After the Provincial Health Office approved the British Columbia Hockey League‘s safe return to play proposal on Friday, teams around the province are getting ready to play an abbreviated season.
Dressing rooms in Penticton, Vernon, West Kelowna and Salmon Arm are all empty, as the four Okanagan teams have already begun the mandatory two-week quarantine period.
If all goes well, the BCHL is hoping to drop the puck on their 2020-21 season sometime during the first week of April.
“The concept for us is to play regionally,” BCHL commissioner Chris Hebb told Global News.
According to Hebb, three or four teams will play out of five “pod” cities across the province.
“And those teams will play 18 games against each other. We will try and get 20 if we can ” Hebb said.
While complete details have yet to be announced, two of the regional centres will be in the Okanagan.
“Vernon and Penticton will be two of our five pod cities and we obviously have the go-ahead from Interior Health to do that,” Hebb explained.
It’s big news for Vernon, where both the West Kelowna Warriors and the Salmon Arm Silverbacks will play the hometown Vipers.
“To be able to have our team here, to be able to host, great work by our league, by the city of Vernon,” Vipers assistant general manager Todd Miller said.
“Lots of people put lots of man-hours of work into this to make it happen.”
Penticton will be the other Okanagan ‘pod’ city.
“I believe Cranbrook and Trail will be based out of here,” said Fred Harbinson, Penticton Vees general manager.
“For us, it really doesn’t matter, we will play anyone, we are just tired of playing ourselves,” Harbinson said.
Which is exactly what BCHL’s teams have been doing since last November and why Friday’s announcement is such a relief for everyone involved.
“The guys have been waiting for this answer for a long time and for us as coaches it was nice to be able to give them a little bit of good news,” said Tyler Shattock, head coach of the Salmon Arm Silverbacks.
But the biggest relief of all was felt by the players.
“To get that news, it was a blessing, ” said the West Kelowna Warriors’ Elan Bar-Lev-Wise.
“Obviously, our health workers, the league did a lot of work for us and we are grateful and thankful for that to get the season going.”
While the season may start as early as Friday, April 2nd, there will be no fans allowed in the arenas, however, all the games will be available to watch online for a fee at HockeyTV.
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