By James Dunn

LONG TIME IN THE WORKS

“Blind Hockey Battle of Alberta” goes Saturday in Red Deer

Feb 20, 2020 | 6:30 PM

A local man’s vision for a blind hockey game in Red Deer will come true this Saturday.

Dustin Butterfield started a blind hockey team, the Central Alberta Bullseye, with other blind and visually impaired people in and around Red Deer.

Saturday afternoon at the Gary W. Harris Canada Games Centre they’ll take on a team made up of players from the Edmonton Seehawks and Calgary Seeing Ice Dogs in what is beind dubbed the “Blind Hockey Battle of Alberta.”

Butterfield says the game was made possible through working the Alberta Sports and Recreation Association for the Blind (ASRAB).

“They are definitely worthy of note for us because they have the advertising power, the proper insurance, and the organizational structure that they basically helped to facilitate starting this new hockey team and getting the ice times, helping pay for everything,” he explained.

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Blind hockey has a few tweaks compared to the regular game that Butterfield says are designed to make the game fairer.

“We have a giant metal puck, made out of sheet metal, and it has metal ball bearings in it. It behaves like a puck for sure, it’s just a little bit heavier and makes a lot of noise.

“(Referees) would call crease violations because your goalies are usually the guys who have no vision at all. They wear blindfolds in case they have a bit of vision.

“There’s one other rule that after you cross the blue line onside, you have to make a clean pass to your teammate before you can be eligible to score. That’s just to make it a little bit more fair for the goalie.”

Saturday’s game goes at at 2:30 p.m. You can check out the Bullseyes Facebook page to learn more.

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