Almost every aspect of life looks a little unusual this year thanks to COVID-19, and hockey practices for local youth teams are no different. For one thing, even a casual hockey observer attending a practice would note the ice looks a little emptier than normal. 

Under the current rules laid out by the Saskatchewan Health Authority, hockey players under the age of 18 are allowed to hold practice, something their junior counterparts are not permitted to do. They can't have more than eight players on the ice for those practices, however. 

"We've heard positive and negative things (from coaches) at our board level," said Estevan Minor Hockey Association President Chad Farr. "We're sorting through everything to see how we can make it better. Obviously, there is a concern where coaches are getting frustrated."

Coaches have had to make a lot of adjustments to keep kids on the ice, with only eight players allowed per session. Drills have had to change to accommodate both this and physical distancing measures as set out by the province.

"I want to give a lot of credit to the coaches and volunteers that have been put in this position," Farr said. "No one has ever had to plan anything like this through a pandemic before. I give it to our volunteers, our coaches, and our managers for all of the off-ice planning that has to be done to get kids on the ice."

Off-ice work now includes booking twice as many ice times, as teams typically twice as many players as they are allowed to have on the ice under current guidelines. The solution to this, needing twice as many practice slots for the same number of teams, came a little more easily with games on hold. 

"We lost all of our game slots on the weekend because we have no games," Farr explained. "We filled all of those, which is a normal booking slot at Affinity Place and Power Dodge. We've reached out to the rural (rinks) in Lampman, Bienfait, and Torquay, and utilized their ice times. They're grateful they're getting ice rentals out there. But what we're seeing now is our costs are going way up on ice rentals."

Farr also said that planning too far ahead is tricky because provincial guidelines can change quickly, so they're planning to stick in groups of eight for now. His hope is players will still be allowed to practice at least until the end of February, depending on how stable minor hockey is financially.