Saturday, April 27, 2019

7 Takes: Mercyhurst tidbits and a women's hockey team from 1926

Happy Saturday hockey fans. I offer you 7 takes, these ones mostly Mercyhurst themed, except for the very last one.

1- Congratulations to Emma Nuutinen, a rising senior at Mercyhurst, who just won a historic silver medal with Team Finland at the Women's World Championships. Emma has been a fixture on the Finnish team for years, and lead Mercyhurst in points this past season with 28 points in 30 games, coming off her Olympic bronze medal performance in 2018. The silver medal was certainly controversial, given the disallowed goal, and you can see the emotion in the team picture below.



2- Congratulations and good luck to Vilma Tanskanen, who graduates from Mercyhurst this spring. Vilma recently signed with Linkoping, one of 10 pro teams in the Swedish Women's Hockey League (referred to as the SWHL or SDHL). Tanksanen finished her college career with 57 points in 129 games. She played her first two seasons at UND, before transferring to Mercyhurst. A big strong forward with a great shot, Vilma was the first alternate for Finland at the most recent Olympics. Hopefully her game continues to develop at the pro level and we see her on a team Finland roster once again.

3- The Ice Garden published a piece on Mercyhurst alum Jess Jones' 2016-2017 season with the Brampton Thunder, when she put up 37 points, tying Marie-Philip Poulin in scoring and winning the Angela James Bowl. Jones said in regards to that special season: “[One] game that stood out most to me was the All-Star Game at the ACC. I was able to share the ice with the league’s best and I was fortunate enough to score a hat trick...having all my friends and family there to watch was really special.”

Jess Jones played at Mercyhurst from 2008 to 2012, finishing with 154 points, 7th on the all time scoring leaders at Mercyhurst.

4- Tangentially related to Jess Jones, if you haven't seen the Markham Thunder twitter account thread about the birthday party for Megan Bozek's dog Boone, do yourself a favor and click on through. You will smile! Or, just watch this one short vid from the thread of Jones trying to supervise. Her dog Laker was a party guest.


5- Former Mercyhurst assistant coach Delaney Collins made news in March when she was the Head Coach of Team BC at the Canada Winter Games. The team won bronze, the first time they won at a medal since 1991. Hockey Canada published this story about the gold, silver, and bronze winning coaches. I liked this quote from Collins:

“We definitely want girls that are hard-working and mentally are able to show a lot of compassion for themselves,” Collins says. “At the end of the day, it is a game of mistakes. So, how do you respond after making a mistake? We are looking for athletes who are open to learning and are not too critical about the mistakes in the game.” 

Collins is a former Canada National Team member, and coached at Mercyhurst from 2011 - 2016.

6 - Collins was also a guest on the Champion Minded podcast recently. It's worth a listen if you are interested in coaching or leadership. I often lament the fact that women's hockey is so far behind women's basketball in terms of infrastructure. It's rare to get to hear a women's hockey coach speak at length about topics relevant to us fans, so this was really cool.

7- Ending on a bit of a sad note. If you are a CWHL fan, you probably saw yesterday that the CWHL is auctioning off its assets, including its trophies. I am praying that someone with money can buy the trophies and get them in the Hall of Fame where they belong.

The sadness is not just about hockey. It is about the pain of witnessing how the history of the accomplishments of women are vulnerable to being erased, because we as a society do not value and support women (and all marginalized people) to the extent we are worthy. There is value in knowing what the women who came before us did, value in documenting their struggles and successes. It is a shame to be forever calling people pioneers, because we haven't properly documented, shared, and preserved the stories of those who have achieved. At some point we must learn, and must stop doing this.

I want to share a picture my sister sent me just last week. She found this in her detached garage, damaged beyond being salvageable, but I am grateful for the digital image. The woman that used to live in the house my sister now lives in was named Jean Murray, and she was the head mistress at a school in Newfoundland called Bishop Spencer, I'm not sure when exactly. Here is a picture of their girls hockey team, dated 1926:



I look at this picture and think about a book report I wrote in the fifth grade about Howie Morenz and a couple other NHL players, because I had a book that told their story. Why was their no book about these women, or women like them? I was not special for playing hockey in the nineties, girls and women had played for decades. I was no pioneer, I was just like those other girls - Helen, Esther, Joan, Gertrude, Ruth, Ethel, Kathleen, Edith, Caroline, and the lady who's first name I can't read, so I will call Bursell. It gets to a point where it is just crushing that the stories of only specific people get told, and it is on us who care, to change it.

Bit of a coincidence, but Mercyhurst was founded the same year this picture was taken, in 1926, by the Sisters of Mercy. The original mission of the school was to educate poor women, people who by virtue of their sex and social class were deemed less worthy by society at the time. I assume the nuns were not rich, but they were powerful just the same, and their work effected change. I think I can learn from that.

There is a narrative in our culture that women do not show up for each other, do not support each other. It's not true; we have always shown up for each other, in fact we have done so against all odds. But the amount of work to be done is great, and we must continue to show up for each other, to teach each new generation that this is what we do, what we've always done. We are learning a lot of painful lessons with the demise of the CWHL - whatever comes next, let's show up for them. Let's not go through this again.
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Friday, April 19, 2019

Team Canada Wins Bronze at Worlds

If Canada wasn't chasing before, they are definitely chasing now, after settling for bronze at the 2019 Women's World Championships. Jared Book has written an excellent column on it, and I add my thoughts below.

Going in to the tournament I had hopes Canada could win gold.  The United States was deservedly favored and even if available Poulin wasn't going to be at her best. But the nature of hockey is that anyone can win. Look no further than the Blue Jackets sweeping the Lightning in the NHL playoffs, as an example. Coming off a rivalry series which Canada won and Maschmeyer and Szabados both played exellent in, picking up NCAA Patty Kazmaier winner Loren Gabel, there was reason to believe Canada could win. So much for that.

It is even more unfortunate, because as much as we fans deservedly put Poulin on a pedestal, it is important for the team themselves to understand that she is one human, and they too, can shoulder the load. This was a chance for them to prove to Canada and to themselves what they can do without Poulin. And early in the tournament they looked fine, with a strong preliminary round game against Finland, and yes a 3-2 loss to the USA. In the USA game the biggest concern was the lack of even strength scoring, but two power  play goals was decent, and shots wrapped up at 33-30 in favor of Canada. Going into the semi, the team had played a decent tournament, and got a good start in the semi before everything fell apart. That loss sparks some observations and conversation that might not otherwise occur.

Generally speaking, for as close as the Canada US games finish up on the score board, the Canadian squad does not create the same volume of high scoring chances as the Americans do, and Canada doesn't finish as well when they do get chances. Example: Early in the Rivalry Series Poulin and Bettez had a two on one. Poulin got the pass across to Bettez, who caught it on her backhand and rushed something weak on net into the goalie's pads. With the goalie committed to sliding across the crease, one move to her forehand and Bettez would have had an empty net to shoot on. Maybe it was nerves, it was literally her first game ever on the senior national team. But they slotted her right in on the top line and kept her there, and the nature of these short tournaments is you need to be ready to go.

Similarly, early in the Rivalry Series, Poulin was coming up with pucks behind the net and feeding them to Johnson in the slot. Johnson took precious time to handle the puck before getting her shots off, giving the goalie time to reset and make the save. Johnson overhandled pucks in the offensive zone, throughout the Rivalry Series. Canada's top line did not score at even strength in the series. Poulin did Poulin things of course, and got a point on the power play, and an even strength goal assisted by Rattray when lines were mixed up. Canada did not score at even strength vs the Americans at Worlds, at all.

Contrast the above with these two goals below. The first is Cameranesi creating a turnover behind the net and feeding Knight who is timing it such that she can one time a puck into the back of the net, for a game winning goal versus Finland in the preliminaries. The US was under pressure, as they had to come from behind to win that game, in the third period. Contrast that with the panic that Canada displayed in the semi. The second clip below is Decker catching a pass, realizing the goalie is committed, so making that extra stick handle to give herself an open net to shoot at. If Canada wants to routinely succeed vs the Americans again, they need a deep core of players that can execute these skills on a regular basis, as the Americans are routinely doing.

Knight goal:


Decker goal:

Another concern is that Canada's scoring production vs the US does not have a lot of depth and is drying up versus the United States. The picture below summarizes total points versus the US, for an individual's time on the Senior National Team. I'm not really concerned about the defense below, I think that discussion probably needs more nuance than I could give it, but a couple things jump out (you can add 1 game to everyone but Poulin, and add 2 points each to Jenner, Nurse, and Lacquette who got points vs the US in the preliminary game at Worlds).



The first thing that jumps out is Johnston. Johnston has the 2nd most points of any Canadian on the Worlds roster, vs the US, with 24 points in 66 games. She is Canada's longest tenured player right now and plays top 6 minutes. However, she did not register a point vs the US at the 2018 Olympics, 2018 Four Nations, Rivalry Series or 2019 Worlds, her last 8 games versus them. Club wise, she had a great year - 39 points in 27 games for the Calgary Inferno, a Clarkson Cup championship, and always looks like one of the best players on the ice. She was 4th in TOI/game among forwards for Canada at Worlds' and had 4 points total. If Canada is going to keep up that kind of ice time for her, they need to help her get more productive.

The next concerning thing is the number of forwards who are racking up games versus the Americans but not points. Saulnier, Turnbull, and Clark have 8 points vs the Americans in a combined 70 games. Clark and Turnbull are both centers, which makes a person think Canada is lacking centers right now. Or, is it a game management thing where these guys dress but never get put on the ice? Or are we picking the wrong players, or have a development problem? That's all for Hockey Canada to figure out, but it looks like there is room to crack this roster at center.

What's unfortunate is that Turnbull had such a strong Rivalry Series, earning two points and centering Canada's most productive line between Stacey and Rattray. At World's before getting injured she averaged 13:22 minutes per game, and almost 3 shots per game. She finished with 4 points. Again, Canada needs to figure out what they are doing with their bottom six forwards. There is a tremendous amount of pressure on the power play and top line to provide all the offense versus the Americans at this point.

Canada has long been criticized for not bringing their best 23 players to tournaments. I said in a previous post that I didn't know if it was that or rather the US is just getting better results out of their players. Would Canada really be so arrogant as to believe they could win without their best players, when we've barely won at all since 2010? I will give examples of  some puzzling decisions that might suggest yes they are that arrogant, but first some evidence of the other side of the argument, that Hockey Canada is trying to adjust positively, and learn from not bringing star players:

In 2017 Daoust wasn't at Worlds and Canada wasn't good enough to win. So they brought her to the Olympics. She was the MVP, but it still wasn't enough. 2018 Four Nations, thank god, rising star Loren Gabel is finally on the roster. Impressive start, 2 points in 2 games versus the Americans. Keep her around! For the Rivalry Series, we finally got CWHL star, Ann-Sophie Bettez on the roster. Canada won, and Bettez impressed and was blessed with top six minutes alongside Marie Philip Poulin and Rebecca Johnson the two leading point scorers vs US for this roster. 0 points for Bettez though, which was concerning. Then Worlds, and the bronze place finish. I get the sense Hockey Canada is trying to adjust, but the results still have not been what they wanted, and that is again concerning.

Now, the puzzling decisions. Jared already gave examples in his post, but here were a couple I thought of. The 2018 Four Nations roster did not originally include Jamie Lee Rattray. She was a late addition, after 2 other forwards got injured. She then worked her way on to the Rivalry Series roster where she *checks notes* was tied for the lead in scoring, with three points in three games. Hmm. Going into Worlds she had 6 points in 8 games versus the Americans. She got 6 points total at Worlds, averaging 9:21 per game. In the loss versus the Finns, despite scoring a goal, she got fewer than 6 minutes of ice time. She average 5.5 points per 60 at Worlds, the best of any Canadian. Next closest was Spooner, who finished with 4.9 points per 60 and 10 points at Worlds, Canada's point leader. It seems reasonable that Canada should be putting Rattray on the roster not just when the team is injury ravaged, and not only that, giving her ice time. (stats are from IIHF.com and this amazing sheet from Mike Murphy @digdeepBSB:

The other recent puzzling decision that I will point out is on defense. Jaime Bourbonnais, a defender from Cornell was on the Four Nations roster. Not a ton of playing time, but she's young. The defense in the final game was atrocious and when the win was out of reach Pearn finally through Bourbonnais out there on the power play, and she scores a goal, versus the US in her 2nd ever game against them. She honestly has a great shot, can get off a one timer that resembles Knight a bit, and finished fourth in points per game among all active NCAA defenders this year. So they put her on the roster for Worlds, but used her sparingly. In the semi loss to Finland she got 0 shifts. The next day, she got almost 19 minutes of ice time a bronze medal blow out, in which she also scored a goal. It's hard to look at this and understand what the thinking is by the coaching staff.

The Bourbonnais thing is further frustrating for me because in the Rivalry Series, which Canada actually won, they played 5 out of 6 defense. To make room for both Bourbonnais and Zandee-Hart at Worlds, Canada dropped Krzyzaniak who played well at RS....only to have Bourbonnais sit on a bench in a game when an offensive defender could have been of great value. Hockey Canada leaves itself vulnerable to criticism when stuff like this occurs. There is absolutely no way this entirely about Canada's players just not being as good as the Americans. The Americans might have more raw skill (like seriously this core of Americans is very special) but you really get the sense that Canada is just not operating on all cylinders.

I will end it there, but a person could go on. The bright spots are there (at Worlds it was Spooner, Jenner, Lacquette, Gabel, Rattray, Nurse, off the top of my head), there is always reason to believe Canada can get back to gold, but there is no guarantee. Greatness is an every day endeavor. Look at the step Sweden thought it took in 2006 with that silver Olympic medal. Last week - relegated.

This storyline will simmer a bit now, as Hockey Canada hopefully plays a role in figuring out where their national team players will play next year, but it will return with a vengeance as development team camp selections and Fall Festival camp selections are made in the coming months.


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Sunday, March 31, 2019

Hearts broken.

"But when you truly love something, you can overlook the darker sides in order to focus on all of the happiness it brings you." 
-Caroline Ouellette, Players' Own Voice 

"I was that kind of invincible the first time I saw the movie "A League Of Their Own." I liked it for all the reasons a junior high jock might -- clever dialogue, funny characters, a sports tie-in. I was reaping the benefits of Title IX every day, but I had no understanding of the sea change it had caused, so the idea of sports being a "guy thing" felt like ancient history, the characters in the movie no more real than those in "The Mighty Ducks" or "Wayne's World."

It wasn't until I revisited the movie just a few years ago, after decades absorbing the blows of misogyny, with an earned understanding of the limitations placed on women by society, that I truly felt its power. I cried alone on my couch, newly moved by the women of the All-American Girls Professional Baseball League, who lost the game they loved to men returning home from war."
-Sarah Spain, ESPN
 

Today is a sad day. No matter what comes next, when the CWHL announced it was folding today, for many it marked the end of their professional career in hockey. I can only imagine how those players, and members of the staffs are feeling. I am sorry.

Before I heard the news, what I wanted to blog about was why I read women's sports coverage. Instead, I will just write.

A couple years ago, I was out to lunch with two of my bosses, both of whom were mentors, one especially so. At the time I had a three year old, and an infant son who had just started daycare. I was struggling, working 50 plus hours a week, commuting an hour total a day. My son was nursing, I was pumping, and waking up at least once a night to feed him. We had new financial stress with a daycare bill that had just gone up $1,300 a month, now that we had two kids in care.

In survival mode, I cared for my children, did my work and let everything else go, until things calmed down a bit. I was doing a great job, but it was so hard. I asked for some help at work, some more flexibility in my work schedule to help me through. My bosses just didn't get it. They helped me a bit, but mostly said no, and came up with some asinine suggestions too (reduce my hours in five months, after busy season; reduce my pay now for one example). They had a loosey goosey approach to supporting mothers. We all had different arrangements, mine was the worst. My boss told me it was because I was so valuable to them. Another boss lectured me, told me I was lucky my husband and I had one in law in town to help us. It cut like a knife.

Meanwhile, there were other young women in the office who had infants as well. Some of our  colleagues, young 30 somethings, mostly men but sometimes older women too, would openly disparage the women for needing some support, for having the audacity to ask to work from home on occasion for example, for maybe not being at their absolute best at this brief moment in their life, in their career.

Again, it cut like a knife. You don't know me, dear reader, but I work hard, and I'm good at what I do. The same is true of my colleagues who were being disparaged. I always understood that success happens when hard work meets opportunity, but in that time of my life I kept looking but could not find the opportunity. I felt alone.

It was a difficult back and forth thing, but I felt both that I was failing, and being failed. Today, I know the latter was far more true than the former, but it was hard to accept that in the moment. It was hard to accept that people who said they would support me weren't doing so, and hard to accept that I wasn't special - hard work alone and whatever potential I had would not prevent me from finding the limit of my own glass ceiling.

Back to that lunch with my bosses. We were in a sports bar and one of my bosses, seeing it on ESPN, pointed out that the women's hockey team was boycotting. I assumed he meant NWHL (they had recently cut salaries), and I'm embarrassed that my knee jerk reaction was to assume it was related to that, and made what I now know was an ignorant remark about not having fans in the seats.

Back at the office, I googled and learned what it was actually about. There was good coverage on ESPN, sure. But the outlet that covered the story non stop was the Ice Garden. In that moment, more than 25 years since I had first started hockey, I discovered women's hockey fandom. I've never left, and as long as women's hockey -and coverage- continues to exist, I never will.

It turns out, I needed hockey in my life at that moment. And not just any hockey, I needed women's hockey and that particular 2017 USWNT led by Meghan Duggan. There were three parts to their story that will never leave me.

The first is the incredible audacity of Team USA to have the 2014 Olympic jerseys' inside collar reference the men's 1980 Olympic gold medal, but not the women's 1998 gold medal.  Can you imagine being Kelli Stack, Molly Schaus, or Alex Carpenter, BC Eagles representing Team USA, having the sweat off your neck soak into a collar that celebrated your teammates' college coach, Mark Johnson, but not your own college coach, Katie King? Two USA Hockey heroes, but only one worthy of recognition, apparently. This oversight is one of the things the women brought up when they talked about the disrespect they were shown by their governing body.

The second thing that will never leave me about their fight is the ending. Hilary Knight, whether you think she's the best player in the world, or on the best on that team or not, was the face of the team at that time. Hers was the last face we saw in both videos the team released - the first announcing the boycott, the second released after an agreement was reached. When the World Championship was won in overtime, on home soil, of course the goal came off the stick of Hilary Knight. You could not script better drama. I wanted more.

The third thing that will never leave me was the portion of their fight that related to maternity leave. God bless these women for fighting that fight, and winning it. What happens in sport is a microcosm for what occurs in the larger world. I only hope that one day all American women will have the benefit of a proper maternity leave policy.

As people are aware, United States federal law does not provide for paid maternity leaves. Depending on your employer you might get a financial benefit. Or, depending on your employer you might not even qualify for FMLA, which protects your job for 12 weeks but pays nothing. I had what would be considered a good job. Because of the timing of my pregnancy, they let me have 4 months off. I had a short term disability policy, 100% paid for by me, that provided 60% of 5 weeks pay. This is life in America for a privileged woman. It is not my nature to feel sorry for myself, but don't women deserve better? It was impossible for me to see the 2017 USWNT's fight with their governing body, and not see some version of the challenges I felt in my own life.

Their ability to find their voice, to organize, to fight, to win, is what I needed to see. It's helped me more than any book by Peggy Orenstein, or Sheryl Sandberg, or Annemarie Slaughter, or, or, or. And, in the time since that 2017 WWC I have continued to learn from, gain strength from, and be inspired by the strong women in sport, and all people who support it.

I ultimately left the job I was at. I grew a lot and got good mentoring there, for most of my eight years there, although in the end we outgrew each other. I'm sure they look around and wonder why they just can't get more talented women to stay. Maybe one day they will get it. Maybe not. The place I am at now is not what I planned. It is both better and worse, but it is the path my life took. I will keep working hard, and I will find my next opportunity, and my next career success.

It took over a year for me to be at peace with my decision to leave. For a long time I wondered what if? What if I had a proper maternity leave in the first place? What if my colleagues had compassion instead of condescension? Asked how they could help, rather than snarkily talking about the unfairness of women getting special treatment. What if quality daycare was available for infants part time, so a woman could afford to work part time? What if (this one hurts so much) I didn't breastfeed my son, what if I just conceded that aspect of motherhood that I wanted to experience, much like I conceded being home with my infant in the first place? What if companies who suggested part time actually kept the work part time so women weren't afraid to go part time? What if I didn't have an athlete's mentality that I should just shut up and work harder? What if I knew better, remembered that I mattered, that I had a voice (as Coach Jack reminds her players)? Could I have used it, would it have made a difference? What if that job wasn't meant for me and no matter what I was going to leave one day. Did I still deserve better in my son's first year of life? I think so.


I am no professional athlete. But I bet women professional athletes shed tears about what if...I had the support I deserve? as well. 

Life goes on. I don't feel like I'm struggling anymore. My kids are five and two and a half now. They are a million times easier. It's bittersweet but I've bought my last box of diapers (potty training humble brag), and am giving away my baby stuff.

A lot of things brought me happiness over the past couple years, most of all my beloved children and husband. But also, for the umpteenth time in my life, hockey got me through. In survival mode, you give up a lot. Hockey was one indulgence I clung to, a passion I nurtured from a different angle than I had when I was a player. It brought me the same happiness.

It was a privilege to watch the Clarkson Cup Champion Markham Thunder play my alma mater Mercyhurst in the fall in an exhibition. It was a privilege to watch the Buffalo Beauts host the Connecticut Whale. It was a privilege to watch a Rivalry Series game in Detroit. It is a privilege to read each story that is written, see each picture taken, by women's hockey media. What a beautiful, impressive product the entire group has built.

Discovering the people who write about women's hockey brought me joy with the stories they wrote, and gave me the courage to participate in women's hockey fandom, gave me the courage to write. I have been fortunate to have been encouraged by a handful of people I don't even know in real life. What kindness; thank you. I don't miss playing hockey really, but I still love the game. To have found something to watch, something to while time away as I relax or wait for my kids to fall asleep next to me has been a gift.

I am so impressed by all the various people from coaches to players, management, media, volunteers, game day operations, play by play, bloggers, photographers, etc. I loved to see what they did on the ice, loved to hear their thoughts when they were interviewed, loved to see how writers would tell a tale, loved to see everyone fight for what they believe in, even if we aren't always getting along or agreeing. Thank you, all. You will be missed CW. Women's hockey will carry on, brighter days ahead and all that, but today was an ending, and it may take a while to be at peace with it, and there's sadness too.

***

There is a tweet going around about favorite CWHL moments. I don't know if I have a favorite. But there was a moment this year around the CWHL All Star game. I was feeling a bit discouraged as to not having local women's hockey to watch, in such despair I was thinking about taking the family to a Cleveland Monsters game. I wanted to go to the Clarkson Cup. I didn't feel like driving six hours each way, so looked up flights. $800 Cleveland to Toronto! Yeah, no. More despair.

I got to work putting my five year old to bed. She asked to watch some Hilary Knight highlights. We cuddled in bed and watched a shootout that Kunlun ended up winning, but Knight scored in. The videos were courtesy of a fan doing volunteer work (@wsporthilites) to make the game accessible to someone like me. Holding my daughter and teaching her about shootouts, and dekes, and hockey. It was not the Clarkson Cup, but in that moment, watching Knight score on Raty, it was enough.








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Sunday, March 24, 2019

Legacies, leaps and bounds

Today, a border battle of sorts will take place in Hamden, Connecticut when the Wisconsin Badgers play the Minnesota Gophers for the women's Division I National Championship. Minnesota is seeking their first Championship since 2016, Wisconsin their first since 2011 (they've had 2 title game appearances since then). The game is broadcast on the Big Ten Network.

Wisconsin and Minnesota have a long tradition of hockey that goes back as long as hockey has been played. Their women's programs though, understandably have a shorter tenure. Minnesota's club team became varsity in 1997 (notable freshman and future Ohio State head coach Nadine Muzerall on the roster) and Wisconsin debuted in 1999 (freshman Kerry Weiland went on to play in the 2010 Olympics). Before the NCAA made women's hockey a championship sport, from 1997 to 2000 the first College National Championships were won under the AWCHA banner, an alliance created and financed by the US Olympic Committee.

In 2001 the NCAA awarded a championship in women's hockey for the first time, and since that time girls and women's participation in hockey in the US has more than doubled, from around 45,000 to almost 100,000 today. The ability to play for a National Championship, new college programs, and increased enrollment are all part of the legacy of the 1998 Olympics. In 2001 there was 23 NCAA Div I programs, compared to the 35 today. I would guess the number of varsity programs that existed prior to 1997 is in the low teens.

We are now one year removed from the shootout thriller in which the Lamoureux twins solidified their place in women's Olympic hockey lore. Monique scored the tying breakaway goal in the third, and Jocelyne delivered the oops I did it again / star spangled dangle, shootout winner for team USA. I have wondered what the legacy of those Olympics will be.

To me, the biggest legacy so far, the leap and bound forward, is seeing games and programming broadcast on the NHL Network.

Things didn't get off to a great start. The Four Nations Tournament in Saskatoon in the fall, featured a one camera, no commentary stream for Canada's first game. The next game, versus the US, was broadcast on tv in Canada, but was not at all available in the United States. Hell broke loose, as you would expect. At a last moment, the NHL.com streamed the Canadian broadcast of the final. You know how these things are finicky. Personally my computer kind of sucks, so I knew my best bet was to watch on my phone. Not ideal, yet still better than the the game one stream and, the game two blackout.

Things have only got better since then. A US Canada rivalry series was announced. There were some shit show elements, like at first it looked like BC players were going to have to miss the Beanpot, and other players were going to have to miss a weekend of league play. Ultimately the college players sat the series out, although pro leagues were affected. Hopefully that can be ironed out for next year. Yes, next year, there really needs to be a next year, because this thing was amazing. The lack of college players actually added an extra flavor to the whole thing, showcased a modified group of players, demonstrated the depth of both countries programs. Savannah Harmon, Hailey Scamurra, Halli Krzyzaniak, Brittany Howard, Victoria Bach, Rebecca Leslie, Ann Sophie Bettez....none of them Olympians yet, but absolutely wonderful players worth watching, some of who we may not have seen if the college kids are there. I would 100% make an annual event of going to a rivalry series game if it's nearby, again. All three games were broadcast on tv live, in the United States and Canada. That wasn't something that was happening before the 2018 Olympics.

And it goes on from there. Yesterday I enjoyed the half hour Patty Kaz ceremony where Kitchener native Loren Gabel (Clarkson University) won the Patty Kazmaier trophy. I never would have expected it to be broadcast on the NHL Network, and yet there it was, complete with a cool intro and highlight reels of the top 10. When Gabel was delivering her speech, a countdown to the upcoming NHL game appeared. I thought oh dear, this will be awkward, but thankfully the countdown was removed when it appeared things might be a minute or so behind schedule. Gabel's speech was completed, no terrible cutaway at the last moment.

There is always something that happens at these events - Cornell was congratulated on making their first Frozen Four (it's their fourth) but by and large it was just amazing to watch the event, see Patty Kazmaier's daughter Serena and granddaughter Emma present the award. Serena made comments to the players, congratulating them on their accomplishments and thanking them for pushing the limits of what women do. I relate to her comments. I simply enjoy watching these young women pursue their goals, their dreams, perform their talents on a big stage, entertaining us all the while.

I enjoyed hearing Serena talk about her mother, and the spirit of her mother's adventures and humanitarian work. Patty Kazmaier was an Ivy League graduate, a hockey player, and she eventually adventured west to Alaska and then California. She was a teacher, and did humanitarian work with immigrants, helping them apply for US citizenship. I can't tell you how much it means to me to hear stories like this about women who impact the world they live in. I hope we will see this event again on the NHL Network next year.

But perhaps the most incredible development happened just last week, when it was announced the Clarkson Cup Final will be broadcast on the NHL Network (it was already announced it would be on Sportsnet in Canada). I've already told my daughter Hilary Knight will be on tv today.  The game is staggered before the NCAA Championship. Who needs the basketball tournament? Not us! Women's hockey advocates have long argued that more support is needed at the pro level in terms of visibility and infrastructure support. We are getting it today.  The rosters are packed with stars, including 2012 Patty Kaz winner, Brianna Decker. With all this great hockey on tv today, as Badger fans would say, today is a great day for hockey.

As time goes on we'll see whether this increased visibility, a handful of games on television, is a lasting legacy of the 2018 Olympics. I sure hope it is. I'm sure I'll never know exactly how this happened, who picked up the phone and said let's make this happen, although I'll always be curious. While I acknowledge and am grateful for the support of the NHL, I know this progress always starts years, decades in advance. There are more people than could ever be recognized, ever be known. The people that do the work, that push that boulder up the mountain, so often go unseen and unrecognized.

I have no clever conclusion, can only say again that today is a great today for hockey, and all who watch and play today stand on the shoulders of those who came before us, like Patty Kazmaier, like those original Wisconsin and Minnesota players, and fans who have supported women's hockey for years. At the same time it's gratifying, undeniable, exciting and welcomed to see men's hockey embracing women's hockey more than ever, and making the women's game more visible than ever.

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Sunday, March 10, 2019

Syracuse Wins Its First Ever CHA Tournament Championship

They say every sports story is a story about overcoming adversity.

It was certainly the case on Friday when the #3 seed Syracuse defeated #1 seed RMU 6-2 to win its first ever CHA Tournament, and first ever bid to the NCAA Tournament.

It's not that Robert Morris was so much more favored than Syracuse to win, it's not that Robert Morris is that much better on paper or ice than Syracuse. But with six previous conference championship appearances and no wins, among other conference storylines, this wasn't the year many CHA fans picked Syracuse to win the tournament. For Syracuse fans, it probably makes their win that much sweeter.

The Orange finished the year third in the CHA, they had zero non conference wins and their record is currently 13-21-3. Currently ranked at 28th in the pairwise, they will be huge underdogs when they venture west next week to play one of Minnesota or Wisconsin in the NCAA Tournament. There is no doubt the regular season did not go the Orange's way, and looking back there are things they wish would have been different.

Despite that, they are also CHA Conference Tournament Champions for the first time in program history, and one only has to look a Syracuse's twiter feed to get a sense of what that means to the people involved:


Early on in the season, it didn't seem likely the Orange would get to this point. Forget the 6 previous championship games, and a supposedly rising Penn State program for a moment. Consider the Orange's first game agaisnst RIT on November 16th. This group of Syracuse seniors had never lost to RIT, and entering the third period of the game Syracuse held a comfortable 4-2 lead. There was a play in the neutral zone where the RIT player dumped the puck from near the red line on net. You know how it goes - goalie bobbles the puck, thinks she has it, defenders stop skating, hungry forward keeps skating, whistle doesn't blow, and the world's easiest goal gets tapped into the net. The demise of the game continued from there, and RIT ended up not only winning 6-4, but winning the next game versus Syracuse as well.

On January 18th, Syracuse hosted first place Robert Morris. By now the Orange's record was 4-16-1 overall, and they were riding a 10 game losing streak. I tuned in to the end of game as it was tied late. What did I see, but the referees waving off a late goal scored by Syracuse that would have given them a much needed win. It's like they were cursed. There was no quit in the Orange though, and they made it to overtime and prevailed on a goal by Lindsay Eastwood.

With the overtime win, the tide turned a little bit on the Syracuse season. They suffered three more losses to Robert Morris in the regular season, and another loss and tie to  RIT, but also beat Mercyhurst twice, took 3 out of 4 points from Penn State, and swept Lindenwood, primarily alternating their goalies throughout. Going into the tournament, they could say to themselves, "look we've beaten every team in the league except RIT this year (and we tied them), so why not us to win the tournament?"

The tournament game I watched them play was of course the semi versus Mercyhurst. Mercyhurst played well, outshooting the Orange, scoring two power play goals, asserting themselves in the last minute of the opening period to score another. The main quibble I have with Mercyhurst's play is that twice they gave up a goal only a minute or so after scoring themselves. (That lack of consistency, that inability to lock down a moment is something the Lakers fought all year, but that is not the point of this post). The point is that after dispatching Lindenwood in the first game of the playoffs, Syracuse played excellent to beat the rested Lakers in the closest game of the tournament, and then soundly beat RMU in the final.

I can't speak to the beat down that happened in the final, but in the semi (it pains me to write this) Syracuse did everything right.

They got the first goal, a rebound after an odd person rush. The goal scorer was defender Lindsay Eastwood who made sure to high tail it down the ice to bang in any rebound. Twice when Mercyhurst scored, Cuse answered right after. Sickeningly (to me), Syracuse scored two of their goals on delayed penalties, both completely opportunistic plays that happened shortly after the linesman's arm went in the air - one a drop pass to Eastwood who sniped from the point in transition, another finding Anonda Hoppner on a breakaway as she was freed from the penalty box. In college, the penalty still needs to be served in that scenario, and so the Lakers lost 4 precious minutes of potential offense to killing a penalty for which the had already essentially paid a price. And the nail in the coffin, the late third period power play go ahead goal by defender Lindsay Eastwood. It was a career game for the junior, her first ever college hat trick.

If I put away my Laker fandom for a moment, and indulge myself merely as someone who loves sport and seeing people overcome adversity in the pursuit of success, the most impactful moment of the event was seeing a program win something for the first time.

In doing so, they expanded the blueprint of places a young hockey player can aspire to play at that have tasted success. Lack of parity is often a criticism of women's sport, and women's sport fandom is weird in that you don't just cheer for your team, you cheer for growth, parity, visibility, and opportunity, as well. The Orange win represented many of those things, and it didn't come easy. It was an 11 year battle, led by an accomplished coach with previous NCAA success to get to this point:


There are very few active Division I coaches who have started a program from scratch, and still coach the program today. Without researching it, I would estimate the list is Mike Sisti, Paul Flanagan, Erin Hamlen (Merrimack), and maybe Peter Van Buskirk (Holy Cross). Of that list, only Sisti and Flanagan have led their programs to an NCAA berth  at the DI level, and that Flanagan has done it two different programs is a tremendous accomplishment. Thanks to a fellow USCHO poster, I was reminded that another coach who has led two programs to an NCAA Tournament is Maura Crowell, who did so as interim head coach at Harvard in 2014, and then subsequently as head coach at UMD.

Lastly, the Syracuse conference tournament win does not just speak to expanding parity, et al, but there is something to be gleaned from the roster that did it. In an early season write up about the Orange, I lamented their loss of former U18 Canada goalie Edith D'Astous Moreau, and I wrote about how goaltending would be a question mark for the Orange. The regular season goaltending wasn't great, to be honest, but come tournament time, it was the Orange with the best goalie. Their goalie in the semi and final was Ady Cohen, a junior goalie not from Canada, Minnesota or Massachusetts. No she hails from Boynton Beach, Florida, reminding me once again the face of hockey is changing. And she didn't play her high school hockey at Shattuck St. Mary's or an east coast prep school. Rather, she played at the only prep school in Ohio, Gilmour Academy, based out of a Cleveland suburb. Cohen was named to the all tournament team, for her efforts. In the semi and final she stopped 55 of the 60 shots thrown her way for a .917 save percentage.Senior goalie Maddi Welch played the first game, vs Lindenwood.

While the next logical points of discussion are to consider what the Orange will do to prepare for the monumental task that faces them next week, or to surmise about what the conference tournament win might mean for the landscape of the CHA next year, I think the best thing to say is simply congrats, Orange:





To read more about their win check out:
Title IX hockey:  https://titleixhockey.wordpress.com/2019/03/09/what-on-earth-just-happened/
CHA Women's Hockey website: http://www.chawomenshockey.com/news/2019/3/8/womens-ice-hockey-championship-game-recap.aspx

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Tuesday, February 12, 2019

7 Takes: Rivalry Series Thoughts

The much anticipated Rivalry Series between Canada and the US kicks off tonight with a game in London, Ontario. Here are 7 takes.

1- The games will be another chapter in one of the best rivalries in sports, but the rosters will have a decidedly different look from the Olympics and the Four Nations Cup. Canada's roster has 14 2018 Olympians and 17 Four Nations Cup players, the US 14 and 12, respectively. The reasons for the roster changes are numerous: four women on maternity leave, six Olympians returned to college, an injury and some players who are taking time off, or who have perhaps played their last game for their country. Despite the ever fluid rosters, there are some huge names in the series, and with it being broadcast on television and without the distraction of blow out games vs other nations, the series is a recipe for great entertainment.

2- Who will play with Marie-Philip Poulin? Canada's best line in the Olympics was Meghan Agosta, Poulin, and Melodie Daoust. Agosta is on maternity leave and Daoust is rehabbing a knee injury from the fall, leaving two significant roster spots open. I'm curious to see who Coach Perry Pearn puts out with Canada's best player. My guess is we'll see fellow Canadiennes player Ann Sophie Bettez on one wing, and possibly Jillian Saulnier or Rebecca Johnston on the other wing. Poulin currently leads CWHL scoring with 49 points in 24 games, so she is by all accounts ready to go.

3- Ann Sophie who? I confess, I've only been really paying attention since 2017, and I haven't seen Ann Sophie Bettez play before. The 31 year old McGill alum, and Canadiennes player was in the mix with Hockey Canada in 2009, but hasn't been there since. However, she plugged away in the CWHL and is currently 2nd all time in points in that league, behind Caroline Ouellette and ahead of Jayna Hefford. She averages about 1.5 points per game in the CW, and is currently in 2nd place in scoring this year as well, with 44 points, just behind Poulin. I can't wait to watch her play.

 4- Canada's D needs to rebound from the Four Nations final. Canada is 1-3-0 versus the US in its last four games. In the first game at the 2018 Olympics, Canada won 2-1 despite being badly outshot (Genevieve Lacasse had over 40 saves in net), and then lost the Olympic gold medal in a shootout of course. In the first game against the US in the Four Nations in the fall, the game was tied late in the third before US went ahead 2-1 late in the game and went on to win. Although, Canada lost two out of three of those games, they found a way to hang in there, and had a chance to win. No reason to think they can't put themselves in a similar situation in the rivalry series, and get some wins.

But first we need to talk about the Four Nations final. It was a nightmare for the Canadian D. They were missing Olympian Meghan Mikkelson to maternity leave, and former national team roster member Erin Ambrose was out with injury. Early in the game Knight scored on a rebound on a wrapound, later she got herself in front for a nice tip in on a one timer from the point. The American speed was on display on goals on the rush from Samoskevich and from Decker. Finally, the Canadians got victimized on a bad line change once again, and although Szabados made the first save, Coyne Schofield was there to tap in a rebound. In the highlights you could see the Canadian D gliding onto the scene after the fact. Not good, and possibly the number one thing they need to clean up in this series.

I don't know what to do to defend against the US, especially their speed. They are amazing. But I think you can't lose Hilary Knight in front of the net, you can't let her bang away at rebounds, or set up big screens because she will make you pay. She's been relatively quiet in the CW this year, 16 points in 21 games. But she had two goals in the Four Nations final, a power play goal in the Olympic final. Whether she's on a line with Decker and Coyne, or acting as the beneficiary of Dani Cameranesi's passing vision, Knight is dangerous and the Canadians need to do the job on her this series.

 5- Who will play in net for Canada this series? Canada's go to has been Szabados for ages, and why not, she's a two time Olympic gold medalist. She's played well for them too. I don't fault her for the last outing against the US, as that game just wasn't a good one for Canada. Didn't get a good start, and never recovered. But with Canada's struggles of late, and considering Szabados played in the Olympics with an injury, you wonder when Canada might start a new goalie. Lacasse has the most recent win against the US, but she has only played 3 games this season with Les Canadiennes. Emerance Maschmeyer is the third Canadian goalie on Canada's roster for the Rivalry Series. I have to think she will get at least one, maybe two games. She's played 19 games for Les Canadiennes this year with a 0.935 save percentage and 1.47 GAA.  I don't really care who plays goal for Canada to be honest, I just want to see them win, and I know Szabados won't be around forever, so I guess I'm curious what else Canada has.

6- Can't wait to see the kids While the Four Nations roster included some young Canadian college players with Sarah Fillier, Kristin O'Neill, Micah Zandee Hart and Jaime Bourbonnais, the Rivalry Series is without college players. Instead recent graduates Brittany Howard, Victoria Bach and Rebecca Leslie will join the senior National Team for Canada for the first time. Bach and Leslie are in top ten in scoring in their CW rookie campaigns and played together at BU in college. It will be interesting to see how much they are used, and what they can do versus the US.

On the American side Savannah Harmon and Hailey Scamurra will wear the red white and blue for the very first time. It's pretty amazing, in Harmon's case the defender is a two time National Champion for Clarkson and a Div I all American and rookie on the Buffalo Beauts. Scamurra is 24 years old, and has been working hard in the NW for years, finally getting her chance to wear a USA jersey. I love these stories so much, and like Bettez, I can't wait to watch these two play.

7- Gotta get back to work. Here's hoping for an amazing Rivalry Series. Go Canada!
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Friday, February 1, 2019

The Unexpected Grace in the Kendall Coyne Moment


I was nine years old when I heard about Manon Rheaume playing for the Tampa Bay Lightning. It didn’t feel like a profound moment, although I suspect it played a huge role in normalizing my experience, especially as I got older. At the time, I was the only girl hockey player I knew of in real life. There was also Amber, a girl people told me about but who I had never met. She apparently played local minor hockey before I came along. So there was me, Amber, and Manon. I was protected by a love of the game, innocence, obliviousness, and lots of good people who made sure I had a good experience.

The most tangible things I got out of the Manon Rheaume experience was a book about her. I had written multiple book reports about NHLers, finally I had a book to read about a young woman. After that, I never really thought about Manon again, until the ’98 Olympics, when hers was the only name I knew. The main reason I didn’t think of Manon again, is because the visibility came and went, just like that (hopefully Kendall’s moment is different in this regard). But every girl who played hockey knew about Manon. There aren’t a lot of biographies about women hockey players; Manon’s is one of two that I know of.

The innocence of childhood wears off. I choose to remember minor hockey very positively, because overall it was. But society at large sent messages that girls were terrible at sports, that sports were for boys. It’s a tough thing for a kid to reconcile. In my case, I knew I was good at sports, and I liked them, and this was how I spent my time. I settled on believing I was somehow different from other girls, and as an adult I can say this hurt. As a child though, you just cope. As I went through this, I am sure on some level, the knowledge of the existence of Amber and Manon helped.

Times have changed, but girls still encounter this stuff today. Tatiana Rafter, a former NW player who now plays in Russia, has a youtube video out there from last year where she offers a supportive message to a young girl in Winnipeg who plays hockey, and is told at school she can’t play with the girls at a recess as a result. I watched the video, and it brought tears to my eyes, that this is what boys and girls deal with for not following the narrowly defined templates of acceptable behavior.

Eventually, I played hockey on girls and women’s team, making the switch at age 14. It deepened my enjoyment of hockey, and more than anything helped reinforce that girls play hockey, girls can be good at hockey, and no one is less than for playing hockey. I can’t even explain how much fun it was. It was the best.

There is no doubt that the knowledge of Manon’s existence touched tens of thousands of girl hockey players lives, and inspired hundreds if not thousands of girls to join hockey. Some kids may felt the profoundness of the moment, but I didn’t, and in some ways that’s what was so great about it, just a subtle little normalization that I needed.

Fast forward 26 years, to Kendall Coyne competing in the NHL All Star Skills. Things have changed a lot. There are pro leagues, Olympics, NCAA and USports Hockey. Almost 200,000 girls and women play  hockey in the US in and Canada. Attitudes are imperfect, but more accepting than ever. There’s this thing called the internet and if you are tuned in to women’s hockey you know how to find it online. Women’s hockey and sports in general though, are still not often on tv.

And so, with Kendall Coyne about to be on live television, it’s this that prompted me to call my five year old in to watch. Coyne’s moment is a big deal to me. I understand the significance and I was nervous for her but I wasn’t going to miss it. And in a house where men’s sports blare from the tv almost 365 days a year, I wanted my daughter to see this. She used to ask “are these boys or girls” when we watched tv. She doesn’t ask anymore, in part I think because she knows it’s boys 99% of the time.

So I called her in. Boys (men) on the screen. Then Kendall Coyne. “Wait, is that a girl?” “Yes.” “Does she play with boys?” “Tonight she does.  She plays for Team USA, with Hilary Knight.” (Hilary Knight is our number 1). And then we watched Coyne skate. She did great. I exhaled. My daughter went back to whatever she was doing. We didn’t make a big deal of it. I don’t want her to know it was a big deal. I just want it to be there for her if she ever needs it.

A few days later it hit me. I show my daughter women in sport as much as possible. Try to create a world for her where she is represented, try to protect her from the realities of the world. There’s no need to talk about inequalities, glass ceilings or the hate in some people’s hearts, with a child. I can barely handle dealing with those things myself, to be honest.

I let her watch the National Teams when they are rarely on tv, we watch highlights on the amazing twitter handle @wsporthilites , we’ve gone to college games and an NWHL game. The teams are all women. My daughter hadn’t seen the “one girl on a team of boys” scenario, other than in the Mighty Ducks movie which also contains the terrible storyline about a girl who plays hockey and therefore must be bad at hockey.

Nonetheless, when it came time for my daughter to start organized hockey, she was still one of just two girls in the group. And she noticed. She announced it at dinner one night, the day before hockey started. She had been to a drop in session, and was the only girl. She was still excited to play hockey. At dinner, the day before her real hockey started she announced “I’m going to be the only girl on my hockey team.” We weren’t expecting it, and we did as you’d expect, fumble it along, try not to make a big deal out of it. It’s hard for me to know exactly how she feels about it, and I don’t want to plant seeds of trouble where there is none. I told her I was the only girl on my hockey team for a long time too. It won’t be like that forever I said. She seemed satisfied and we carried on. Hockey is going great, and yes there’s even another girl.

And then there’s that other girl, Kendall Coyne. The one she saw race against the boys, on tv. For me and thousands of other girls, the image was of Manon Rheaume, alone in front of the net. Black Cooper pads, and a white Tampa Bay Lightning jersey. For a new generation of girls, the image is Kendall Coyne. A navy blue Team USA jersey, blond pony tail flying, crossing the finish line, surrounded by NHL players and an arena full of people ready to celebrate and respect.

I doubt my daughter will think of it often, but the image of the girl on a boys team is there if she needs it. She is not the only one. For me, this was the unexpected grace in Kendall Coyne’s moment. It’s a moment that will have a tremendous legacy, in ways more numerous than this, just like Manon Rheaume’s.
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