Things aren't great

MONCTON - Folks, we've been through some bad days together over the past few months, and today was certainly one of them.

The Quebec Major Junior Hockey League confirmed today that 18 - yes, 18 - members of the Blainville-Boisbriand Armada have tested positive for COVID-19. The team has paused activities indefinitely and "players and staff have been placed in isolation for a period of 14 days," according to the league.

The Sherbrooke Phoenix, who played against the Armada last weekend, have had one player test positive, according to La Tribune. It's unclear how long the Phoenix will be out of action but the league has postponed all of the team's games this weekend and next.

The Armada and Quebec Remparts could be out of action even longer with the teams playing in COVID red zones, as determined by the Quebec government. The province has put a hold on all sports until the end of October in those areas - although the QMJHL plans to fight the ruling.

The Armada's games for this week and next have been postponed. As for the Remparts, only their games scheduled for this weekend have been postponed so far.

Closer to home, the 17 new cases of COVID at a Moncton special care home is obviously concerning. If cases continue to climb and there are signs of community spread outside the home, you have to wonder what the province may do with its sports.

It's easy to panic at all this news and expect the QMJHL to completely shut down for a while. But the league has literally had months to prepare for these situations - situations that were, as sad as it sounds, expected to happen. The league, one would hope/expect, has protocols in place to get through these challenges without shutting the entire league down.

It's difficult to compare Major League Baseball to junior hockey given the differences in financial resources, but we saw MLB get through some early hiccups, make adjustments, and get through its season. Let's hope the QMJHL can do the same (and getting active cases under control again would help as well).

In other bad news, Ontario’s minister of Heritage, Sport, Tourism and Culture Industries said today that the Ontario Hockey League will have to remove physical contact, including bodychecking, if it wants to have a 2020-21 season. 

"It would be safe to say that body contact, unless it’s incremental, will not be permitted as a result of COVID-19," said Lisa MacLeod, via Sportsnet. "That would pose a challenge in terms of how they amend their play."

A challenge indeed.

The OHL has been aiming on starting regular season play in December. The other major problem facing the OHL is what do with its three United States based clubs.