Coquitlam Express staffers will be spending the next couple of week channelling their inner HGTV.
As players and coaches endure a two-week quarantine period prior to a brief four-day training camp that’s to precede a five-week season of competitive games, support staff will be making a dressing room at the Scotiabank Barn in Burnaby look and feel familiar for the BC Hockey League team.
They’ll be transporting training equipment and tables, signs, and banners from the Poirier Sport and Leisure Complex to the team's temporary home away from home — at the facility that used to be known as Canlan 8-Rinks.
“We’ve become decorators now,” said Express general manager Tali Campbell. “We’re going to make our dressing room as much as our own as possible.”
The redecoration was necessitated when the league determined Coquitlam will host one of five regional pods around the province where groups of three or four teams will play out an 18 to 20-game schedule.
Provincial health authorities approved a return to competitive action last Thursday following months of socially distanced practices as mandated by COVID-19 public health restrictions.
But with the ice set to come out of the main arena at Poirier to accommodate lacrosse, and a vaccine centre setting up shop at the Forum across the street, the Express had to find a Plan B.
Campbell said the Burnaby facility fit the bill, where the Express, Surrey Eagles and Powell River Kings will battle into early May for BCHL Lower Mainland pod supremacy. The Langley Rivermen was also supposed to be part of the group, but the team announced last Saturday it is opting out of the compacted season and freed its players to join other teams; four of them will be on Coquitlam’s roster.
As yet, the league hasn’t announced whether it will hold a post-season. Campbell said that will likely be determined by the state of public health restrictions at the time.
Those restrictions will very much define the look and feel of the BCHL’s return to play.
While teams travelled to opponents’ arenas during last fall’s regional exhibition season that lasted from late September to early November, the pod format means players, coaches and trainers will either be at home, or at the arena in Burnaby; Powell River will be lodged in a nearby hotel for the duration.
“It’s still basically quarantine,” Campbell said, adding with teams playing four times a week, and practising or training in between, there isn’t much time for anything but hockey anyway.
Players will be tested for COVID-19 following the brief training camp, then randomly afterward. The league has hired a medical safety officer to supervise all safety and testing protocols.
Each team will have a dressing room for its exclusive use through the season as well as its own entrance and exit procedures. Referees and other support personnel like scorekeepers and arena staff won’t have to quarantine, but they’ll be expected to adhere to their own safety protocols to limit the chances of transmitting the contagion that initially sidelined the league after the first round of last spring’s playoffs.
Spectators won’t be allowed in the buildings, although broadcast and video crews will be live-streaming all the action.
Campbell said the effort isn’t cheap: Players’ families are footing some of the bill and the league is continuing talks with the provincial government for further financial support. The Express is also hoping it will be able to run its spring and summer identification camps to recoup lost revenue.
“It’s a big gamble,” Campbell said. “But we need to get these guys back on the ice. There’s schools eager to watch these guys play, others are still trying to get commitments to schools.”
Campbell added the players are all on board. “It gave me goosebumps to hear how these guys are excited to be playing for the logo on our chest.”
Not that the path to victories will be easy.
The Express recently traded starting goaltender Joe Howe — and veteran forward Cooper Connell — to teams in the Alberta Junior Hockey League, which resumed playing games March 12. Some other players left to pursue their own opportunities.
In their stead, the Express is bringing in several young affiliate players from teams in the Pacific Junior Hockey League.
But perhaps the biggest upset is behind the bench, which was vacated two weeks ago by rookie head coach Dan Cioffi. He’s been replaced on an interim basis by Adam Nugent-Hopkins, who’s worked with the team as a strength and conditioning trainer.
Campbell admitted the tumult is “awkward,” adding “we’re still getting to know each other.”
But when the players lace on their skates and step onto the ice in early April, all of the uncertainty will be a thing of the past.
Campbell predicts the competitive instincts will be in overdrive by then, especially with the familiarity of playing the same opponents time-and-again over the next 36 days.
“It’s been a long journey for everyone,” he said. “There’s not one guy in that dressing room who’s not eager to go.”
