HUMBOLDT — The Humboldt Minor Hockey Association (HMHA) has announced they will be streaming online all minor hockey events from U7 through U18 this season.
These will include games, try-out camps, skills sessions and scrimmages.
“We thought about this for a number of years, but just never found the right opportunity to implement it,” said Jason Holtvogt, vice-president of HMHA.
“We were looking at the cost, and thinking this would be prohibitive with how many people would use it. I think with the restrictions on the facilities right now, with keeping some out, it’s going to push more people towards viewing it this way.”
Holtvogt said with the increased use of streaming, this year made the perfect opportunity to roll out the subscription service.
“It’s watching a game on TV, so it would be the same feeling you get from watching hockey on TV. One of the cameras is automated, so it follows the play of the game – it will track the puck.”
To view the HMHA events, users will have to buy a subscription through HockeyTV.com, which is the same subscription service used by the Humboldt Junior A team.
Some subscription offers include access to coaching tools, which coaches can use to assist young players on the ice.
“We can break down the video, without getting too technical, aspects of the game that they can play back and have certain parts of the game to allow kids to re-watch,” Holtvoght said.
“If they did something really well on the ice, they can play that back for them, and show things that they did really well. There’s a coaching aspect to it.”
Under Saskatchewan Health guidelines, currently only 30 audience members can view games from the stands.
“When those restrictions change, we’ll modify with that,” he said. “We’ll put as many people in the stands as we’re allowed to by the province.”
As the team gets our game schedules for the upcoming season, they will be added to the HockeyTV Schedule.
