Players with the Central Alberta Bullseye Blind Hockey team couldn't wait to hit the ice on Feb. 1 for the 2025 Alberta Blind Hockey Challenge at Red Deer's Gary W. Harris Canada Games Centre.
"We always host a Bullseye Blind Hockey game once a season," said Dustin Butterfield, the team's founder, who lives near Lacombe. "We also usually have 10 to 12 practices per year, too. It's about the joy of sport, and of competing - and the camaraderie, too."
The event, which ended up with the Bullseye team winning 6-5, also included two players from the Edmonton area.
"I think (this opportunity) opens doors as well, for those who want to go to the Canadian Blind Hockey tournaments," he added. "Thank you so much to all of our visiting players and volunteers for making our game day a great event."
According to Canadian Blind Hockey, “The sport uses some modified rules and equipment, most notably the adapted puck that makes noise and is larger than a traditional puck. At the recreational level, all athletes must be visually impaired, while at the competitive level, all players must be classified as legally blind, which is defined as having approximately ten percent vision or less.”
Another difference from regular hockey is that the nets are slightly lower, too.
Raised in Stettler County, Butterfield launched into rodeo for a time during his youth, but hockey was never off the radar. In 2017, he made a key connection — he attended a dinner for Fighting Blindness Canada in Edmonton and met a couple of guys who played on a blind hockey team there.
Later that fall, he took part in a Leduc blind hockey tournament. Two games into that, he was absolutely hooked.
Butterfield, who has a genetic eye disease that has left him partially sighted with some peripheral vision, played minor hockey from about the age of five or six until he was 11.
Meanwhile, Devon resident and new team player Barney Press explained how he was diagnosed with Retinitis Pigmentosa in his early 20s.
"I went through my whole life - up to two years ago - ranching near Calgary. But my condition has progressed to the point where I can't drive or work anymore.
"I had played hockey when I was a kid, and absolutely loved it."
Without the daily routines that had once kept his days pretty full, Press knew he needed to find something new. His thoughts turned to a sport he once had - and still very much has - a passion for.
"Hockey was it! It's fantastic. This is my first organized hockey game in 30 years," he said with a smile. Aside from the sheer joy of the experience, he had to admit it was at first a bit taxing physically.
"I haven't played three periods of hockey since I was 18 years old. It's fun, though. I am also a member of the Edmonton SeeHawks Blind Hockey team, but I have only had one skate with them," he explained. "And so because of all this, I'm going to the gym and I skate every day. And I'm going to make a go for the national team next year, too. This is just great."
Press explained he has lost pretty much all of his peripheral vision.
"So it's fantastic being able to do this," he said. "It's good hockey out there, too."
For those who live with visual impairment and would like to try out the team, but feel a bit wary of it all, Press encourages them to give it a try.
"Don't be reluctant. I was reluctant - even going out in public spaces now, or unfamiliar territory, can be uncomfortable." \
He noted that his mom also strongly encouraged him to give it a shot as well. "She said, we are doing this this year - we are going to get your stuff. So she's a hockey mom again!" he chuckled.
Cory Gaskin, who is originally from Red Deer but recently relocated to Edmonton, remembers getting a call from a mutual friend of Butterfield's who was with the CNIB.
"She asked if I wanted to play hockey, and I said, yes, I will give it a shot. So this is my sixth or seventh season," he said. "And in my second season, I decided I wanted to be a goalie.
"It's a lot of fun, and we accept all skill levels," he said.
Like Press, he'd like to see more people discover how terrific it is to not only have to opportunity to play, but to be part of a like-minded and very supportive community, too.
"If you are interested, come out and try it - we will make it work," he said. "It's a really good group of people."
Gaskin, 39, has no central vision. "I can't really see colours all that well - no distance, and no detail. I was diagnosed with my condition when I was seven years old," he explained.
As for being part of the team, the experience has paid dividends in many ways.
"I love coming down here," he said. "It's the camaraderie - everyone knows how you are feeling. We all have different eye conditions, but we can all lean on each other."
Find Central Alberta Bullseye Blind Hockey on Facebook.
