Trying to pinpoint the start of a season in a sports league during the pandemic is like trying to to hold two magnets of the same polarity together.
The virus and the invisible threat it poses is an irresistible force that keeps diverting return-to-play plans.
While the NBA appears to be going ahead with the start of new season in a couple of weeks, the NHL has yet to finalize when the puck will drop and that cloud of uncertainty prevails in junior hockey ranks. The Prince George Cougars are still intent on starting training camp right after Christmas but with infection rates continuing to spike, adults banned from team sports activities and travel bans in place, there are no guarantees there will even be a season until COVID has been quashed.
There’s been no change since mid-October, when WHL commissioner Ron Robison announced the regular season will start Jan. 8 with each of the 22 teams playing exclusively within their own divisions. For the Cougars, that means a shortened season of games against Kamloops, Kelowna, Vancouver and Victoria and Andy Beesley, the Cougars vice-president, business, would gladly accept that, if that’s what it takes to get the teams playing again.
The WHL has hired as a consultant Calgary doctor Willem Meeuwisse, the NHL medical director who set up the bubble in Edmonton which had no positive tests in two months of Stanley Cup playoffs and Beesley is encouraged the league will find a way to salvage its season.
“Ultimately, the health authorities and COVID will determine what we are able to do this season,” said Beesley. “Having said that, there is a tremendous amount of work being done behind the scenes on the WHL level as far as doing their homework and coming up with a variety of scenarios with a large amount of meetings with the health authorities in all six jurisdictions.
“Here in B.C., there are working committees of various types that are working through a lot of different plans and ideas and scenarios for how we could potentially get some sort of a season underway here.”
It seems likely WHL games will be played without fans in the stands, but that also could change, depending on what the provincial health office will allow. Beesley expects an updated announcement on the league start date within the next week or so.
“Everything’s on the table,” said Beesley. “In a perfect world this COVID situation would dramatically improve and we would start off the season probably with no fans and by the end of the season we’re not only allowing fans back in but we’re in playoffs and maybe even a Memorial Cup.
“The reality is that everybody involved in these discussions is fully aware that the situation is not looking very positive right now and we have to be realistic in our planning right now. The position the Cougars have taken and the WHL has taken is that we’re not just giving lip service to the idea that the safety of the players, fans and staff has to come first.”
While the WHL and Ontario Hockey League have yet to start the season, the Quebec Major Junior Hockey League started its regular season Oct. 2 and has been plagued by postponements with players testing positive for COVID, causing it to shut down until January. While it hurts to not see games going on at CN Centre, with a vaccine looming on the horizon, Beesley said he’s relieved the WHL chose a more cautious approach and elected to delay its season and teams have avoided the disruption of having to react to outbreaks.
“We don’t want to take chances until we’re absolutely convinced that whatever we can pull off is going to be done safely, responsibly and with the community in mind so we’re also providing leadership with appropriate messaging about how to get past this pandemic, not trying to skirt the rules and push the envelope,” said Beesley.
“There is some legitimate light at the end of the tunnel now and by this time next year I hope we’re joking about what a messed-up year it was and how we got through that.”
The outbreak of COVID in March put a screeching halt to the WHL’s 2019-20 season. At the time, the Cougars were coming off three consecutive wins on home ice with six games left to try to make up a seven-point gap on Seattle for the final wild-card playoff spot when the league went into its COVID pause, eventually electing to cancel the rest of the season and the playoffs.
The worldwide COVID flare-up over the past month and the resultant cancellation of games and travel restrictions has kept the Cougar coaches grounded, scuttling travel plans to watch their prospects play in midget or junior A games. They’ve been relying on webcasts and video footage to provide feedback and instruction for the players. The current team members have daily check-ins with team staff through teleconferencing and staff and players use an app that provide daily updates on health status.
Beesley said the Cougars plan to unveil a new app for fans to get them more involved in the team’s day-today operations. The team is working with Northern Health on a video-based program to connect Cougar players with elementary school kids and their families all over northern B.C. to promote healthy lifestyles. Plans for a virtual pandemic version of the Cougars’ Teddy Bear and Toque Toss will be unveiled early this week. The ever –popular event provides the Salvation Army with hundreds of toys and gift certificates to families in need and usually draws one of the best crowds of the season to CN Centre.
LOOSE PUCKS: Cougars’ right winger Koehn Ziemmer is featured in an interview posted on the WHL website, whl.ca. The Cougars picked Ziemmer fourth overall in the 2019 WHL bantam draft. The six-foot, 201-pound native of Mayerthorpe, Alta., has been playing in the Alberta Elite Hockey League for the St. Albert Raiders U18 triple-A team in in three games he has four goals and five assists.
