The ice was still in place, the players were already in quarantine, hotels were lined up, restaurants were ready to provide team meals, and still the SJHL's return to play plan has not been approved by the Saskatchewan Government due to the high amount of variants of COVID 19 in the province. The hub city was a loosely guarded secret to be happening Weyburn, and Red Wings Head Coach and GM Rich Pilon was a large part of the return to play plan.

"It's a mountain that we tried to climb and came up a bit short and I think we did the best we could is to try and have a season for our players. We had seven teams that were committed, and probably government has their reasons, whether it be whatever it is, but you know you got the BCHL that's going, you've got the AJHL that's going, and you got all the Western Hockey League all going, but they're saying we're going to prolong a little bit longer for you guys, which is just instead of just saying 'no, we don't want to play that, just prolong it' to try and make us make that decision now which, to me, it's not right."

The decision is based off of the new variants in Regina coming out of the United Kingdom and the rising numbers in the province, despite the fact the WHL is already nearly a full month into their return to play in Regina. The province did give the league an option to wait two or three more weeks before looking at this again, but with players already in isolation and the ice surface at Crescent Point Place continuing to cost money while no one is using it, Pilon says that plan just isn't going to fly.

"We can't wait another two or three weeks before things change, but that's just the way of saying no to us, right? We can't keep rinks open and expect people to wait. We were already at the end here. We had to find out this week whether we could. Teams are getting impatient, players are getting impatient. We self quarantine these kids for upwards of 20 days, which is really brutal when you come to think about it now that that they did what they were asked, and then the government never gave the 'okay'."

That 20 days is not an exaggeration. Players around the league have been in isolation with their billet families without being able to practice, go to the gym, or even go see the other players on their teams for that long already hoping that there would be a word on a restart coming soon. At the time of this article, Pilon had not had a chance to speak to his players directly, but after they did everything right and everything they were asked, there's obvious disappointment."

"Especially when there's another league already in our province, it's really a tough pill to swallow when you when you have left the hockey being played in Regina right now."

At the very least, Pilon is happy to see that even without playing a game since early November, the community of Weyburn is still at the backs of the Red Wings and the SJHL.

"Thank you to the hotels in Weyburn and thank you to the restaurants and anybody else that supported us to get the hub. That was a big job just for us to become the hub and t here was a lot of people that were helping out and we just appreciate everybody's helping in this town of Weyburn here that did everything they could to have it here."