Rec hockey overhauled to keep it fun, less risky
Beloved sport has been ‘re-engineered’ for players in the era of the coronavirus
Ice is back with a brand new invention.
Hockey is returning to Scotia Barn in Burnaby and four other B.C. facilities run by Canlan Ice, but in a new, physically distant and pandemic-safe manner.
Gone for now are faceoffs. The penalty boxes, too. The new fouron-four game that the Adult Safe Hockey League and Youth Hockey League will play has a host of new rules and regulations designed to protect the players — and the game.
“We’ve re-engineered the game of hockey,” said a chuckling Joey St-Aubin, CEO of Canlan Ice Sports, the corporation that runs 8 Rinks and four other B.C. facilities.
“We did a lot of scenario planning,” he said of Canlan’s strategizing how to resume operations after months of being shut down by the novel coronavirus outbreak.
“But it really didn’t tell us what we needed about how we fit our game into this new world. So we kind of put our thinking caps on. We started brainstorming as a team, tweaking certain elements of it, and that’s how we came to this conclusion.
“Any conversations that I’ve had with ex-NHLers, or those who have been playing the game for a long time, they (say) there’s a ‘wow’ factor to it that we were able to re-engineer a game as old as the game of hockey, and as traditional as the game of hockey, to fit into this world that’s been created over the last three or four months.
“It’s pretty unique, and to do it in such a way that brings fun back to the game.”
Some of the wrinkles include penalties — and that includes any intentional body contact — resulting in a penalty shot taken from the hash marks. There are no bluelines, and teams are limited to eight skaters and one goalie, with two 10-minute runtime periods.
Even the referees’ whistles have been eliminated, replaced with an electronic equivalent.
“We’ve eliminated all faceoffs, so the game now has no faceoffs. We’ve eliminated penalties; everything is now a penalty shot, and the penalty shot is taken from the hash marks, similar to a free throw in basketball,” said St-Aubin, saying that should reduce player interactions by about 90 per cent. “You’re constantly on the move. And after 20 minutes of play … you’ve had your workout. It should be a lot of fun. We’ve got social distancing dots on the bench, we’ve added shields on the bench so that you have to actually insert your water bottle underneath to keep players protected from that perspective, as well.
“We’ve tried to think this thing through because at the end of the day, COVID -19 is still out there. It hasn’t been solved. There’s a lot of talk about a potential second wave. And we wanted to make sure that the game of hockey can be played in a COVID world where the two can coexist, but in a safe manner.
“That was the mandate we gave ourselves and we believe that we’ve achieved that.”
Dave Phelan, who has officiated at 8 Rinks for 15 years and been around long enough that he “won his first hockey bet when Yvan Cournoyer won his first Conn Smythe” — that was 1973, for history buffs — thinks the new rules will be easily picked up by the players.
“Some guys who play with more edge may end up having difficulty adapting to these changes, but we’ve been filtering those kind of guys out over generations and seasons now. Oldtimers will have the easiest time with this, because a lot of them scrimmage without referees already. They don’t need a lot of structure,” said Phelan.
“Guys will adapt to it quick. That guy who’s 32 and still thinks scouts will find him is going to have a harder time with that. Ninety per cent of the guys in our league come out, break a sweat, have a beer, bulls--t with each other about how great it was. And that’s their respite. The two per cent of guys who can’t dial it back, they’re going to stand out like red flags.”
Part of the attraction of the ASHL is the “safe” component.
Phelan has seen the culture in hockey change, and appreciates the strides forward the game has taken. The new rules are just part of that evolution.
“The flare-ups (fights) stand out because of the lack of frequency. It took a long time for that culture to change. I would say that it’s 10 times better now than it was five years ago, and it’s 50 times better than it was 10 years ago. So there is progress.
“This is going to be a sea change. You’re going to have to explain to guys, ‘Look, we’re adapting to more soccer and basketball than the old football linemen mentality, middle linebacker hits’ and that sort of thing.”
There are three Canlan facilities in the Lower Mainland, including Scotia Barn, along with rinks in Langley and North Vancouver. The changes will be universal across them and the 14 other bases across Canada and Illinois.
But with the level of COVID-19 cases differing in each province, and in some cases municipality, across Canada, each facility is facing unique challenges.
“We’ve got staggered dates based on what’s happening in the various jurisdictions,” said St-Aubin. “For example, in Ontario they’ve got an emergency order in place, which they’ve limited indoor sports to a particular head count.
“But because of the emergency order, they’ve actually put the (provincial safety officer) in charge of who can and can’t go back to playing the game. So that’s a different hurdle than we’ve seen in any other province.”
The player experience will be different, too. On the day of the game, they’ll fill out a questionnaire that will help with contact tracing, and they’ll be greeted outside by a “zone control attendant” who will line them up at a socially distant standard. Inside, a health and safety ambassador will guide them to their locker-room, which also has markings to help maintain physical distancing.
Canlan has a deal with hockey equipment producer Bauer, which is producing new personal protection equipment for both players and its facility staff, including face shields that clip onto hats, splash guards and face masks.
“The penalties, the goals, the rules, the interactions with our customers and how we could tweak the game to make it more fun, for us it’s all about feedback,” said St-Aubin. “We’re in the game of making it fun, making it exciting, making it safe.”
Everything is now a penalty shot, and the penalty shot is taken from the hash marks, similar to a free throw in basketball.