The Kelowna Rockets are hoping to step onto the ice this week for the first time in more than a year.
“Absolutely, that’s the plan,” Rockets head coach Kris Mallette told Global News.
“The players are excited and the coaching staff is as well. We’re just itching to get back in that environment.”
READ MORE: Junior hockey: Kelowna Rockets to open shortened season against Victoria Royals
However, the team is first awaiting results from a second round of COVID-19 testing after conducting a mobile testing clinic behind Prospera Place on Tuesday and Wednesday.
“It was a mouth swab, so it was really, really simple. Painless and very quick and efficient,” Mallette said of the testing.
Once the team is given the green light, the Rockets will have one week to conduct a shortened training camp before opening the season against the Victoria Royals on March 26.
“It’s going to be a little different — masked up, non-stop — but we just want an opportunity to get back out onto the ice as a group,” said Mallette.
The Rockets are trying to condense what normally occurs over an entire month into one week, and that shortened training camp will present some unique challenges.
“Some of our players haven’t skated with groups since before Christmas,” said Mallette.
What that means is that some players haven’t been playing contact hockey, and the team will want to avoid injuries to players who haven’t had that on-ice conditioning.
“We’re going to have to be cognizant of that,” Mallette said.
But one players the team won’t have to worry about is defencemen Kaedan Korczak.
READ MORE: Kelowna Rockets’ Kaedan Korczak signed by NHL’s Vegas Golden Knights
Korczak played for Team Canada this year at the world juniors, attended the NHL’s Vegas Knights’ training camp and has been playing with their AHL affiliate team in Henderson, Nev.
“I was pretty comfortable down there at the pro level, and, I thought as each game went on, I thought I was getting better,” said Korczak.
“I think I can bring that back here. I don’t want to come back here and take a step down.”
For Korczak, COVID-19 tests are old hat.
“I’m pretty used to it by now, I’ve done over a 100 by now,” Korczak said with a laugh.
For 20-year-old defenceman Sean Comrie, it’s a different story.
“I haven’t really skated on an ice surface other than an outdoor rink since the first week of December,” said Comrie, who was on loan to the AJHL’s Spruce Grove Saints.
The Edmonton-born Comrie is optimistic, though, about the Rockets’ time in training camp.
“I think we will be fine,” he said, “and it really doesn’t take that long to get into game shape.”