Regular Minor Hockey Play Still Off-Side With COVID - 19 Restrictions

In a move that is not likely to garner much enthusiasm from a growing ‘Let Them Play’ movement the Saskatchewan Hockey Association (SHA) has announced the start of any regular games are at least a month away if not longer.

“Yesterday, Wednesday, January 13, 2021, during a virtual call with all Provincial Sport Governing Bodies, Ken Dueck from the Provincial Government’s Business Response Team (BRT) announced that there would be no consideration of return to play (games) for at least four (4) weeks and that a return to game play is unlikely to happen before the end of March,” the SHA said in a news release.

At the present time after being allowed a late start to the regular season game play is discontinued by COVID - 19 restrictions although teams are allowed to hold practices with eight skaters who must follow stringent measures such as always wearing a mask and maintaining a two meter physical distance between players.

The Saskatchewan Hockey Association’s News Release - supplied

The present restrictions were in effect until January 14th but have now been extended until January 29th upon an order from the Province’s chief medical officer Dr. Saqib Shahab.

The news release from the SHA states it is not the news the organization had been expecting and that there was the appearance that nothing would change before the end of March.

“This certainly was not the news that the SHA, nor all other winter sports was expecting. With the current rate of positive cases per 100,000 people placing Saskatchewan near the top in Canada, the likelihood of things changing before the end of March is looking bleak,” the release stated, adding “Please be aware that the landscape related to COVID-19 in the province can change at any time.”

EDITOR’S NOTE - As an added note MJ Independent attended several games in the Saskatchewan Female Hockey League this season and found that at each one local teams were not only complying with the provincial and SHA’s COVID - 19 restrictions but actually taking additional precautions for the safety of players, officials, rink staff and fans.