Column: 365 days sure have felt like an eternity

It’s been 365 days since games were last played in the Ontario Hockey League.

On March 11, 2020, the Soo Greyhounds were among six teams in action on a typically quiet Wednesday night on the schedule.

The Greyhounds beat the Flint Firebirds 4-1 that night as they continued to fight to get into the OHL playoffs, which would have normally begun roughly two weeks later.

That night had a very different feel to it that pretty much any other typical OHL game.

Because of the unknowns at the time, fans might have been a little warier to be at the rink.

Protocols when it came to interviewing players and coaches following the game were very different than what we had even seen a week earlier.

Little did we know that when we left the rink that night, it would be the last OHL game played for a year.

While writing my game story that night – Greyhounds goaltender Nick Malik was fantastic in the game – news began breaking that the NBA was looking at pausing its season due to COVID-19.

The following day, sports league began to make similar announcements, including the OHL.

The Greyhounds were on the road heading to Kitchener for a Friday night game against the Rangers when the news broke and turned back.

Following the OHL announcement, I spoke with Greyhounds general manager Kyle Raftis about the decision, at that time, to pause games.

Nobody knew just how long the break was going to last.

“There’s a lot up in the air,” Raftis said at the time.

Little did we know at that point that even that was an understatement.

Depending on what time you’re reading this, roughly 8,760 hours have passed since OHL teams were playing meaningful hockey.

While some things remain up in the air, there was some good news to report on Wednesday as Ontario’s Heritage, Sport, Tourism and Culture Minister Lisa MacLeod said she was optimistic that some sort of OHL season could happen.

First reported by Queen’s Park Briefing deputy editor David Hains on social media, MacLeod was on the record saying her team was “feeling very confident that we got the OHL to a place where they will be able to safely play, with contact.”

An interesting comment from MacLeod on Wednesday was regarding the potential for some form of funding for the league to get going.

That’s something that hasn’t necessarily been referenced much until recently.

When people look at the other Canadian Hockey League member leagues and say “Well, the Western League is playing, and the Quebec League is playing. Why can’t the OHL?”

Funding has played a role in both the Western Hockey League and Quebec Major Junior Hockey League getting rolling.

For the OHL to make a go of this, some funding is likely going to be a major component of teams being able to make it work.

These teams have had very limited revenue coming in since March 2020 and in pretty much every case, there are people on staff that are still being paid. It may be very few people at this point, but money is still going out with not a lot of it coming in.

Once the league returns to play, there are going to be travel costs.

It could very well come down to travel costs for teams to play in hub cities at this point.

With the Canada/U.S. border remaining closed and the OHL committed to all 20 teams being part of a return to the ice, some form of hub city arrangement makes a lot of sense.

The hub city option also remains in play as there are some teams who might not get to go-ahead from their local health units to play games in their home cities.

Keep in mind that the Northern Ontario Junior Hockey League announced on Wednesday that three teams in the Sudbury area – the Rayside-Balfour Canadians, Espanola Express, and French River Rapids – had to cancel the remainder of their season due to COVID restrictions in the area.

There are plenty of reasons to remain optimistic at this point.

The QMJHL had some struggles early on but have done a good job overall managing games being played during the pandemic.

The WHL, while only having played games in recent weeks, have also managed things well thus far.

That’s something to build on for the OHL.

There are ways for this to work.

It could come down to hub cities. It could come down to very limited or no fans in the building. It’s quite possible that the number of people in the arenas could be limited to players, a bare bones staff to make the games happen, and that’s it.

Regardless of what happens, the next few weeks are looking to be an interesting time for the OHL though not in a way we would normally see at this time of year.

A year ago, it was playoff positioning and preparation before the world seemingly changes in a heartbeat.

We’re still likely weeks away from any games being played, but at this point, it doesn’t look like it’s going to be another 8,760 hours until the next time OHL teams are playing regular season games and that’s the best news the OHL has heard in some time.