By Ethan Ready

Paused Kings

Spruce Kings take a pause, players head home for extended break

Dec 9, 2020 | 4:01 PM

PRINCE GEORGE – The BCHL was to already have had a handful of games played with Tuesday (Dec. 8) marking what was the re-adjusted start date for the regular season.

Following Provincial Health Officer Dr Bonnie Henry’s address on November 19th, a December 1st start was changed to the 8th. However, on Monday, those orders preventing the league from playing were extended.

“It has created some frustration obviously having set a couple of dates that we were hoping to start, and now those are being pushed back,” said Spruce Kings general Manager, Mike Hawes. “Now we’re targeting a date in January and it certainly is hard for our players, and for the families, and for the teams themselves with all of the work that’s been done to even get us to this point.”

Hawes admits while they respect the job of the Provincial Health Office, he believes they’ve missed the mark.

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“A lot of the frustration comes recently from her decision, and the PHO’s decision, to not allow our 19 and 20-year-olds to skate with their teammates. I don’t want to say anything bad about the job the PHO’s doing, but I think they’ve completely missed the boat on that one,” expressed Hawes. “It’s unfortunate to group our 19 and 20-year-olds in with guys that play in the rec league or adults that play in beer leagues and stuff. That isn’t the case, this is the farthest thing from that. Unfortunately, I think they made a mistake on that one and it’s really affected us moving forward, but we just roll with the punches and move on, and hope for better days ahead.”

Now due to the changes the BCHL has had to make as a result of the extended orders, the Spruce Kings are now allowing their players to go home for the holidays if desired, something they were intially prohibiting in anticipation that the season would be underway.

“We’ve made the decision now based on the fact that almost half of our players can’t be on the ice, that our players are going to now go home for their Christmas – an extended Christmas or holiday season – and we’re going to reconvene at some point in the new year, probably at some point right around January 8th.”

January 15th is reported to be the new target date for the BCHL season to get underway, but with the PHO have their orders in place until January 8th, and uncertainty around whether those Orders will be extended, nothing is set in stone quite yet.