Lifelongbender

No. Sadly we cannot.

The Governor released an update to the mandate that responded to the portion of the CDC recommendations saying that if masks can't be worn due to the protective equipment or level of exertion they should not be worn. That was Friday. So any "I saw a game where nobody was wearing masks" claim about this is now unimportant. My son's team played two midget games this weekend. At both, some of the players were wearing masks despite the fact that they weren't required anymore for personal preference reasons. At both games both of the refs were wearing them, at least most of the time.

@Danner27, you do realize that your post there is an argument for not playing hockey at all, and no, in fact, an argument for not wearing masks while playing, right? I mean you do realize that is how the government would respond to that? I have to assume it's your position that hockey should be shut down, then. I respectfully disagree. As long as they're allowed to, my kids will want to keep playing, mask or no mask, and I'd bet that almost every player in the region will take that same position. Once the enforcement effort is clear it will level out.

I expect it to get shut down no matter what, but mask compliance will be one of the stated reasons when it does.

Honestly it's becoming so tiresome to read posts on this board that its value as a discussion forum is practically nil.

I guess I expect that this mask thing, like everything else, will work itself out after a few weeks of playing under it (assuming we get a few weeks of playing), but this is a fair question. It's likely that enforcement of the mask mandate will vary widely between teams. How do you force your players to play at a disadvantage if the other team has a large number of players not wearing masks, medical excuse or not? I really think this will turn out to be no big deal, like it did in Michigan, but there are concerns. Hopefully coaches will try to comply.

It's true that there were several games postponed this week, including a number between local teams in the Pittsburgh sense, but most of the games that have been postponed are between Pittsburgh area teams and teams in West Virginia. The second of the two orders made travel to West Virginia for purposes other than a commute for work or medical treatment essentially impossible.

To be clear, this is a moral and, for many of us, a legal duty.

To be clear, I'm not saying that the order is reasonable. I'm not even arguing that it is constitutional (though the courts have long recognized that rights can be reasonably limited in respect of the welfare of the nation as a whole). I am simply saying that the claim that the order isn't a legally binding thing is false. We can understand that it might not meet the criteria required to be considered Constitutional if tested by a court, but we must still understand that it is the law of the land until that time. The rinks we all depend upon have everything riding on this.

In all fairness, professional players are tested frequently and can control their exposure better than people at large because their job is going to the stadium, and not to an office building. This is not an entirely fair criticism because it compares apples to oranges.

The fact that there isn't an enforcement mechanism for some of this, especially that which may occur in a private home, doesn't mean it isn't a legal order. I'm not sure that I think such things are or at least should be constitutional, but the order does have the force of law, even if it can't be enforced in some situations. You can be denied entry to a business for not wearing a mask; a business can lose their license for not complying with the order. Believe what you want. We are going to get shut down completely soon enough, but it's you guys who refuse to go along that are going to

A heartfelt essay about a topic that's been discussed a bit here on the board in the past. This sort of thing needs to be out there. https://thehockeythinktank.com/2020/11/16/decades-later-chicago-youth-hockey-scandal-brought-to-light/ The Hockey Think Tank is a great resource, by the way, in general.

Man I hope you're right. At least this weekend.

I'm sorry, but this is simply incorrect. Like it or not face masking is mandated by the state government. From the header of the recent order: From section 2 of the order: My emphasis on the above quotes. Obviously the list of circumstances continues ad nauseum. For the record, this question and answer are part of the FAQ that was released yesterday about the mask mandate: Again, emphasis mine. Whatever you may think about the reasonableness or efficacy of masking in controlling this outbreak, it is a fact that our state government has decided that you must we

It's correct that this is not a rink thing, but a regional thing, but for the sake of completeness YMCA has issued the same requirement for masks on the ice.