from Stephen Smith of the New York Times,
In British Columbia, on Canada’s west coast, hockey referees are wearing masks and waving their hands to flag infractions instead of whistling.
In Ontario, to the east, officials are still deciding when teams in the province’s top junior league will return to the ice, but they will be playing a whole new game when they do, with body checking and fighting eliminated in the interest of social distancing. In Toronto, the provincial capital, spikes in coronavirus cases have caused the country’s largest youth hockey association to halt all play until 2021.
But in Nova Scotia, where the spread has been slower, it’s (mostly) game on and (almost) business as usual.
That’s just part of the patchwork of protocols and prohibitions the authorities who organize and oversee Canada’s national pastime are using to try to build something resembling a hockey season for its developing players.
In the first months of the pandemic, after rinks shut down along with everything else, images of hockey sticks were often placed on signage as guides for social distancing. With winter weather having arrived in parts of Canada — in the north, some backyard rinks are already frozen — the sport that, for many, defines the country is doing its best to again use sticks for their intended purpose.
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