Worrying about friends, missing family: teen hockey players sacrifice being home to play sport.
It's been a challenging enough season for youth hockey players, given cancelled games and restrictions around how they can practise and gather.
But for some Fredericton Caps U18 AAA hockey players from the Edmundston area, the season has been more challenging. They've had to be away from friends and family living in what has been a part of the province hardest hit by the COVID-19 pandemic.
With no U18 AAA hockey teams in the Edmundston area, a handful of players from that region are playing for the Fredericton Caps to further their hockey careers.
Living with billet families and going to school in the capital city since last September, the boys were able to play eight games and return home to see their families before a spike in cases shortly after the holidays moved New Brunswick into more restrictive phases of the province's COVID-19 recovery plan.