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Cards, ping-pong, video games and hockey. That’s the life Regina Pats players have grown accustomed to since entering the WHL hub at the end of February.
To play in the WHL hub, all players are staying at the University of Regina dorms and can only see their teammates.
And before they could even do that, they had to test negative for COVID-19 twice and had to stay in their rooms for a week.
“We couldn’t do much. We were getting our meals delivered to our doors,” said Pats defenceman Kyle Walker. “The days actually went by faster than people probably think … A lot of guys brought yoga mats and stuff like that; lots of guys did yoga. We did team workouts every day (over Zoom).”
But that didn’t mean the players just lounged around.
“The team was keeping us busy with Zoom calls and video to study over,” Walker said.
Of course, video games were a popular way to spend some time.
“It was kind of between Call of Duty, Fortnite, NHL. There was multiple days where there was a bunch of guys and we hopped onto Fortnite and you could hear the screaming down the hallways. It was hilarious,” Walker said.
And who is the best gamer on the team?
“I’d say myself and (goaltender) Matthew Kieper,” Walker said. “(Defenceman) Ryker Evans is maybe, arguably the worst.”
But now that they are at least able to interact with each other, Walker says they don’t spend too much time cooped up in their rooms anymore.
“There’s meeting areas that all the guys go into and we all just play cards and hang out with each other and listen to music. Our owner brought one of his ping-pong tables into one of our meal rooms so we get 24/7 access to ping-pong if we want,” Walker said.
“(Forward) Cole Dubinsky is really good at ping-pong, he brought his own paddle. Same with (forward) Easton Armstrong.”
There is also a games room they get access to every second day, sharing it with the Swift Current Broncos.
The Pats will only play 24 games this season. For Walker, who is 20 years old, that means these last couple dozen games will be his final year in the WHL.
“There’s going to be a lot of emotion into it, for sure. With the shortened season, everything’s going to hit harder almost because you don’t get as many games to work with this year,” Walker said. “It’s sad for sure because it’s an awesome league to play in. I’m very grateful to play for the Pats organization.”
