Hockey News, Good and Bad

[przed]

It's been the final week of hockey for both me and Ros.

I played my final game on Tuesday, and went out on a high. My teammates and our volunteer coaches all said I played my best game of the season, and it certainly felt like I was getting first to the puck and shooting it where I meant to most of the time.

Today was Ros' last game, and she and the rest of our D played a really solid game. (They lost, but not by much, and it was to a stronger team.)

That's the good news.

The bad news, which I got on my phone just as Ros was coming off the ice, is that the Canadian Women's Hockey League, the one professional women's league in this country, has just been disbanded because they couldn't make it financially. I am doubly sad about this because I was just at the final playoff game for the league last week, and we were going to get family season's tickets for next season.

And I'm angry that the massively talented women in the league, who for my money play far more exciting hockey than the men's professional leagues, minor or NHL, and without the nonsense of fights every period, don't even have the option of playing for even the rather low pay they were getting in the CWHL.

Because I've been looking at it all season, I ordered myself a jersey of the Toronto CWHL team, the Furies, to wear when I'm doing lessons, and got Ros a Furies fleece.

Comments

[dine]

ongrats to both you and Ros on closing out the season so well!

I'm very sorry to hear about the CWHL - that's sad news on every level. but go you for buying merch, and celebrating their existence

[przed]

It was a good season.

There's rumours that some of the CWHL are joining the American league, so I've got my fingers crossed that the Toronto team is one of them. But I'm sad we won't get to see the Chinese team play here.

[dine]

yeah,I saw a The Athletic article about the possibility of a couple of teams joining the NWHL, but no details on how that would work, or which teams - I sure hope it can happen, and may there be one near you!

[przed]

CBC just had an extensive article about the whole mess, and also mentioned that the NHL have been looking at running a WNHL for a while.

If anything good is to come out of the league closing, maybe it will be increased exposure of women's hockey and a more sustainable professional league. Fingers crossed.

[sarren]

That really sucks. I'm angry on their behalf too :(

[przed]

It's a lousy situation. I'm hoping they manage to keep some sort of women's team in Toronto.

[sc_fossil]

Well, that's horrible. Only men can play sports and only men watch men play sports. Good heavens. It's the dark ages.

I'm glad you and Ros had a good season otherwise!

[przed]

There was an article in the NYTimes a few months ago about how they were struggling to get people to come to the games since the girls who would be the natural audience are too busy playing hockey themselves to go to games. Which is why I had suggested we get seasons tickets next year.

But considering how insane Leaf fans are, it's disappointing that there wasn't more support for the women's teams.

I'm surprised at how much fun I'm having playing myself, though. It's a blast.

[cyanne]

Congrats to you both on a great season. I'm so happy you're having fun playing hockey.

Maybe I wasn't paying enough attention but the CWHL's announcement really stunned me. I was hoping that maybe the two leagues would merge, I figured they'd be stronger together, but I wasn't expecting them to fold. And I agree, it's so frustrating that more people don't watch women's hockey. It's such a beautiful game of passing and skill, much more so then the men's game. And it's annoying that there isn't more and better coverage, too.

[przed]

I was also stunned by the CWHL collapse. I'd just been at the playoff final game the week before! And one of the sports networks broadcast both their all star game and the final. It looked like they were starting to make some headway.

The Sweetie saw some news that the NWHL might bring the Toronto and Montreal teams on board, so that's good for me personally, but it would be even better if they could expand to more of the teams. I guess we'll see...

I try and take Ros to see women's sports, soccer and hockey, whenever possible.