Why the Ontario Government’s Body-Checking Ban in Hockey for 2021 Does More Harm Than Good
Ontario’s Minister of Sport Lisa MacLeod announced earlier this week that in order for the Ontario Hockey League (OHL) to have a 2020-2021 season, body checking will not be allowed.
Just days earlier, the OHL had formally announced its return-to-play plan for a shortened 2021 season beginning February 4th. The Western Hockey League (WHL) also plans to begin its season in early January, while the Quebec Major Junior Hockey League’s campaign has started, albeit with the league hitting several immediate hurdles.
Minister MacLeod’s rationale for the mandate is that removing purposeful physical contact from the game is necessary in order to prevent the spread of COVID-19 amongst the players. In taking this action, she referred to the COVID outbreaks among several teams in the QMJHL such as the Sherbrooke Phoenix and Blainville-Boisbriand Armada early in their re-started season. In making this announcement, MacLeod further declared that this ruling would be non-negotiable with the OHL.
How quickly it took for a COVID outbreak to surface in the QMJHL should most certainly create cause for concern about the feasibility of the hockey season in 2021. However, it’s equally fair to scrutinize and question how effective a measure such as “no body contact” will have on actually preventing the spread of COVID-19 among opponents. A key figure who falls in this camp is OHL Commissioner David Branch who stated he would only move forward with the idea if studies clearly showed that body contact is a contributor to the spread of the virus and after further discussion with Premier Ford and the provincial government.
Before addressing the issue of body checking, it’s important to first point out the OHL already has its hands tied with many other issues regarding its plan to restart. This is an announcement being made in October, but the OHL’s season likely won’t return until February at the earliest. We need to worry about whether it will be an option to have a season at all. To take body checking off the board immediately without fully completing research on the matter is a hasty and irrational decision.
For starters, the league has three teams located within the United States: the Flint Firebirds, Saginaw Spirit and Erie Otters. If it intends to have those teams compete this season, the matter will require further involvement from the Federal Government and protocols will need to be put in place to ensure teams will be able to safely cross the Canada-U.S. border on a regular basis.
With the province’s increasing rise in new cases over the last few weeks, the question of whether a season should be played at all is in play. Two OHL teams also operate in parts of the province where the COVID-19 outbreak has been at its strongest in the second wave, the Mississauga Steelheads and Ottawa 67’s.
Many players do not reside in the city of the team they play for and the OHL will also need to find ways to safely relocate players to their billet homes. However, with the current climate, this doesn’t really seem to be a manageable option. A self-contained bubble (as the NHL instituted in order to finish the 2019-20 campaign) is out of the question.
Ontario’s “Framework for Reopening Our Province – Stage 3” states that sports with prolonged or deliberate contact will not be permitted unless the way they are played can be modified to prevent it from occurring. However, the government’s decision to prohibit body checking is a short-sighted and uninformed half-measure that is performative more than anything else.
Physical contact in hockey occurs in far more ways than just body checking. It doesn’t matter if you limit the play to 3-on-3 action, there will still be incidental contact on the ice. That’s the nature of the fast-paced, reaction-based sport.
How is body checking so much more of a threat to the well-being of its players than the amount of times in a game where non-incidental physical contact occurs? MacLeod’s mandate to the OHL doesn’t account for the players sitting side by side with each other on the bench, sweating and spitting right next to each other. It doesn’t account for face-offs required at every stoppage in play, for which there are a lot. It turns a blind eye to the amount of battles between players in front of the net for a loose puck.
By merely prohibiting purposeful bodychecking while ignoring so many other facets of the game, this mandate will have little impact in stopping the actual spread. If anything, it will only diminish the on-ice product and the development of the league’s players, which is the OHL’s primary purpose. The OHL is known for being the premier league in the world for developing hockey players for the professional level, but by removing body checking from the game and thereby completely altering the nature of the sport, we’ve already begun to see NHL teams reactively loan out over 100 players to teams in Europe where their seasons are going on as scheduled.
If MacLeod and the provincial government were truly concerned about the spread of COVID-19, they would request that the CHL cease operations for the foreseeable future. While many hockey fans and players would be disappointed if it reached that point, they would ultimately understand and accept the decision.
Until then, they need to trust the decision-making of Branch and OHL Leadership, because by sticking their hands where they shouldn’t, MacLeod and the Ontario government deserves two minutes for interference.