Sports
Color of Hockey: Riley helps granddaughter get back on ice – NHL.com
William Douglas has been writing The Color of Hockey blog for the past seven years. Douglas joined NHL.com in March and will be writing about people of color in the game. Today, he profiles Ryerson University hockey player Kryshanda Green and her grandfather, former NHL forward Bill Riley.
Kryshanda Green already made one comeback. Her grandfather persuaded her to make another.
Green, a forward for Ryerson University in Toronto, was considering not playing this season, thinking she was too old at 26 for Canadian college hockey.
“I was just a little concerned about whether I would be able to keep up, what my impact was going to be, the dynamic in the dressing room,” she said. “My grandad spoke to me and made me see the light a little bit better.”
“Grandad” is Bill Riley, who was the third black player in the NHL behind fellow Washington Capitals teammate Mike Marson in 1974 and Willie O’Ree, who debuted for the Boston Bruins in 1958.
Riley’s message to his granddaughter: Get a grip.
“I said, ‘Listen, Kryshanda, Pop-Pop was in his 30s when Steve Larmer, Steve Ludzik and all those guys came in as 19-year-olds, played for us in the American Hockey League [for the New Brunswick Hawks], and looked up to me in the highest kind of way because of the leadership skills I displayed for them,'” he said, “I said, ‘These girls that are coming in, they will look up to you for eternity for all the things that you will help them with, so don’t think you’re too old to play.'”
Green took her grandad’s advice, and she’s glad she did. She’s captain of the Ryerson team this season and she’ll end her collegiate career as the university’s all-time leader in goals and points.
She has 74 points (33 goals, 41 assists) in 85 games. Green will also finish among the university’s leaders in assists, game-winning goals and power-play goals.
“Pretty proud, makes the hair stand up on the back of my neck,” Riley said. “I’m over the moon with what’s going on with her life right now and her career.”
Green’s success didn’t come easy. She quit hockey after playing her freshman season in 2012-13 at Western University in London, Ontario, where she finished with 21 points (nine goals, 13 assists) in 26 games and earned Ontario Athletics All-Rookie Team honors. But her on-ice performance didn’t carry over to the classroom. Hitting the books wasn’t a priority, and Green left the university after that season, breaking her 69-year-old grandfather’s heart.
“He was flabbergasted. He couldn’t believe it,” she said. “He wasn’t too happy. “Every time we spoke to each other he said, ‘You gotta get back to the game, you gotta get back to the game.'”
Green didn’t play hockey for two years. She filled the void by collaborating with Toronto-area hip-hop artists and becoming the rapper known as Krash. She performed around town and even released a video and extended play recording titled “Bankrupt For Quality” four years ago. But as much as she tried to deny it, Green missed hockey and wanted to give college another try.
“I think it’s the [most fun] game in the world, and I missed all the bonds, the connections I made and just playing the game,” she said. “It was very hard for me to accept the way I left the game. What made my decision in wanting to go back to school is an opportunity to just try to finish the story in a different way.”
Ryerson coach Lisa Haley remembered seeing Green play junior hockey and contacted her about a second chance. Green enrolled at Ryerson as a redshirt transfer in 2015. She didn’t play a single game that season so she could focus on her studies.
“I think both Krash and I would agree that we were optimistic that this could be the outcome, but we were both realistic that this was a risk,” said Haley, who was an assistant for Canada at the 2014 Winter Olympics. “She’s coming back to school much older than a lot of her teammates. It didn’t go very well for her the first time with the student-athlete life. It was definitely a roll of the dice on both ends.”
It was a roll Green wanted to take, especially when she learned that she could wear the No. 8, the number Riley wore with the Capitals from 1976-79, decades before Alex Ovechkin earned the nickname “The Great Eight.”
“When I came back, I was thinking going back the number I had at Western [97] but I suddenly changed my mind because I was just looking at a picture of my grandfather one day at my mom’s place and it struck a chord with me,” she said. “My grandfather is like a huge influence on me, he’s very inspiring. I know he dealt with a lot of adversity. His situation is something that I can be very proud of.”
Riley, who had 61 points (31 goals, 30 assists) in 139 NHL games for the Capitals and Winnipeg Jets, jokes that he left a lot of goals in that Washington jersey for Ovechkin.
He said he was choked up about Green wearing his number but also issued a grandfatherly challenge to her.
“‘He said, ‘You better earn that number. You better do something with that number if you’re going to wear it,'” Green said.
She responded by putting up 20 points (10 goals, 10 assists) in 2016-17 and finishing 10th in the OUA in scoring. She had six multipoint games and led Ryerson with three power-play goals that season.
Green was an OUA Second-Team All-Star last season after finishing with 23 points (10 goals, 13 assists) in 24 games. She was also a finalist for Ryerson’s H.H. Kerr Female Athlete of the Year award.
“I’ve learned that I’m resilient and that I’m not a quitter, and that’s important to me,” Green said. “That no-quit attitude that’s the biggest thing for me because there are a lot of challenges in life in every area and I want to make sure that I’m not going to quit in those moments.”
Green hasn’t figured out what she’s going to do when she completes her studies at Ryerson. She has already earned her undergraduate degree in politics and governance from the university and is working toward a graduate certificate in criminal justice.
Whether she continues in hockey as a professional player or coach or puts her degrees to use, Haley is certain that Green will succeed in whatever she chooses.
“I think she’s a tremendous success story of someone who needed a second chance, was given it and has made the most of it,” Haley said. “If it’s being a rapper or being the next prime minister of Canada, I think she’s capable of either one of those things.”
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Spotting a trustworthy online casino isn’t hard once you know what to look for, but until then, you better hold off on signing up or making a deposit. This quick guide on how to find a reputable online casino will cover five different factors you can evaluate to determine whether or not a casino is trustworthy. While you could just use a site like the trusted source WikiHow that lists the best online casinos Canada, it does help to be able to evaluate the trustworthiness of casinos on your own. Likewise, you shouldn’t believe everything you read on the internet. Casino review sites are a great resource, but it doesn’t hurt to also do a little digging of your own. Without further delay, here’s a quick and easy guide on how to spot a trustworthy online casino.
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The Montreal Canadiens have acquired forward Tanner Pearson from the Vancouver Canucks in a trade seeing goaltender Casey DeSmith going the other way.
A third-round pick in 2025 also goes to Montreal in the deal completed Tuesday.
Pearson hasn’t played since suffering a broken hand last November during a game in Montreal.
Pearson, 31, had one goal and four assists in 14 games last season.
In 590 career games with the Canucks, Pittsburgh Penguins and Los Angeles Kings, Pearson has 133 goals and 139 assists for 272 points.
The Kings picked the Barrie Colts product in the first round (30th overall) of the 2012 NHL Draft.
Pearson is in the final year of a three-year contract with a cap hit of $3.25 million.
DeSmith, 32, has been with the Pittsburgh Penguins since 2017-18. He was acquired by the Canadians in a three-team deal also involving the San Jose Sharks last month.
DeSmith was 15-16-4 with a 3.17 goals-against average and .905 save percentage last season.
In 134 career games, the undrafted DeSmith is 58-44-15 with a 2.81 GAA and .912 save percentage.
DeSmith is on the final year of a two-year deal with a cap hit of $1.8 million.
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Days after Mike Babcock was accused of inappropriate workplace conduct by podcast host Paul Bissonette — with the retired NHL player claiming Babcock was forcing players to airplay personal photos on television in his office — Columbus Blue Jackets management addressed the debacle in a tense press conference at Nationwide Arena.
“It’s on us. It’s on me…. Sometimes you flat-out make a mistake. We made a mistake,” said Blue Jackets president of hockey ops John Davidson, per Associated Press reporter Stephen Whyno.
“Maybe they were right,” Davidson said of people who were critical of Mike Babcock’s hiring in the first place.
Columbus GM Jarmo Kekalainen, meanwhile. said he apologized to Blue Jackets players this morning for hiring the embattled head coach.
“I believe that Mike Babcock deserved another opportunity to coach,” Kekalainen said. “Obviously that was a mistake and that responsibility’s mine.”
Still, even with the talk of accountability, Kekalainen detailed what should’ve been a red flag: Babcock apparently pulled the same phone stunt he was accused of pulling with his players on the 57-year-old executive.
GM Jarmo Kekalainen said Mike Babcock did the phone thing with him as well. “Personally I had no problem with it but I can see how it might put someone in an uncomfortable situation.”
— Greg Wyshynski (@wyshynski) September 18, 2023
But while Kekalainen stated he doesn’t believe there was any ill intent behind Babcock’s actions, he admitted that some of his players were not comfortable with his methods and that was concerning.
Blue Jackets majority owner John H. McConnell announced in a team-issued statement Monday morning that he does not anticipate further changes to the team’s leadership, erasing speculation that one or both of Kekalainen and Davidson would end up on the chopping block alongside Babcock.
“Additional disruptions would be detrimental to our players and coaches as they prepare for the opening of training camp in two days,” McConnell’s statement read.
To say this story escalated rapidly would be the understatement of the century. Initially, it seemed like it would die quickly after both Babcock and captain Boone Jenner released statements through the team on Wednesday morning refuting the Spittin’ Chiclets host’s version of events.
Both Columbus’ captain and the now-former coach described their encounter as nothing more than a way of sharing snippets of one another’s life in an effort to build a working relationship. During an appearance on the 32 Thoughts Podcast on the same day as Jenner and Babcock condemned Bissonette’s comments, Blue Jackets star winger Johnny Gaudreau gave a similar account to Jenner when asked about his photo-exchange meet-and-greet with Babcock.
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But the story didn’t end there, obviously, with Sportsnet’s Elliotte Friedman reporting things changed on Wednesday night when the NHLPA received information that some of the younger Blue Jackets players were uncomfortable with their interactions with Babcock.
Friedman later reported that the information gathered on Wednesday night prompted NHLPA executive director Marty Walsh and assistant executive director Ron Hainsey to begin an investigation before flying out to Columbus and leading what was described as an “intense” meeting.
On Friday, Walsh and Hainsey relayed their findings during a joint meeting with the NHL and NHLPA. Saturday was arguably the quietest day of the scandal in the public eye, according to ESPN’s Greg Wyshinski, because that’s the day Columbus and Babcock started plotting his exit.
By Sunday, the Blue Jackets announced that Babcock had resigned and Pascal Vincent would be taking over as the team’s head coach.
Babcock’s quick and swift dismissal comes as no surprise given his spotty reputation of being an emotionally abusive coach during his days with the Detroit Red Wings and Toronto Maple Leafs.
Vincent, 51, had served as the Blue Jackets’ associate coach since the 2021-22 season. Before joining Columbus, Vincent spent 10 seasons with the Winnipeg Jets organization, serving as an NHL assistant for the first half of his tenure before pivoting to head coach of the organization’s AHL affiliate, the Manitoba Moose. Vincent was named AHL Coach Of The Year for the 2017-18 season.
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