Highway Hockey League Update - November 11th, 2020

Highway Hockey senior hockey returns, in a very different form, this weekend.

Our goal is to get our league going following the rules that have been set for return to hockey by the SHA. We will follow the rules, it is imperative that our players, our officials, volunteers and fans are safe. If the rules aren't followed there won't be hockey. The Return to Hockey document is on the SHA website if you are interested in reading. We also have a document from the Referees group showing changes for this year and there are many things there that have changed due to Covid including who drops the puck, no change icing will be behind center red line this year and not blue line, stopping altercations quickly or there will be penalties and even stopping play if Covid rules aren't being followed by anyone in rink. So if you go to a game you will see a lot of changes from the normal. You will note that we have half of our schedule published. Following the format we have been given each team will play back to back against another team and one of our teams will have a bye each weekend. A bubble is a maximum of six teams. Hockey will stop play the last two weeks of December. There are no games allowed. At the start of January there may be a possibility of mixing teams with the QVHL and that only happens if things get better. It is only an option right now. Our plan is to do the round robin a second time in January, League playoffs must follow the same guidelines as Provincials which is the modified best of three format. That means playoffs will take three weekends. No final decision has been made on Provincials but if they proceed they will be starting anytime after February 1st.

Teams are presently allowed to have 150 spectators masked and distanced if they can accomodate. If you go to a game then you must wear a mask and you must be socially distanced. If you have any questions please ask when you enter the rink or check out the Return to Hockey webpage on the SHA site.

None of our teams have played an exhibition game, so it may take a couple of weeks to see what everyone has got this year. Bethune is in Southey Friday evening and then Southey is in Bethune Saturday evening. Our 2019 Robert Schultz Cup finalists play Friday evening in Raymore at 8 p.m. and in Lumsden Saturday evening at 8:30 p.m. Strasbourg has the bye this weekend. Period scores will be posted on Twitter as usual @HighwayHockey or @GeraldT  Also any tweets will be posted on our website front page on the left side!

I hope everyone is doing as well as they can at this point and if you go to a game please follow your rink's rules and please stay safe.