After months of question marks surrounding their protocols, schedules and plans, several North American hockey leagues are closing in on the start of their seasons.
In fact, the first college hockey game of the year — a Big Ten matchup between Wisconsin and Notre Dame — kicks off the 2020-21 campaign later this evening.
The only problem is, while these leagues are ramping up heading into the winter, so, too, are the cases of coronavirus in the states that house all their competition.
In the past week, the average number of positive cases have increased in nearly every state. In the Northeast, specifically, cases are rising with each passing day.
According to the CDC’s COVID-19 Data Tracker, more than 30,000 new positive cases have appeared across the New England states in the last seven days, with the most coming out of Massachusetts (13,534) and its neighbor to the south, Connecticut (9,368). In New Jersey, nearly 20,000 positive cases have arisen in the past week.
Nationally, according to the New York Times, there’s been an average of 134,078 COVID-19 cases per day, a 72 percent increase from the average two weeks ago, including a one-day record of 142,860 new cases reported on Wednesday, which shattered the previous U.S. record for daily cases set the day before on Tuesday.
With cases very much on the rise, several teams and leagues have faced early hurdles with getting their already pandemic-shortened seasons off the ground.
Amid recent spikes in positive tests linked to the sport, all interstate youth hockey competitions across all New England states and New Jersey have been suspended, the governors from the seven-state pact announced in a joint release on Thursday.
The travel ban, which mainly impacts public and private schools, as well as youth hockey, goes into effect Nov. 14 and runs through, at minimum, the end of 2020.
With the ban, school and youth hockey teams are no longer allowed to cross state lines to practice or play games in an effort to curb the rampant spread of the virus.
In-state competition, however, is still allowed.
“As case numbers increase in many states across the country, it is critical that neighboring states coordinate a regional approach to limit further community spread of the virus,” officials wrote in the joint press statement on Thursday.
The ban, which goes into effect Saturday, does not affect college, professional and U.S. national team hockey-related activities in the seven states, officials said, but they are still subject to the COVID-19 protocols put already have been put in place.
The states involved in the interstate youth hockey travel ban are Maine, Rhode Island, New Hampshire, Vermont, Connecticut, Massachusetts and New Jersey.
The ban comes just over a week after Massachusetts and New Hampshire rinks reopened following a temporary two-week pause to address the effectiveness of COVID-19 protocols.
In New Hampshire, Gov. Chris Sununu called the state’s decision to shut down hockey-related activities Oct. 15 “a very aggressive data-driven action.”
“Given the support for this agreement from our regional neighbors, I think New Hampshire made the practical decision to join this effort,” he said on Thursday.
“We do remain very optimistic that our newly issued hockey and ice arena guidance will continue to ensure a safe and successful hockey season for New Hampshire hockey players. So, the (in-state) season is still very much on.”
In Massachusetts, while cross-state travel is now prohibited for teams, there is a path for individuals who reside out of state but are registered and rostered with a Massachusetts-based program to participate with their team — regardless of the travel ban, according to a release from the state’s youth hockey governing body.
According to the release, any individual who resides outside of Massachusetts is subject to the state’s COVID-19 Travel Order, which went into effect on Aug. 1.
If any individual resides in a state deemed as a higher-risk state on the state’s restricted travel list, they may participate with the Massachusetts-based program only once they comply with all of the aspects related to the travel order.
If any individual resides in a state outside of Massachusetts deemed as lower-risk, they may participate with their Massachusetts-based program without restriction.
Liam Flaherty can be reached at liam.flaherty@hockeyjournal.com and on Twitter @_LiamFlaherty.
