As COVID vaccines continue to roll out across the United States, there is a completely different story to our friends up north. COVID cases in Canada have skyrocketed again over the past few weeks resulting in sports, and life being put on pause…again. The Western Hockey League announced last week that they would be shutting down operations effective immediately due to the pandemic to keep players, coaches, and fans safe. The Ontario Hockey League also announced that they would not be participating in the 2020-21 season and would resume operations for the 2021-22 season. The OHL never even got started this year meaning the Quebec Major Junior Hockey League is the only league still operating of the big three junior leagues in Canada.
“We remained hopeful that public health conditions would improve, but unfortunately, that is not the reality we see in front of us today,” said WHL commissioner, Ron Robinson.
Everyone on both sides is questioning why the QMJHL is pushing so hard to ensure playoffs happen while other leagues have shut down for the season.
What do you think of the move? Is the QMJHL being greedy and reckless pushing forward with the playoffs? Are the other leagues being too cautious which could cause issues down the line? There is no right or wrong answer in COVID times, but the move is very interesting and causing a lot of head-scratching
