You talk to some people involved in women’s hockey and they’ll tell you that there are huge changes coming to the National Women’s Hockey League. Really positive changes around being more organized, accountable, transparent and professional. And apparently, there are still people willing to sign cheques to try to make that happen, even after the complete debacle that was the 2020-21 NWHL’s non-bubble non-season.
And that’s great, but you have to wonder if the damage that has been done over the past couple of weeks is irreparable. You hope it isn’t, but it might be. Considering all that has transpired since the league launched in Lake Placid 11 days ago, you’d have to think there are fans (and potential sponsors) who are so turned off that they feel this league can’t fold soon enough, paving the way for the NHL to save it. That might be the only answer here.
We do know this. The 2020-21 NWHL season and playoffs in Lake Placid was an enormous opportunity for this league to make strides and capture the hearts and minds of casual sports fans. And it failed. Miserably. The two semifinals Thursday night and the final Friday night were to be televised nationally on the NBC Sports Network, which would have given the league a level of exposure never seen before. But in the space of 11 days, the league waffled on its ties to a misogynistic website, then had to send a team home (the Metropolitan Riveters) because of a COVID outbreak, then saw another team (the Connecticut Whale) leave because of fears of COVID, then had to shut the entire season down because of a further outbreak.
We also know this. These things did not happen in the WNBA, a league that successfully completed its bubble season in October. Nor did they happen in the National Women’s Soccer League, which survived having a team drop out before it became the first pro league to complete its season in July. The NWSL, in fact, got record TV ratings, attracted new sponsors and announced a Los Angeles expansion team backed by actor Natalie Portman.
And what was the difference between what the NWHL did and what their basketball and soccer counterparts did? Well, the WNBA and NWSL had a strict protocols and bubbles that were enforced. The NWHL sort of had a bubble that it talked about, then kind of followed, but not really. When the league announced its format, it clearly used the word ‘bubble’ to describe the set-up. But when commissioner Tyler Tumminia spoke about it Wednesday night, she suddenly started using the term, ‘restrictive access environment’.
Well, you’re either in a bubble or you’re not. And the NWHL was anything but a bubble. Players from some of the teams did not arrive at the same time in Lake Placid. Teams were allowed to bring players into the bubble after the tournament began. There were reports that, despite the fact players were supposed to be restricted to the rink and the team hotel, some players were seen walking around the town. The league will take some time to contact trace and determine where things went wrong, but it’s pretty clear the protocols weren’t near tight enough, nor did everyone involved follow them. And that was where everything broke down.
And because of that, the NWHL is wondering what might have been rather than taking advantage of an enormous opportunity. There were teams that followed the protocols religiously and there were others that were less vigilant. What was supposed to be a bubble was actually a ‘restrictive access environment’ and if people from the NWHL had taken time to get input from the successful leagues, they would have quickly realized there was no way they were giving themselves a chance to be successful without an air-tight bubble.
“I think hindsight is always 20-20 in anything that anyone does,” said NWHL Players’ Association director Anya Packer. Yeah, but you know what is also 20-20? Foresight, that’s what. And as one person pointed out, it’s a lot easier to get someone to comply with a strict bubble when hundreds of thousands, or even millions, of dollars are on the line. But what leverage do you have with an athlete who makes $7,000 a year?
Until last season, the NWHL was known as a single-entity league, which basically means all the teams in the league were owned by one group, in this case, a group called Women’s Hockey Partners. The ECHL started the same way in the 1980s and it has done pretty well. That model changed when a group of investors called BTM partners purchased the Boston Pride and launched the expansion Toronto Six team. In October, the league underwent a major restructuring, replacing commissioner Dani Rylan with Tumminia and establishing a league constitution and by-laws that had not existed and installed a board of governors for the first time. With the folding of the Canadian Women’s Hockey League and the emergence of the Professional Women’s Hockey Players’ Association, which is home to the majority of the elite international players, the game is fractured in a way it never has been before. These are major growing pains. The only problem is over the past little while, the women’s game has seen the pains without the growth.
“We’re really more of a teenager than a fully formed adult,” said John Boynton, the top investor in the league whose wife, Johanna, is owner of the Toronto Six. “But we’ve got good parents and we’re on a good path. I’m confident that we’re going to get there, but it’s going to take some time.”
After what transpired over the past 11 days, the NWHL can only hope it’s not too late for this troubled teenager to get it’s life back on the right track.
EDMONTON – The Edmonton Oilers signed defenceman Travis Dermott to a professional tryout on Friday.
Dermott, a 27-year-old from Newmarket, Ont., produced two goals, five assists and 26 penalty minutes in 50 games with the Arizona Coyotes last season.
The six-foot, 202-pound blueliner has also played for the Vancouver Canucks and Toronto Maple Leafs.
Toronto drafted him in the second round, 34th overall, of the 2015 NHL draft.
Over seven NHL seasons, Dermott has 16 goals and 46 assists in 329 games while averaging 16:03 in ice time.
Before the NHL, Dermott played two seasons with Oilers captain Connor McDavid for the Ontario Hockey League’s Erie Otters. The team was coached by current Edmonton head coach Kris Knoblauch.
This report by The Canadian Press was first published Sept. 13, 2024.
NEWPORT, R.I. (AP) — Maria Sharapova, a five-time Grand Slam singles champion, led the International Tennis Hall of Fame’s fan vote her first year on the ballot — an important part to possible selection to the hall’s next class.
The organization released the voting results on Friday. American doubles team Bob and Mike Bryan finished second with Canada’s Daniel Nestor third.
The Hall of Fame said tens of thousands of fans from 120 countries cast ballots. Fan voting is one of two steps in the hall’s selection process. The second is an official group of journalists, historians, and Hall of Famers from the sport who vote on the ballot for the hall’s class of 2025.
“I am incredibly grateful to the fans all around the world who supported me during the International Tennis Hall of Fame’s fan votes,” Sharapova said in a statement. “It is a tremendous honor to be considered for the Hall of Fame, and having the fans’ support makes it all the more special.”
Sharapova became the first Russian woman to reach No. 1 in the world. She won Wimbledon in 2004, the U.S. Open in 2006 and the Australian Open in 2008. She also won the French Open twice, in 2012 and 2014.
Sharapova was also part of Russia’s championship Fed Cup team in 2008 and won a silver medal at the London Olympics in 2012.
To make the hall, candidates must receive 75% or higher on combined results of the official voting group and additional percentage from the fan vote. Sharapova will have an additional three percentage points from winning the fan vote.
The Bryans, who won 16 Grand Slam doubles titles, will have two additional percentage points and Nestor, who won eight Grand Slam doubles titles, will get one extra percentage point.
The hall’s next class will be announced late next month.
PHILADELPHIA (AP) — The driver charged with killing NHL hockey player Johnny Gaudreau and his brother Matthew as they bicycled on a rural road had a blood-alcohol level of .087, above the .08 legal limit in New Jersey, a prosecutor said Friday.
Gaudreau, 31, and brother Matthew, 29, were killed in Carneys Point, New Jersey, on Aug. 29, the evening before they were set to serve as groomsmen at their sister Katie’s wedding.
The driver, 43-year-old Sean M. Higgins of nearby Woodstown, New Jersey, is charged with two counts of death by auto, along with reckless driving, possession of an open container and consuming alcohol in a motor vehicle. At a virtual court hearing Friday, a judge ordered that he be held for trial after prosecutors described a history of alleged road rage and aggressive driving.
“’You were probably driving like a nut like I always tell you you do. And you don’t listen to me, instead you just yell at me,’” his wife told Higgins when he called her from jail after his arrest, according to First Assistant Prosecutor Jonathan Flynn of Salem County.
The defense described Higgins as a married father and law-abiding citizen before the crash.
“He’s an empathetic individual and he’s a loving father of two daughters,” said defense lawyer Matthew Portella. “He’s a good person and he made a horrible decision that night.”
Higgins told police he had five or six beers that day and admitted to consuming alcohol while driving, according to the criminal complaint. He also failed a field sobriety test, the complaint said. A prosecutor on Friday said he had been drinking at home after finishing a work call at about 3 p.m., and having an upsetting conversation with his mother about a family matter.
He then had a two-hour phone call with a friend while he drove around in his Jeep with an open container, Flynn said. He had been driving aggressively behind a sedan going just above the 50 mph speed limit, sometimes tailgating, the female driver told police.
When she and the vehicle ahead of her slowed down and veered left to go around the cyclists, Higgins sped up and veered right, striking the Gaudreas, the two other drivers told police.
“He indicated he didn’t even see them,” said Superior Court Judge Michael J. Silvanio, who said Higgins’ admitted “impatience” caused two deaths.
Higgins faces up to 20 years, a sentence that the judge said made him a flight risk.
Higgins has a master’s degree, works in finance for an addiction treatment company, and served in combat in Iraq, his lawyers said. However, his wife said he had been drinking regularly since working from home, Flynn said.
Johnny Gaudreau, known as “Johnny Hockey,” played 10 full seasons in the league and was set to enter his third with the Columbus Blue Jackets after signing a seven-year, $68 million deal in 2022. He played his first eight seasons with the Calgary Flames, a tenure that included becoming one of the sport’s top players and a fan favorite across North America.
Widows Meredith and Madeline Gaudreau described their husbands as attached at the hip throughout their lives. Both women are expecting, and both gave moving eulogies at the double funeral on Monday.
