Friday, January 29, 2021

All New Brunswick zones to stay orange

A few hours before Quebec Major Junior Hockey League games returned in the Maritimes, teams in New Brunswick received some potentially bad news.

At a news conference Friday afternoon, New Brunswick health officials announced that no region of the province will move past the orange phase for "many weeks." The news comes as new variants of COVID-19 begin to spread quickly across the globe.


To help "manage the risk," she said, the yellow zone will be reassessed and no zone in the province will be allowed to progress to anything less restrictive than a newly modified orange phase for at least several weeks.

Currently, the Fredericton, Campbellton, Bathurst, Miramichi and Saint John regions are in orange, with the Moncton region in the more restrictive red phase and the Edmundston region in the most restrictive full lockdown phase.

QMJHL teams can practice in the orange phase but are not able to play games. Of course, some kind of exemption could be made for the Saint John Sea Dogs, Moncton Wildcats and Acadie-Bathurst Titan to resume playing games - and today's announcements reinforced that the province is willing to adjust its current rules/guidelines. We'll see what happens.

While games are resuming - without fans - in the Halifax, Cape Breton and Charlottetown markets, the 12 Quebec based clubs will begin another round of "protected environments" on Saturday in Rimouski, Chicoutimi and Drummondville. The league also announced Friday a fourth round of bubbles will take place in Quebec City, Victoriaville and Shawinigan from Feb. 12-18.

In an interview with CHSJ News on Wednesday, Sea Dogs president and general manager Trevor Georgie noted the financial challenges of holding a bubble event in the Maritimes. The Quebec clubs have all received government funding.

Friday's Government of New Brunswick announcement is also bad news for the Maritime Junior Hockey League clubs in the province. MHL play is resuming this weekend - without fans - in Nova Scotia.

The Western Hockey League, meanwhile, continues to make progress in its plan to hold a 24-game season.
The Ontario Hockey League has been quiet for the past few weeks and seems, at this point, the least likely of the three CHL leagues to hold a season.
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