Tough weekend for the Hamilton Bulldogs. It started with a loss in Kingston and then postponed games on Saturday and Sunday in Barrie and Ottawa due to the flu taking the team out.

We are now halfway through the season, so we checked in with Bulldogs head coach Jay McKee to see how to boys are doing.

McKee says the team initially thought the team was experiencing food poisoning, but quickly realized it was a bad case of the flu. 

“We had a number of guys, over half our team got sick-” said McKee. “We had players at home who weren’t on the trip, they started getting sick around the same time.”

He says the team had a practice yesterday with everyone on the ice and although some of the players seemed drained, it was still successful. 

There have been two new players on the Bulldogs: Arber Xhekaj and Mason McTavish. McKee says both players bring a lot of leadership to the team.

“Arber Xhekaj is a player I’ve had in Kitchener and he has just really developed,” said McKee. “He is a great story, he went undrafted in the OHL, really like what we saw in him there and got him on board in Kitchener and he has developed great over the seasons…and Mason McTavish, arguably the best player in the CHL.”

The Bulldogs are in Niagara on Saturday playing the Icedogs, then back home in Hamilton playing against the Kingston Frontenacs on Sunday. 

There are still no fans allowed in the rink to watch the game, but they can still buy 50/50 tickets at Bulldogs5050.com.