw mitts, socks and tuques onto the ice after the home team scores its first goal. The items are donated to the St. Vincent de Paul Society, which gives them to people most in need in the community.
The charity aspect of the game is one more reason why Hawes doesn't want to see it wiped out by a labour dispute.
"The Sock it to 'Em night is a great cause for us and something we've done for a lot of years so we're really hoping we can get our games in," he said.
Hawes has been in contact with the league and with Chiefs management. He doesn't foresee any serious challenges in playing make-up games, if necessary.
"The rescheduling portion of it will be up to me and Chilliwack to figure out," he said. "It will depend a lot on availability of our facility and everything else but I've looked ahead at some dates that would be available and I don't see it being too much of a problem."
The Canadian Union of Public Employees, locals 399 and 1048, filed 72-hour strike notice on behalf of city workers on Monday. However, that notification was declared invalid by the B.C. Labour Relations Board because an agreement between the city and CUPE on what would constitute essential services during a strike had not yet been hammered out.
Strike notice was re-filed at 8 a.m. on Wednesday so job action could begin as early as Saturday morning.
