LIFE IN THE BUBBLE
An Evraz employee works on ice at the Brandt Centre on Wednesday as the Pats and other WHL teams gather in a bubble ahead of the start of a shortened season. Greg Harder talks to players about what it's like living under strict COVID rules.
From an outside perspective, life in the Regina Pats' bubble seems like it would be almost as appealing as a root canal.
On the inside, however, it has been relatively painless.
“This is something we can't control,” said goaltender Roddy Ross. “We're all happy to be here and we're dealing with what we've got (to deal with). We're excited and waiting for the season to start.”
The Pats checked into Luther College on Saturday night and underwent COVID-19 tests Sunday. Everyone must remain on lockdown inside their dorm rooms until the results come back from Wednesday's followup tests.
If they get the all-clear, the Pats are expected to congregate for their first official practice on Friday night.
Until then, all they can do is wait. “Once we can start seeing each other and go to the rink it'll be pretty fun,” said forward Carter Massier. “The whole idea of being in dorms with 20-some guys that you're all buddies with is kind of cool.”
The current isolation rules prevent coaches, players and training staff from leaving their single-occupancy rooms — except for things like bathroom breaks. Showers are scheduled one at a time to avoid crossing paths in the hallway and meals are delivered to each door.
“Honestly, the setup we have right now is pretty cool,” said defenceman Kyle Walker. “We've got common meeting areas with pingpong tables, pool tables and stuff that we'll be able to get into (when the quarantine ends). Obviously this first week is not ideal but the team has been keeping us busy. I've seen some (negative) things on social media but it's nowhere near as bad as people are making it out to be.”
The Pats' daily schedule during isolation goes something like this: Breakfast at 10 a.m., Zoom fitness class at 11 a.m., lunch at 1 p.m., three hours of free time, Zoom meeting at 4 p.m. and supper at 7 p.m. The school-aged players are required to get their work done during breaks in the schedule while others have more free time for things like Netflix and video games.
Although they can't see each other right now, teammates stay in touch via text and Facetime. The daily Zoom calls also provide for some social interaction.
“It's definitely super exciting to be on Zoom with guys and know we're so close to getting going,” said forward Logan Nijhoff. “We normally stay on after (the Zoom meeting) and talk about what is going on and have a few laughs. It has been really good so far.”
When it comes to free time, Nijhoff is currently immersed in the TV series Ballers. He also watches NHL games and has done “quite a bit of reading.”
There's even some time to work on his golf game.
“I brought my putter and a little cup so I've been putting a little bit in my room,” he said with a laugh. “Sloan (Stanick) was my roommate last year and we had a putting green at home. Once we get out of this strict lockdown I'm sure we'll be getting some pretty heated games going. Other than that, quite a few guys have sticks with them so there has been lots of stickhandling. A few guys have been complaining about the noise but we're doing what we can to stay active.”
Nijhoff 's closest neighbour is Connor Bedard, who doesn't make much noise. A little further down the hall, Ryker Evans can occasionally be heard “screaming at his monitor” when he's playing Fortnite.
There are plenty of gamers in the group, so Xbox is a popular choice. NHL and Call of Duty are among the favourites.
“We've all got our video games here and everybody can talk to each other (online) without having to see each other so it works out,” said forward Carson Denomie. “There's multiple ways to keep yourself entertained. I definitely don't mind having some time to myself. We've only got a couple days left of isolating and then we kind of get back to normal things. It's going good so far. It hasn't been as bad as some people thought it would be.”