Canadian athletes return home after playing abroad during the coronavirus pandemic

Canadian players in the Russia-based KHL hockey league have come home. CityNews' Lindsay Dunn has the details.

By Lindsay Dunn

First, it was the NBA, then the NHL and MLB followed suit.

Then almost every other sports league in the world was cancelling or postponing their season over COVID-19 concerns.

However, there was one league being stubborn: the Kontinental Hockey League (KHL). If you’re not familiar with the KHL, it’s a league predominantly based in Russia but has teams across eastern Europe in Kazakhstan, Latvia, Finland, Belarus and China.

On Monday, they announced that they were postponing the playoffs for a week because two of the eight teams competing dropped out because of the COVID19- pandemic. Then, Russia’s Ministry of Sport released guidelines forcing the league to cancel the playoffs until at least April 10.

“The KHL is still practicing guys and it’s kind of scary to see,” Mathew Maoine who plays in the KHL. “We don’t want anybody to obviously get sick or contaminate the locker room, or any cities to get the virus. It’s so weird to see how things are progressing here in Canada with the state of emergency in Ontario and other provinces right now.”

Maione is at home with his fiancé in Ontario right now but was in Switzerland playing for Team Canada in the Spengler Cup when he first heard of how rapidly the virus was spreading. He is now self-isolated like the majority of Canadians and is using his love of music to help him.

“I try to play at least once a day… as far as being a hockey player the pressure that we get as import players playing in the KHL, I think that it’s really good to have an outlet. We don’t have to think about hockey, we don’t have the pressure of performing and executing every shift at every game or practice.”

“For me, not only do I enjoy it. It’s a therapeutic thing for me where I do something that I love.”

He even sang during the KHL All-Star Game.

Besides that rockstar moment, the former OHL player admits playing in the KHL has given him some unforgettable experiences.

“I never thought I would go to St. Petersburg and see the canals or Kazakhstan, or to see the Kremlin,” he said. “I mean [there are] so many different things that I wouldn’t have seen if I didn’t play in the league and so many different cities and countries I wouldn’t go and see and play in unless I played in the league.”

Top Stories

Top Stories

Most Watched Today