Extended restrictions further impact Halifax home dates
Since the 2021/22 National Lacrosse League season kicked off on December 3rd, the Halifax Thunderbirds have played just three regular season games largely due to strict provincial indoor gathering restrictions limiting their ability to host at the Scotiabank Centre.
Today, the province of Nova Scotia announced the extension of those restrictions to February 14th. With Halifax home games scheduled for February 4h against the New York Riptide (a game which was originally supposed to be played on January 8th) and February 12th against the Philadelphia Wings, the Thunderbirds released the following statement:
“Due to the latest restrictions imposed by the Nova Scotia Government, we are unable to play our next two games on February 4th and 12th in Halifax We are extremely disappointed with today’s news, and will be exploring all options in order to play our games. We will have more information in the coming days.”
The Wings have played more than double the amount of games as the 3-0 Thunderbirds, however, Halifax will play this weekend against the FireWolves in Albany, New York.
There was some optimism shared during today’s provincial announcement, specifically when it comes to sporting events.
“We are working on a plan now to start lifting restrictions in a phased approach," said Dr. Robert Strang, Nova Scotia's chief medical officer of health. "We'll be monitoring cases and hospitalizations closely and if things go well, we will start allowing larger gathering limits and the return to sporting events and games, arts and culture events and performances, and if it's possible to safely allow some things to start earlier than February 14th, we will."
During today’s update, Nova Scotia Premier, Tim Houston, also stated, “The goal that we're shooting towards, that we're working towards, is to relax some restrictions in the arts and culture and have sports teams be able to resume full practices, with no fans, around February 7th. And ultimately, recitals, competitions and games back by February 14th.”
The Toronto Rock will play their second game with no fans in attendance this weekend when they host the Rochester Knighthawks. Toronto hosted Halifax on January 15th in an empty FirstOntario Centre in Hamilton, Ontario due to indoor gathering restrictions put in place by the province.