Hockey Canada putting pandemic know-how to test in staging world juniors
CBC
Alberta is about to host a third pandemic International Ice Hockey Federation tournament armed with experience from the first two, but with the ice still shifting underfoot.
The 2022 world men's under-20 championship starting Sunday in Edmonton and Red Deer, Alta., faces the same challenge it did a year ago in Edmonton: how to bring hundreds of people together for a sporting event without becoming a spreader of the COVID-19 virus?
Vaccines, rapid testing advances, knowledge and data gleaned from completing both the 2021 world under-20 championship in Edmonton and the women's world championship in Calgary are tools Hockey Canada has now that it didn't a year ago.
The virus continues to interrupt sport, however, with the NHL taking an extended holiday break due to a number of vaccinated players and team personnel in COVID protocol. The Calgary Flames, for one, had 20 players and 13 staff in protocol heading into the break.
Thursday's exhibition pre-tournament game between the Czechs and the Swiss in Red Deer was cancelled due to COVID-19 protocol.
"We are confident in what we've put in place to be able to run the event, but we live on edge constantly looking at the Flames, looking at other NHL teams or pro sports in North America that have had good protocols as well and have had to have breaks," said Hockey Canada vice-president of events Dean McIntosh.
"We don't want that, we don't anticipate that, but on the flip side, we know that's a possibility at any time."
WATCH | What to expect from Canada at the world juniors:
The number of active COVID cases, hospitalizations and people in ICU in Alberta is less than a year ago at the start of the 2021 championship that operated without spectators at Rogers Place.
The Omicron variant and allowing of fans into arenas for this tournament introduce new variables, however, into the operation of the 10-country event.
There were 8,359 active cases of COVID, 318 in hospital and 64 in intensive care in the province Saturday compared to 16,097 active cases, 836 in hospital and 173 in ICU a year earlier, according Alberta Health website statistics.
Those who bought tickets must show proof of full vaccination — a negative test will not suffice — to enter Rogers Place and Peavey Mart Centrium.
The movement and management of players, coaches, team staff and officials within the tournament will operate in similar fashion to the 2021 edition, which in turn adopted the bubble model of the NHL's 2020 playoffs in Edmonton.
They won't mix with the public and are confined to hotel, ground transportation and event level at each venue, McIntosh said.
NHL commissioner Gary Bettman is “disappointed” that the main arena slated to host ice hockey at February’s Olympics isn’t yet completed with less than two months to go before the Games are scheduled to be played.
A two-year suspension from competitive swimming has forced Penny Oleksiak to answer questions about drug use, train by herself in public pools and defend her legacy as Canada’s most decorated female Olympian.
Hockey, one of the premier events at the Winter Olympics and one that is welcoming NHL players back for the first time in more than a decade, will take place on ice shorter than NHL-regulation size.
Summer McIntosh capped swimming’s U.S. Open with the event record in the women’s 200-metre butterfly on Saturday in Austin, Texas.
Some bronze medals are worth their weight in gold. Valerie Grenier's third-place finish in women's giant slalom at the Mont-Tremblant World Cup certainly fits that category.
The men’s World Cup draw in Washington D.C. was going well for Canada until Pot 4.
The draw for the 2026 World Cup takes place Friday at 12 p.m. ET at the Kennedy Center in Washington, for the purpose of dividing the 48-team field into 12 groups of four. Once the tournament starts, 32 teams will advance from those preliminary groups to the single-elimination knockout rounds.
The Kennedy Center in Washington, D.C., buzzed with activity and speculation on Thursday in advance of Friday’s all-important draw for the 2026 men’s World Cup.
By the time the management group for the Canadian men’s national hockey team emerges from marathon meetings on Tuesday, as much as 80 per cent of the roster going to Italy next February should be written in pen.
Canada’s ski mountaineering athletes have their Olympic dreams on the line this weekend at a World Cup event in Solitude, Utah.
Goalie Carter Hart, one of five 2018 Canada world junior hockey players acquitted of sexual assault in July, will make his first NHL appearance in nearly two years when he starts in goal Tuesday night for the Vegas Golden Knights, who host Chicago.
The Canadian women’s hockey team will bring back plenty of familiar faces for its final pre-Olympic games in Edmonton next week.
Ottawa Charge head coach Carla MacLeod has been diagnosed with breast cancer, the team announced Sunday.