According to the Canadian Press on Tuesday, the 2020 Mann Cup has been cancelled because of coronavirus. The cup is awarded annually to the Canadian senior men’s box lacrosse champions of the Canadian Lacrosse Association. In addition to the Mann Cup, the complete seasons for the Ontario Lacrosse Association’s Major Series Lacrosse and British Columbia’s Western Lacrosse Association have also been cancelled for 2020.
The Mann Cup is a best out of seven series between the champions of the Western Lacrosse Association and the Major Series Lacrosse. The Peterborough Lakers are the defending Mann Cup champions. In 2019, the Lakers beat the Victoria Shamrocks four games to one.
The fact that the Mann Cup will not be presented this year is completely unprecedented. This will be the first time since the Mann Cup was awarded in 1910, that no Canadian lacrosse team will have won the trophy.
There are currently 23,774 cases of coronavirus in Ontario and 1962 deaths. In British Columbia, there are 2,446 cases of coronavirus and 146 deaths.
In other lacrosse news, the National Lacrosse League has announced it has cancelled the remainder of the 2019-20 regular season. They still have not made a decision yet regarding the playoffs. At the time of the coronavirus hiatus, the Halifax Thunderbirds won the North Division with a record of eight wins and four losses and the Saskatchewan Rush won the West Division with a record of seven wins and three losses.
