WHL arenas fall silent due to COVID-19 surge

Connor Bedard, right, and his Pats weren’t in action this weekend.

The WHL regular season should have been in top gear this weekend, but the circuit’s rinks were eerily quiet instead.

On Friday, all 10 scheduled WHL regular season contests for the night were postponed.

By the evening hours on Saturday, nine out of the 10 games originally slated for that night were postponed. The only game that went ahead was clash between the Portland Winterhawks and Kelowna Rockets in Kelowna, B.C., which the Winterhawks won 3-1.

All three of the WHL’s games scheduled for Sunday have been postponed.

Looking ahead to the near future this coming week, all four WHL games slated for Tuesday have been postponed.

At the moment, only three out of the eight contests slated for Wednesday have been postponed.

The postponements piled up as new coronavirus (COVID-19) cases surged upwards across Canada. The majority of new cases have been of the Omicron variant, which is supposed to be milder but is way more transmissible than other strains.

Not all postponements are due to COVID-19.

A total of four games scheduled to be played in Manitoba over the time span starting Jan. 1 and running thru to today were postponed due to capacity restrictions in that province, which were brought in to curb the spread of COVID-19.

On Friday, a Spokane Chiefs home game against the Everett Silvertips and a Tri-City Americans home contest in Kennewick, Wash., against the Seattle Thunderbirds were postponed due to inclement weather.

Connor McClennon and the Ice are currently playing the waiting game.

When Friday evening rolled around, the WHL has 15 clubs pause team activities due to multiple players and staff being added to the WHL COVID-19 Protocol List.

Those teams included the Calgary Hitmen, Edmonton Oil Kings, Silvertips, Kamloops Blazers, Medicine Hat Tigers, Moose Jaw Warriors, Prince Albert Raiders, Prince George Cougars, Red Deer Rebels, Regina Pats, Saskatoon Blades, Chiefs, Americans, Victoria Royals and Winnipeg Ice.

The Lethbridge Hurricanes and Swift Current Broncos had been on pause, but were allowed to resume team activities on Friday.

The circuit issued a release on Friday that included a statement from commissioner Ron Robison that each team would play a full 68-game regular season.

“The WHL and our member clubs remain fully committed to playing through the 68-game WHL regular season schedule and playoffs,” said Robison in Friday’s statement. “As we work through the challenges presented by the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic, our priority continues to be to deliver a world-class development experience for WHL players, staff and officials, and to do so in a safe and healthy manner.

“On behalf of the entire WHL, I wish to thank WHL fans and WHL corporate partners everywhere for their patience as we work to reschedule games in the coming weeks.”

On Saturday, the WHL announced the Warriors, Pats and Americans were all cleared to resume team activities.

For fans, supporters and followers of the WHL, it was easy to get comfortable tracking the day-to-day happenings on the circuit as the schedule before the Christmas break pretty much unfolded like normal.

Before the Christmas break, the Chiefs had to adjust three games on their schedule after two players tested positive for COVID-19.

Some teams in the Western Conference had to make some minor schedule adjustments due to bad weather, which included heavy rains in B.C. in November that caused slides, flooding and washouts.

Arshdeep Bains and the Rebels wait to continue their surprise run.

Enough games got in that storylines developed like the rise of the Ice, the continued strong play of the Oil Kings, Blazers and Silvertips and the surprising climb up the standings by the Rebels.

On an individual front, numerous eyes are on Regina Pats 16-year-old phenom centre Connor Bedard, who was playing for Canada at world juniors held jointly in Edmonton and Red Deer before the event was called off after three days of games due to COVID-19.

As a 15-year-old rookie last season, Bedard played 15 games of the Pats abbreviated 24 game regular season piling up 12 goals, 16 assists and a plus-nine rating in the plus-minus department. He left the Pats early to help Canada win gold at the under-18 worlds that were held in Frisco and Plano, Texas.

There were thoughts that Bedard had been struggling this season as he had a slow start in comparison to last season. In his last five games with the Pats, Bedard posted eight goals, five assists and a plus-two rating to put that notion to rest.

The North Vancouver, B.C., product had four goals including the overtime winner in the Pats last game on Jan. 1, when they downed the visiting Moose Jaw Warriors 7-6.

In 25 games with the Pats this season, Bedard has 18 goals, 10 assists and a minus-five rating.

Before the WHL Christmas break, you could even find some ultra-passionate fans get emotionally freaked out when the team that they support lost bad or made a trade they aren’t sure about. You almost forgot the WHL was reduced to playing an abbreviated season in 2020-21 without fans due to the COVID-19 pandemic.

It is a shift to be hooked into the league pretty much like normal once again and then all of sudden have almost everything shutdown with no games to go to.

For the WHL’s two teams in northern Saskatchewan, the Raiders at the moment are scheduled to take on the Rebels in Red Deer on Wednesday, while the Blades are slated to face the Broncos in Swift Current this coming Friday.

The Raiders and Blades were on pause this past weekend.

With the way things can change daily in reaction to the developments of the COVID-19 pandemic, league followers have to hurry up and wait to see how everything unfolds when it comes to going to games of teams they support.

If you have any comments you would like to pass along about this post, feel free to email them to stankssports@gmail.com.

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