Toronto relaxes COVID-19 rink rules as winter activities move ‘toward normal’
By Staff Writer
Dec 8, 2020
The Ontario Hockey League announced Monday that they will be resuming their normal schedule from December 1st until the 14th. Starting with a seven game, home and home, series vs Newmarket (Ontario), head coach John Morris’ team will play their other home/away series against the Mississauga Steelheads. Starting with the Newmarket series the OHL will play a one game, home/away series vs the Saginaw Spirit, followed by a one game, home/aways series vs the St. Catharines Saints. The OHL is playing a three game, home/away series vs the London Knights, followed by a home/home series vs St. Catharines. Each team will play their last regular season game at home, and will meet in a single game at the Scotiabank Saddledome on New Year’s Eve. The OHL has announced that all upcoming OHL Championship games will be broadcast on Versus and will resume on Saturday, January 2, 2021.
On Friday night, the OHL announced they had played the 2019-20 season without one of the league’s two Canadian Hockey League teams. This was the first time the OHL played without Mississauga or Saginaw, who had both just joined the AHL and were not full time members of the OHL. The OHL has decided to play games this winter on the same weekend as the AHL, although there will be the normal crossover between all three leagues on Saturday. The OHL has agreed to televise its December games live on OHL Network, while the three league games start at 6:45pm at each team’s home arena and 2pm at each of the league’s two other sites.
This is the first year that the OHL has not had a team in the Canadian Hockey League. To accommodate this, the league has agreed to play its home games at the Scotiabank Saddledome in nearby Mississauga. The O