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| Connor Zary in action for the Blazers on December of 2019. |
When the circuit paused its 2019-20 season back on March 12, 2020 due to the coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic that has gripped the world, there was no certainty as to when the major junior league would hit the ice again.
That pause evolved into the cancelation of the rest of the 2019-20 campaign overseen under the CHL umbrella, which the WHL is a part of.
With the WHL’s 22 teams being spread across four Canadian provinces in Manitoba, Saskatchewan, Alberta and British Columbia along with the states of Washington and Oregon in the United States, the prospects of the WHL returning for any type of 2020-21 season seemed daunting.
The WHL had to work with the governments and health authorities in four Canadian provinces and two states in the United States in order to get the circuit going again on the ice. There were days it seemed the odds of winning the main prize of a Lotto Max jackpot were better than that of the WHL coming back for 2020-21.
Ultimately, the WHL came up with the idea of each member club playing a shortened 24-game regular season, which would be held for developmental purposes. All games are being played without fans in attendance and competition is restricted to in division play.
The Swift Current Broncos were moved from the Central Division to the East Division for the abbreviated season to the play the WHL’s four other Saskatchewan-based clubs and the circuit’s two Manitoba-based teams in a bubble format at the Brandt Centre in Regina.
The Central Division hit the ice on February 26. The East Division followed on March 12 and the U.S. Division got in gear on March 18.
Friday marked the first contests played in the B.C. Division with games held in bubble environments at the Sandman Centre in Kamloops and Prospera Place in Kelowna.
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| The Rockets were back in action on Friday. |
Friday would be the first time all four division in the WHL were allowed to be active for regular season games since March 11, 2020.
On Saturday, the Prince George Cougars took on the Kamloops Blazers at the Sandman Centre. When the Cougars took the ice in their 5-4 setback, it meant every team in the WHL has played at least one game in the abbreviated 2020-21 regular season.
It has to be considered a miracle that all WHL teams were able to get back into action. Still, the return to play hasn’t been easy.
All players, coaches and trainers are taking part in weekly testing. On Friday, the WHL announced it had administered 4,094 COVID-19 tests from Feb. 12 to March 26 with only one positive result. From March 20 to this past Friday, the WHL administered 1,002 COVID-19 tests with all results coming back negative.
The 17 Canadian based teams are using private PRC testing provided by DynaLIFE. The five teams in the United States have taken part in private antigen testing.
The WHL is playing this developmental campaign at a sizable financial cost to its member teams. Back during their virtual annual general meeting on Jan. 18, the community owned Lethbridge Hurricanes estimated they expected to lose $1.3-million, if they hit the ice for an abbreviated 24-game regular season that was played without spectators.
With all that said, the WHL has created an opportunity for their players to get fresh game video footage that can be studied by scouts from the NHL, other professional leagues and the U Sports ranks.
Fans have been able follow games on radio broadcasts, check out livestreams or view highlights are various league and team social media platforms.
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| The Blazers are celebrating a lot of goals early this season. |
Sophomore 17-year-old right-winger Matthew Seminoff had a big night too for the Kamloops side collecting two goals and one assist to go with a plus-three rating. Thanks to his late December birthday, Seminoff isn’t NHL Entry Draft eligible until 2022.
In Kelowna on Friday, the Rockets played a solid team game in their shutout of the Royals. Veteran centre Alex Swetlikoff paced the Rockets with a pair of goals, while veteran netminder Cole Schwebius made 19 saves to pick up the shutout win.
While WHL supporters are pumped they can follow game action in the league again, the realization shouldn’t be lost that it is amazing these contests are even happening at all.
WCBL still in COVID-19 shadow, other notes
As vaccines for COVID-19 continue to roll our across Canada, it seems like a sizable portion in society is treating the pandemic like it is over.
The WCBL continues to plot out a plan for a 2021 season, and it is trying to adjust for various restrictions that are expected to be in place well into summer.
The WCBL is wood bat summer league containing team stocked with college eligible players, and its season typically runs from the last week of May with playoffs ending about the second week of August. Regular season action usually wraps up at the end of July.
The circuit’s 2020 campaign was cancelled due to the COVID-19 pandemic.
On Thursday, the league announced it plans to go ahead with a 2021 campaign with teams fielding roster containing just players from Canada. Typically, the rosters of WCBL clubs are stocked with a sizable number of players born in the United States.
The Alberta based Okotoks Dawgs with two teams, the Lethbridge Bulls, Sylvan Lake Gulls and Edmonton Prospects have committed to play in 2021.
The Fort McMurray Giants and the Medicine Hat Mavericks are still discussing whether they will play or not. Ryan McCracken of the Medicine Hat News reported on Friday that the Mavericks home stadium – Athletic Park – is slated to undergo renovations this summer.
As a result, the Mavericks are dealing with having to play a 2021 campaign in the smaller Jeffries Park, which is also located in Medicine Hat.
Also on Thursday, the WCBL announced that the circuit’s four remaining Saskatchewan-based teams in the Moose Jaw Miller Express, Regina Red Sox, Swift Current 57s and Weyburn Beavers along with the Brooks Bombers in Alberta have decided to opt out of a possible 2021 campaign and will look forward to returning in 2022.
During a Zoom press conference call, WCBL commissioner Kevin Kvame said the Saskatchewan based Yorkton Cardinals and Melville Millionaires ceased operation as of December.
On Thursday, the Red Sox issued a press release that expanded on why the Saskatchewan teams in the WCBL elected not to play. The circuit submitted a return to play plan to the Saskatchewan Health Authority that requested a gradual increase in attendance throughout the season going up to 100 per cent of capacity for July 1.
The Red Sox release said that the SHA is enforcing a maximum capacity of 25 per cent for the upcoming season at the moment.
The released added, “Player and staff testing protocols will need to be in place at an estimated cost of $40,000 per team, as well as quarantine costs amounting to $2,000 per player. Interprovincial travel continues to be restricted, and the US/Canada border remains closed at this time.”
The statement continued by saying the Alberta clubs that have decided to play with just Canadian players will still be subjected to quarantine, testing and border restrictions.
By the looks of what the WCBL is dealing with, it is realistic to expect minor sports competition this coming summer will likely lean more to being played with teams just traveling within provincial boundaries like they did last summer.
At the moment, interprovincial competition, which would obviously be needed for national championship competitions, still might not happen this coming summer.
- On Friday, the Prairie Junior Hockey League junior B circuit in Saskatchewan cancelled the reminder of its 2020-21 campaign due to provincial restrictions brought in to battle the COVID-19 pandemic. The PJHL’s last regular season game was held Nov. 26, 2020 when the Saskatoon Quakers beat the Saskatoon Westleys 8-4.
- On Friday, netminder Dustin Wolf broke the Everett Silvertips team record for longest shutout streak. In the Silvertips 4-0 start to their WHL regular season schedule, Wolf posted shutouts in his team’s first three wins. His shutout streak came to an end Friday, when he was beaten by Portland Winterhawks right-winger Simon Knak at the 13:16 mark of the second period of Everett’s 2-1 overtime victory at the Veteran Memorial Coliseum in Portland. Wolf set a Silvertips record for longest consecutive shutout streak lasting 216 minutes and 27 seconds. The previous record of 195 minutes and 12 seconds was held by Carter Hart, who now plays for the NHL’s Philadelphia Flyers.
- On Saturday, netminder Aerin Frankel of the Northeastern University Huskies women’s hockey team was named the winner of the Patty Kazmaier Memorial Award as the top player in NCAA Division I women’s hockey. In 23 overall games with the Huskies, Frankel posted a 20-2-1 record, a 0.81 goals against average, a .965 save percentage and nine shutouts. She backstopped the Huskies to the NCAA championship game, where they fell 2-1 in overtime to the University of Wisconsin Badgers on March 20.
- The WHL regular season record for longest shutout streak belongs to Chris Worthy playing for the Flin Flon Bombers in 1967-68. Worthy set the mark for playing most consecutive games picking up a shutout at four, and in the process, he set the record for most consecutive minutes of playing shutout hockey at 265 minutes and 13 seconds. Worthy’s records still have a chance to stand for a lengthy amount of time.
- Speaking of long time records, Medicine Hat Tigers left-winger Boyd Anderson set the WHL regular season records for the fast four goals and fastest five goals on October 7, 1972 in a game against the Flin Flon Bombers at The Arena in Medicine Hat. In the third period of the Tigers 10-1 win, Anderson scored four goals in a span of two minutes and 35 seconds. A short time later, he added a fifth tally, and all five goals were scored in a record time of three minutes and seven seconds. In the current day of hockey, individual players top out getting eight or nine shots on goal for a game. Imagine scoring five times on five shots in a span of 3:07. Anderson’s records may never be broken.
- During the abbreviated 2020-21 WHL regular season, it has been great to hear familiar play-by-play voices over the radio again. Of course, it has been sweet to hear Bob Ridley call games again as the play-by-play voice of the Medicine Hat Tigers. In order of seniority, it has also been great to once again here Les Lazaruk calling Saskatoon Blades games, Phil Andrews calling Regina Pats contests and Trevor Redden calling Prince Albert Raiders games. When you hear those play-by-play voices doing their thing, it feels that much more normal again.
- On Saturday the Edmonton Oil Kings ran their WHL regular season record to 9-0 downing the Calgary Hitmen 5-2 at the Seven Chiefs SportsPlex in Calgary. Star left-winger Jake Neighbours led the way for the Oil Kings with two goals and an assist.
- On Saturday, Paul Figler, who is the founder of the DUBNetwork that is dedicated to covering the WHL, wrote a column on the difficulties people were having with the WHL’s new streaming service to watch games online. Figler’s opinion piece was a good one, and it can be found by clicking right here.
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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