Another lineup change for provincial senior hockey.
Another re-branding, or to be absolutely correct, another return to a familiar brand.
Another shutout of the CeeBees.
Hockey Newfoundland and Labrador announced Tuesday there will be one seven-team provincial senior hockey league competing for the Herder Memorial Trophy Championship in 2019, a result of an amalgamation of clubs from two circuits, the Central West Senior Hockey League (CWSHL) and the East Coast Senior Hockey League (ECSHL).
The resulting new league, to be called the Newfoundland Senior Hockey League, will include the St. John’s Caps, Northeast Eagles, Southern Shore Breakers and Conception Bay South Blues, the four teams that constituted the ECSHL last season, and the defending Herder champion Clarenville Caribous, Gander Flyers and Grand Falls-Windsor Cataracts, the three teams that made up the CWSHL in 2017-18.
The new league might be seen as modification of last season’s provincial senior A setup, which saw ECSHL and CWSHL teams play interlocking contests.
Not included in the latest scheme are the Conception Bay North CeeBee Stars, who were Herder champs in 2017, but couldn’t find a game last season, having been ejected by their former brethren on the Avalon Peninsula and — depending on who tells the story — having been unable to overcome roadblocks to entry into the Central West league or having themselves rejected the idea of becoming a member of the CWSHL.
Whatever the case, a CeeBees-CWSHL marriage did make it to the planning stages this summer as the Conception Bay North executive made another bid to get back onto the ice. But those talks eventually came up empty, as did a proposal to establish yet another league, one which would have featured the CeeBees, Mount Pearl and an entry from Outer Cove. HNL was apparently not willing to sanction that plan.
Tuesday’s revelation is the latest episode in a hockey soap opera that has taken on Coronation Street proportions, featuring league acronyms that collectively cover much of the alphabet.
When the CeeBees won the Herder a year-and-a-half ago, they did so as champions of the Avalon East Senior Hockey League (AESHL), which also included the Caps, Breakers, Blues and Eagles. But in a dispute centred on complaints the CeeBees contravened rules by using paid players, the other four teams exited the AESHL, making it defunct, and re-established themselves as the ECSHL.
Meanwhile, the Caribous, Flyers and Cataracts were playing in the CWSHL, where the ‘W’ stood for a western contingent that no longer existed. The Corner Brook Royals had left the CWSHL in 2016 to become a member of the West Coast Senior Hockey League (WCSHL).
That latter league, which also includes the Deer Lake Red Wings, Stephenville Jets and Port aux Basques Mariners, will operate again this season, but the WCSHL has been designated as a senior ‘B’ circuit by HNL, and as such, will not compete for the Herder.
The new senior ‘A’ circuit is actually the third to adopt the Newfoundland Senior Hockey League moniker. The first was one that existed between 1962 and 1989, while there was another had a much shorter term, between 2011 and 2014, and which featured an acronym (NLSHL) that differed from its full name.
According to Tuesday’s release from Hockey NL, the newest Newfoundland Senior Hockey League will be known as the NSHL.
The matrix for a 2018-19 schedule wasn’t revealed Tuesday, but the HNL press release said the Caribous will compete in an eastern division with St. John’s, Northeast, C.B.S. and Southern Shore, with the Cataracts and Flyers travelling to the metro region for games.
Last year’s interlocking contests were all played in the central region.
The Herder playoffs will consist of a round-robin tournament — “similar to the MasterCard Memorial Cup,” said Tuesday’s release — featuring the top four regular-season finishers, with the champion to be crowned on the Easter weekend.
Details on the schedule, as well as league sponsors, are expected the middle of this month.
Twitter: @telysports
