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The New Brunswick PEI Major U18 Hockey League begins its season Friday about a month and a half later than usual.
The Saint John Vito’s will welcome the Moncton Flyers to the qplex on opening night for an 8 p.m. puck drop.
Alex Carter, head coach of the Saint John Vito’s, said his players are excited to get back on the ice.
“It’s been a long eight months. It’s been a long training camp,” said Carter in an interview Thursday.
“We’re looking forward to getting back to some sort of normality. When you play hockey, when you get on the ice, it seems that that does start to feel that way.”
The Vito’s played their final game on March 9, when they fell to Moncton Flyers and were eliminated from the league playoffs. Just days later, Hockey Canada cancelled all sanctioned activities across the country.
The league has made a number of changes for this season to deal with the impacts of the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic.
Carter said each rink and community has its own set of protocols, such as whether or not they will allow fans.
“As of right now, we’re allowed to have two family members per player able to watch,” he said, “but we will be streaming all of our home games online via Facebook.”
The Vito’s are hopeful they will be able to have fans back in the rink at some point with physical distancing, depending on how the pandemic unfolds over the coming month.s
Carter said despite the regular season starting a bit later than usual, teams are still set to play a 30-game schedule, followed by playoffs.
Several tournaments have been cancelled, he said, including the Monctonian held around Remembrance Day and the Quebec tournament in December. Other tournaments are still tentatively a go, including the East Coast Ice Jam in Halifax in mid-January.
“Usually we float anywhere between 34 and 38 regular-season games, so we are going to be able to get pretty much a full season in. The lack of tournaments is allowing us to squeeze those in,” said Carter. “Normally when a tournament would happen, the league would shut down for the weekend, so with no tournaments, we’re able to now supplement those weekends.”
There will also be two league showcases this year instead of just one. The first in Charlottetown on Nov. 21 and 22 and the second in February on Feb. 13 and 14.
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