Government Kiboshes OHL’s Most Recent Return Plan

The Ontario Hockey League is headed back to the drawing board for a return-to-play plan after the Ontario government put a kibosh to the league’s most recent attempt to return.

Lisa MacLeod, the Ontario Minister of Heritage, Sport, Tourism and Culture Industries announced Friday that Ontario Chief Medical Officer of Health David WIlliams did not approve the OHL’s proposal for return-to-play.

Lisa MacLeod said at a briefing Friday that the province’s chief medical officer of health David Williams did not find the league’s most recent proposal meets the standards for a return to play.

It appears to get back on the ice, the OHL will have to adopt bubbles, much like some professional sports have, indicating that game action with fans in local towns will not be happening.

“We are looking for ways to enable the OHL to come back to the game — possibly with bubble towns, in the hope that there will be hockey before the NHL draft,” MacLeod said on CBC.

At this point, it looks like the OHL season would last only a few weeks, consisting of a maximum of 24-games per team, played in bubble cities consisting of teams within a single division.