It’s tough playing hockey in a bubble
Fort Erie Meteors set to battle Niagara Falls Canucks in controlled scrimmages without body contact
Junior B hockey’s Battle of Niagara Parkway returns to the ice this weekend with a homeand-home series between the Fort Erie Meteors and the Niagara Falls Canucks.
But the stakes — not to mention, the style — will be much different when the Canucks host the Meteors on Friday at Gale Centre. Instead of competing for points in a regularseason game, the regional rivals will be gaining playing experience as they continue a prolonged training camp.
No fans will be in the stands, nor will there will be spectators at the Leisureplex the following night in Fort Erie. Under COVID-19 restrictions, healthy scratches can’t even watch their teammates compete in the scrimmages as the 50-person total for the shared bubble includes players, coaches from both teams as well as two referees, a scorekeeper and a videographer.
In a further effort to contain the spread of the coronavirus, contact — in a contact sport — will not be allowed.
A monkey wrench, for sure, though not a game-changer as far as Meteors director of operations Nik Passero is concerned.
“I’m not too worried about the no contact, and they’re not worried in there, I can tell you that. They’re just happy to be out here with some structure and be able to play the game that they want to play,” he said pointing to the team’s dressing room.
“The kids just want to play so bad.”
Passero, whose team has worked on angling in practice, is “100 per cent” certain league play will go ahead without contact and the product will be worth the price of admission.
“It’s a skill game and I think, if you don’t have the skill and you don’t have talent, you can’t play it,” he said.
Pietrangelo sees league play getting underway Dec. 2 without contact.
“Well, that’s what the rules are right now, so I would have to say yeah. Right now this is what we are permitted to do. How long? I have no idea.”
Contact is second nature to players by the time they reach the junior ranks. How difficult has it been adjusting to a no-contact version of Canada’s national winter game, the veteran coach and one-time Stanley Cup winner was asked.
“It’s different, there’s no doubt about it. It’s a lot about speed, skating and angling and a lot of different things that you have to incorporate into your game,” he said. “Instead of what these kids are used to their whole lives, which is hitting and contact and all the rest of it, so there is an adjustment that needs to be made.”
Pietrangelo, whose team has been practising since September and just completed a series of scrimmages with the St. Catharines Falcons, is speaking from experience when he says it can take a while to adjust to playing without contact.
“There’s no doubt about it. Sometimes, you see kids kind of get back into their old habits and might hit a guy by mistake nd kind of lose where they were,” he said with a chuckle.
Such lapses are understandable, according to Pietrangelo, a Niagara Falls native who captured a National Hockey League championship with the Pittsburgh Penguins in 1992.
“They’ve been doing it for 15 years. Now they have to adjust,” he said.
Pietrangelo added there is a fine line between intentional contact and not being able to stop on a dime skating at full speed on a slick ice surface.
“Intentional, that’s the biggest thing. There is no intentional hitting. There is going to be coincidental contact, of course,” he said. “Guys are going to fall into each other. Somebody is going to get tripped and slide into somebody. Things do happen. But they’re trying to eliminate the initial contact, the hit and the scrums afterward, that’s the main thing they are trying to avoid.”
The Greater Ontario Junior Hockey League is lobbying to open arenas to 30 per cent capacity, which would allow Fort Erie and Niagara Falls to seat a maximum of 480 and 651 fans per game, respectively. Last season average attendance for Meteors games was 177; for the Canucks, it was 419.
“I think that’s a good number, but we’ll start at 25 (per cent) if they want us to start at 25,” Passero said.
His first order of business if teams in the Golden Horseshoe Conference get the OK to play before spectators would be to welcome back parents.
“I would like to get our parents in here to watch these kids. They’re hockey people, too,” he said.
“That’s kind of what my first goal is.” Government and public health authorities, not the league, will have the final say on whether teams can fill arenas to up to 30 per cent capacity.
“That’s going to be strictly up to the government, what they allow,” Pietrangelo said.
“We’re hoping that will happen because, once again, it’s tough to run any type of business if you don’t have support from fans and sponsorship, et cetera.”
By far, the “biggest thing” is public health units allowing teams to expand their bubbles to include not just one team, but every opponent in their conference.
In the case of the Golden Horseshoe Conference, that’s seven teams, the five in Niagara as well as the Caledonia Corvairs and the Hamilton Kilty B’s.
“That’s the biggest obstacle that we have to overcome. Right now, we’re in a bubble of 50, so you can play one team per month,” Pietrangelo said. “We bubbled with St. Catharines last month and we bubble with Fort Erie this month, and we’ve got another team in line for next month, if our season doesn’t start, but we’re hopeful that we will start Dec. 2.” The Pelham Panthers are sharing a bubble with the Thorold Blackhawks this month.
Both the Buffalo Regals and Welland Jr. Canadians, who played in the Golden Horseshoe in 2019-20, have decided to take one-year leaves of absence.