Hockey in August in Yellowknife? A rhetorical question to many who live here but yes, hockey is back.
The Yellowknife Sporting Club returned this week for another go-round of its annual summer hockey camp at the Multiplex. Everything began on Monday with several different age groups hitting both the ice on the Ed Jeske Olympic Arena and dryland training exercises on the Shorty Brown Arena surface.
Brad Anstey, who helps run the club, said this year’s camp is completely different than the one held this time last year for reasons that should be obvious to most people.
“Not quite back to full-out normal,” he said. “We still have precautionary measures in place: keep distancing and masks in the dressing rooms when the kids aren’t on the ice. We’re doing what we can to make things as safe as possible but it’s a lot more relaxed than it was last year.”
The 2020 edition of the camp was held at the Yk Community Arena under strict Covid-19 protocols at the time: a maximum of 25 people in the building at any time, no spectators and immediate entry/exit from the building before and after a player’s session was complete.
Anstey said under the new guidelines laid out by the Officie of the Chief Public Health Officer (OCPHO), the dryland training was able to be added along with having parents and spectators.
“The kids get to enjoy a full camp experience and we’re giving better value for money,” he said. “It actually seems like it’s back to normal for me, even with the rules we have in place. It brings some positivity because we can enjoy it a little more.”
While the younger age groups are focused on development for the most part, there is one group where the focus will be on strengthening the abilities. That’s the junior/university group and they are playing games each evening to help get them game-ready for when they make the trip down south to either join up with their club team or try out for an open spot.
Anstey said one of the big things those players are being taught is how to score more.
“More scoring, more production on the ice, how can you be more creative, how can you be shooting the puck more, those sorts of things,” he said. “For the younger kids, it’s all about skating - not so technical about the power skating - but technical about the basics of it and showing them how short the game can be.”
To do that, Anstey said the younger groups are doing small-area games, which forces them to be more involved in the play and teaches them hockey sense.
Almost all of the instructors for the camp hail from Yellowknife and have come through the minor hockey system at one point in their lives. Many of them have also made the leap to play down south, such as Brady Daniels, who played junior hockey in B.C. for several years, and Devin Case, who spent parts of three seasons in the Saskatchewan Junior Hockey League with the Kindersley Klippers.
For the players, such as Grayson Mueller, he’s just happy to be back on the ice.
“It’s awesome just to be out there and doing it,” he said.
He wants to improve his skating and his stick handling, which he said are already his strongest points but can always get better at.
Week one of the camp wraps up today, Aug. 6, with the second week kicking off on Monday.