Moose Jaw Minor Hockey is one of the groups most acutely feeling the new guidelines that will be in force Friday.

While they will be able to be on the ice and able to practice, things may look a little different once the next practice time happens.

“We’re allowed to stay on the ice, and we have to have groups of eight,” said Moose Jaw Minor Hockey president Chris Flanagan. “So we’ll look at revamping our roster size this year hoping to get down to groups of eight or less. If that means we have to split teams in half, and half go for one half hour and the other half go for another half hour, we’ll make that happen. Obviously, on the ice, the kids will need to wear face masks on the ice and the same with the coaches, and stay three metres apart.”

Flanagan said to make this work, it'll take everybody buying in to make it happen.

“That’s not just the coaches, the players have to buy into it and the parents as well,” Flanagan said. “Things will look extremely different for the next three weeks if we can make this work. But we just want to keep the kids on the ice. If we can limit practice numbers and practice times and at least get the kids on the ice a couple of times per week, I think it’s beneficial for everybody involved.”

To that end, Flanagan was encouraged by the level of compliance he received from volunteers, parents and players when it came to the protocols that were in place prior to Friday.

“Our volunteers from the minor hockey board level down to the coaches and the parents, they all bought into the protocols that were put in place throughout the season,” said Flanagan. “We didn’t have any issues in Moose Jaw. Everybody was on board with everything they had to do.”

That included coaches masking up, players entering and leaving through the correct doors and wiping down the bench areas for arena staff.

“We’re very appreciative that we have strong people in our organization that actually care for the game and care for the kids, and did everything they possibly could to allow this to go on for as long as it did.”

While quite a few minor hockey teams have practices, in the lone game tonight in Moose Jaw, the U9 White Warriors are taking on the Red Warriors this evening at the Bert Hunt Arena.

The board is meeting Thursday night to hash out a strategic plan to move forward.