Alberta, Manitoba not ready to let Edmonton Oilers, Winnipeg Jets fans watch playoff games in person

Alberta and Manitoba are not ready to follow Quebec’s lead in allowing hockey fans to attend NHL playoff games.

Alberta Premier Jason Kenney says the province currently has much higher COVID-19 numbers than Quebec, while a spokesperson for Manitoba’s health department, Shared Health, says “there are not plans at this time to have fans in the arena.”

In a Facebook live session Tuesday night, Kenney was told of Quebec’s decision to allow fans to return to indoor stadiums in limited numbers.

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If the Montreal Canadiens and Toronto Maple Leafs play a Game 6 of their North Division first-round series on May 29 at the Bell Centre, about 2,500 spectators will be allowed in the building.

Kenney is making no such promises for Edmonton Oilers fans.

The team is scheduled to open the Canadian portion of the playoffs against the Winnipeg Jets on Wednesday night in Edmonton.

Manitoba’s statement from its health department came Wednesday.

Ontario, the only other province with a team in the playoffs, has not commented on Quebec’s announcement. All American playoff games so far have had fans.

Kenney says Alberta’s per capita hospitalization rate from COVID-19 is three times higher than Quebec, its per capita ICU rate is four times higher and the number of cases in the last seven days is also four times higher.

“They did much worse through much of the pandemic, but for months now, they’ve been in a super-hard lockdown, stay-at-home orders, curfews,” he said.

“As it is right now, you can not leave your home after 8 p.m. in Montreal without being fined.

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“It’s because of those incredibly tough measures, measures that we would never introduce in Alberta that they got those numbers down.”