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How Kendall Coyne Schofield’s clutch All-Star performance changed the game – Sportsnet.ca

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5 years ago

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The first phone call went unanswered. So did the second.

Then, a text: “Hey, it’s Burkie, I need you to pick up the phone.”

It’s the morning of the 2019 NHL All-Star Skills Competition in San Jose, and Patrick Burke is trying to get ahold of Kendall Coyne Schofield. He’s got good news.

Burke’s phone rang almost immediately.

“I hope you got a good night’s sleep last night,” he told Coyne Schofield, “because the NHL would like to invite you to participate in the Fastest Skater Competition.”

The rest is, quite literally, history. That evening, Coyne Schofield became the first woman to ever compete at an NHL All-Star Skills Competition.

By now, you’ve seen the video. (And if you haven’t, what on Earth are you waiting for?)

“I can’t believe it’s almost been a year since that moment,” Coyne Schofield told Sportsnet earlier this month, reflecting on the historic moment that took place on Jan. 25, 2019. “A lot has happened, a lot has changed.”

Her time of 14.346 saw her finish less than a second behind three-time champ Connor McDavid (13.378), and just ahead of Clayton Keller for seventh place overall. But Coyne Schofield’s feat that night was much more than a fast lap around the rink.

It took 14.346 seconds for the Team USA star to thrust the women’s game onto hockey’s biggest stage, and she’s been leading the charge to keep them there ever since.

“I was fortunate to be the one that skated in that moment but there’s so many players and people behind the scenes that made that moment possible,” she said. “You know, you have one chance, you have one moment, and you have to nail it – and I’m so glad that I was able to do so for the women’s hockey community.”

Less than 24 hours before the 2019 All-Star events kicked off, Coyne Schofield had just touched down in San Jose from her home base in Chicago and was headed straight from the airport to SAP Center to participate in a dry run of the skills competition on the eve of the main event. The Olympic gold medallist and five-time world champion with Team USA was one of four women on-hand for All-Star Weekend to demonstrate the skills events and she was, fittingly, in a rush to get to the rink.

Burke, who runs the skills competition alongside NHL chief content officer Steve Mayer, had asked the 27-year-old Team USA captain and noted speedster to arrive early enough to test out the fastest-lap event.

“I know these players quite well and one of the things I knew was that Kendall Coyne Schofield is one of the fastest people on the planet. I think her first three steps put a lot of our NHLers to shame,” said Burke, who is quick to credit Susan Cohig, executive vice present of NHL club business affairs and league leader in the NHL’s women’s hockey initiatives, with the idea of bringing in Coyne Schofield, Brianna Decker, Rebecca Johnston and Renata Fast for the event.

“I asked Kendall to make sure she was there a little bit early for when we were testing fastest skater and asked her to hop in because, after years of telling people that Kendall is fast enough to do fastest skater, I had the opportunity the get her timed in a way that no one could argue with,” he explained.

So, fresh off the plane and with almost no warmup, Coyne Schofield stepped up to the starting line and put up a time of 14.226 – a time, Burke told her, that would’ve placed her in the middle of the pack based on last year’s competition results.

Coyne Schofield thought that was cool, but didn’t think anything further of it. Her story of that Thursday evening is a short one:

“The night progressed, and I went to my room and went to sleep,” she said.

Little did she know, a plan was already being set in motion.

An injury to Colorado Avalanche forward Nathan MacKinnnon left Burke and Mayer one competitor short for the Fastest Skater event.

“I mentioned that Kendall’s time would’ve put her right in the mix, she’s going to be there, she’s a U.S. Olympian, and she’s a great representative of the sport. Why don’t we throw her in the mix?” Burke explained.

Mayer was immediately onboard, and 20 minutes later the two executives approached NHL commissioner Gary Bettman: “We have an idea,” they told him, “and we need your approval.”

With Coyne Schofield’s timed rehearsal at the ready, Burke and Mayer got Bettman’s blessing almost immediately. Burke’s next call was to the NHLPA.

“To their credit as well, the answer was an immediate, ‘Absolutely – this’ll be fun,’” said Burke.

“Really, it was once we had the official time that she was fast enough to do it, the approvals came rolling through pretty quickly – commissioner Bettman, the NHLPA, the other players involved, were all saying that they thought it was a great idea,” Burke explained. “So the next morning, we had formal approvals in place with everybody and once I got the go-ahead, I was the one who got to call Kendall and let her know that she’d been invited to participate.

“So, I called her. Twice.”

As Coyne Schofield strode up to the starting line that night, crowd buzzing and NHLers leaning over the boards, she knew what was at stake. And in 14.346 seconds, she did far more than simply drop a few jaws and write her name into hockey’s history books — she ushered in a new way of looking at women in her sport.

“I think so many people saw that skate and realized that girls and women belong in the sport of ice hockey. Talent sees talent, and the faces of the players on the bench that night said it all: they recognized me as a hockey player and they recognized the other players that were on the ice as hockey players – not as female hockey players – and that’s the one narrative that we’re constantly trying to break with ‘girls hockey’ and ‘women’s hockey.’ Like, we play hockey,” said Coyne Schofield.

To Burke, it was the ultimate clutch performance.

“She’s kicking the night off, she’s the only woman skating in this event, and you know – and whether she admits it or not, she knows – that if she does anything wrong here, all the sexist idiots out there who are saying women don’t belong on this stage are going to jump up. It’s not going to be that, ‘Oh, Kendall Coyne had a bad lap,’ it’s going to be, ‘women don’t belong on this ice,’” said Burke.

“And she didn’t just do okay … In that moment, to rise to the occasion and put up the time she did, with all that pressure, with all that attention, it’s the single most clutch performance that I’ve ever seen from an athlete in my life.”

In the year since her All-Star moment, Coyne Schofield has continued to work tirelessly to keep women in hockey’s spotlight.

“We need to continue building a platform like we had in that NHL All-Star Weekend. I’ve been skating like that my whole life, and it just took an amazing platform to be able to showcase that,” said Coyne Schofield, who also has a longstanding relationship with her hometown NHL club, the Chicago Blackhawks. That partnership has resulted in the forming of an all-girls developmental program and several other initiatives.

The Team USA captain, whose playing resume also includes an Olympic gold medal and five world championships, has become a leading voice of the Professional Women’s Hockey Players Association – a group of more than 200 elite women’s hockey players taking a stand for the future of the game and raising awareness about the need for a sustainable, long-term, professional women’s hockey league.

Her powerful voice can also be heard on San Jose Sharks broadcasts — the club contacted her over the summer to bring her onboard as a colour analyst, a role she’s embraced while still making her playing career a priority.

“If we can build a platform for women’s hockey that is big enough and people can see us do what we do every day, it won’t be a shock that, you know, I can skate alongside the men,” she said.

That stage is being set again this weekend as 20 of North America’s top women’s hockey players hit the all-star ice for a three-on-three game between Canada and the USA on Friday as part of this year’s All-Star Skills Competition in St. Louis – another initiative headed up by Cohig, and a direct result of Coyne Schofield’s accomplishment one year ago in San Jose.

“That wouldn’t happen if Kendall doesn’t nail it last year,” said Burke.

Just like last year, the hockey world will be watching – and Coyne Schofield will no doubt be ready to answer the call once again.

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Washington Capitals 3-2 win ends Dallas Stars’ winning streak

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8 hours ago

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October 18, 2024

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WASHINGTON (AP) — Tom Wilson, Dylan Strome and Taylor Raddysh scored to help the Washington Capitals end the Dallas Stars’ season-opening winning streak at four with a 3-2 victory Thursday night.

Wilson’s goal was his third in three games, Strome his second of the season and Raddysh his first since joining the team in free agency last summer. Charlie Lindgren made 22 saves as the Capitals wrapped up this early homestand with back-to-back wins.

The Stars fell from the ranks of the league’s unbeaten teams despite a short-handed goal by Colin Blackwell and one at even strength from Jason Robertson. Rookie Oskar Bäck set up Blackwell for his first NHL point.

Casey DeSmith was screened on two of the three goals he allowed on 26 shots.

LIGHTNING 4, GOLDEN KNIGHTS 3

TAMPA, Fla. (AP) — Nikita Kucherov scored the winning goal with less than a minute to play just 1:27 after Brandon Hagel had tied it and Tampa Bay rallied to beat Vegas.

Kucherov’s second goal of the game with 55 seconds left was his sixth of the season.

Janis Moser had a goal and two assists for the Lightning, who remain unbeaten. Andrei Vasilevskiy made 22 saves.

Brayden McNabb, Pavel Dorofeyev and Ivan Barbashev had goals for Vegas. Adin Hill turned aside 21 shots.

Jack Eichel, with two assists on Thursday, now has 10 points this season in five games and reached reached double-digit points faster than any other player in Vegas history. He is the 10th U.S.-born player to accomplish the feat.

After Barbashev put Vegas up 3-2 early in the second, Hagel pulled Tampa Bay even at 3 with 2:22 remaining in the third.

BLUE JACKETS 6, SABRES 4

COLUMBUS, Ohio (AP) — Kirill Marchenko and Mathieu Olivier each had a goal and an assist and Daniil Tarasov made 21 saves to help Columbus to a win over Buffalo.

Yegor Chinakhov, Adam Fantilli, Zachary Aston-Reese and Damon Severson also scored for Columbus, and Zach Werenski added two assists.

Ryan McLeod, Owen Power and JJ Peterka scored for Buffalo, and Jiri Kulich added his first NHL goal. Devon Lev stopped 19 shots for the Sabres (1-5-1), who have lost two straight road games and five of their first six overall.

CANUCKS 3, FLORIDA 2, OT

SUNRISE, Fla. (AP) — J.T. Miller scored 2:09 into overtime and Vancouver got their first win of the season, beating Florida.

Teddy Blueger and Quinn Hughes had goals for Vancouver, with Kevin Lankinen stopping 26 shots.

Anton Lundell got his fourth goal in the last three games for Florida and Jesper Boqvist also scored for the Panthers, who got 30 saves from Sergei Bobrovsky.

Florida remained without forwards Aleksander Barkov (lower body) and Matthew Tkachuk (illness).

DEVILS 3, SENATORS 1

OTTAWA, Ontario (AP) — Jacob Markstrom stopped 30 shots and lost his shutout bid in the final minutes as New Jersey beat Ottawa.

Erik Haula, Nathan Bastian and Paul Cotter scored for the Devils, who won for the third time in four games and improved to 5-2-0.

The Senators, who were coming off an 8-7 overtime victory against Los Angeles on Monday, struggled to beat Markstrom.

Brady Tkachuk was the only scorer for the Senators, beating Markstrom, with a power-play goal with 65 seconds remaining in the third period.

Anton Forsberg, making his second straight start and hoping to rebound after getting pulled Monday, made 32 saves in the loss.

Haula opened the scoring early in the second period and Bastian added a short-handed goal, giving New Jersey a 2-0 lead after 40 minutes. Cotter scored midway through the third.

RANGERS 5, RED WING 2

DETROIT (AP) — Artemi Panarin had his eighth career hat trick and New York rolled to a victory over Detroit.

Panarin became the first Rangers player to have multiple points in the first four games of a season. He scored twice on the power play. Vincent Trocheck also had a power- play goal and assisted on all of Panarin’s goals.

Jonathan Quick made 29 saves in his season debut. Victor Mancini also scored.

The Rangers have won the last five meetings, including twice this week. New York had a 4-1 home victory over Detroit on Monday night.

Moritz Seider and J.T. Compher scored for Detroit. Red Wings goalie Cam Talbot was pulled in the second period after allowing five goals.

KINGS 4, CANADIENS 1

MONTREAL (AP) — David Rittich made 26 saves a night after being benched in the second period in Toronto, helping road-weary Los Angeles snap a three-game losing streak with a victory over Montreal.

Los Angeles improved to 2-1-2 on a season-opening, seven-game trip necessitated by arena renovations.

Rittich rebounded after allowing four goals on 14 shots in a 6-2 loss to the Maple Leafs. Alex Laferriere, Mikey Anderson, Andreas Englund and Adrian Kempe scored.

Justin Barron scored for Montreal (2-3-0). Sam Montembeault stopped 28 shots. He made a save on Kevin Fiala on a penalty shot.

BLUES 1, ISLANDERS 0, OT

ST. LOUIS (AP) — Joel Hofer made 34 saves and assisted on Jake Neighbours’ goal at 2:04 of overtime in St. Louis victory over New York.

Hofer had his second career shutout in his and the team’s second overtime victory of the season.

Philip Broberg carried the puck into the New York zone and made a centering pass to Neighbours for the winner.

Islanders goalie Ilya Sorkin made 29 saves.

Blues defenseman Nick Leddy sat out because of a lower-body injury, the first game he has missed this season. Leddy played in all 82 games last season.

OILERS 4, PREDATORS 2

NASHVILLE, Tenn. (AP) — Brett Kulak scored twice and Connor McDavid added his first goal of the season to lead Edmonton to a victory over reeling Nashville.

Jeff Skinner also scored and Calvin Pickard made 25 saves for the defending Western Conference champion Oilers, who have won consecutive games after beginning the season with a three-game skid.

Filip Forsberg and Jonathan Marchessault scored and Juuse Saros made 32 saves for Nashville (0-4).

Forsberg’s goal midway through the first period gave Nashville its first lead of the season. That lasted less than six minutes before Kulak tied it.

Kulak sealed it with an empty-netter in the final minute for the defenseman’s first career two-goal game.

BLACKHAWKS 4, SHARKS 2

CHICAGO (AP) — Tyler Bertuzzi and Nick Foligno each scored a power-play goal, and Chicago beat San Jose.

Taylor Hall and Jason Dickinson also scored for Chicago. Connor Bedard and Teuvo Teravainen each had two assists.

Hall, who missed most of last season because of right knee surgery, put the Blackhawks in front 4:20 into the first period. It was Hall’s first goal since Nov. 5 and No. 267 for his career.

Tyler Toffoli and Fabian Zetterlund scored for San Jose, which trailed 3-0 early in the second. William Eklund and Mikael Granlund had two assists each.

The Sharks dropped to 0-2-2 under Ryan Warsofsky, who was promoted to head coach in June.

Petr Mrazek had 20 saves for Chicago, and Vitek Vanecek made 23 stops for San Jose.

KRAKEN 6, FLYERS 4

SEATTLE (AP) — Eeli Tolvanen, Jordan Eberle, and Shane Wright scored three goals in less than three minutes in the second period and Seattle held off a Philadelphia rally in a victory.

Tolvanen’s goal broke a 2-2 tie at the 14:57 mark. Eberle made it a two-goal game with a goal at 17:44. Eight seconds later, Wright scored to give Seattle a three-goal lead.

Jared McCann tied the game at 2-2 with the first of Seattle’s four second-period goals.

Cam York and Jamie Drysdale scored to pull Philadelphia within 5-4 in the third period, but Oliver Bjorkstrand responded with a goal to push Seattle’s lead to two with just over five minutes left in the game.

Scott Laughton scored twice for the Flyers in the first period, while Brandon Montour scored one in for the Kraken.

Chandler Stephenson had an assist in his 500th NHL game. Seattle’s Philipp Grubauer had 21 saves.

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Canada’s Dabrowski, New Zealand’s Routliffe out of Japan Women’s Open after walkover

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18 hours ago

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October 17, 2024

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OSAKA, Japan – Canada’s Gabriela Dabrowski and New Zealand’s Erin Routliffe are out of the Japan Women’s Open tennis tournament.

Spain’s Cristina Bucsa and Romania’s Monica Niculescu advanced to the final on Thursday by way of walkover.

The fourth seeds were supposed to play the top-seeded Dabrowski and Routliffe in the semifinals.

Bucsa and Niculescu will next face third-seeded Ena Shibahara of Japan and Laura Siegemund of Germany in the final.

Dabrowski and Routliffe defeated Japan’s Shuko Aoyama and Eri Hozumi in the quarterfinals 6-2, 6-4 on Wednesday to advance.

This report by The Canadian Press was first published Oct. 17, 2024.

The Canadian Press. All rights reserved.

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Mountain West commissioner says she’s heartbroken over turmoil surrounding San Jose State volleyball

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18 hours ago

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October 17, 2024

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LAS VEGAS (AP) — Mountain West Conference Commissioner Gloria Nevarez said Thursday the forfeitures that volleyball teams are willing to take to avoid playing San Jose State is “not what we celebrate in college athletics” and that she is heartbroken over what has transpired this season surrounding the Spartans and their opponents.

Four teams have canceled games against San Jose State: Boise State, Southern Utah, Utah State and Wyoming, with none of the schools explicitly saying why they were forfeiting.

A group of Nevada players issued a statement saying they will not take the floor when the Wolf Pack are scheduled to host the Spartans on Oct. 26. They cited their “right to safety and fair competition,” though their school reaffirmed Thursday that the match is still planned and that state law bars forfeiture “for reasons related to gender identity or expression.”

All those schools, except Southern Utah, are in the Mountain West. New Mexico, also in the MWC, went ahead with its home match on Thursday night, which was won by the Spartans, 3-1, the team’s first victory since Sept. 24.

“It breaks my heart because they’re human beings, young people, student-athletes on both sides of this issue that are getting a lot of national negative attention,” Nevarez said in an interview with The Associated Press at Mountain West basketball media days. “It just doesn’t feel right to me.”

Republican governors of Idaho, Nevada, Utah and Wyoming have made public statements in support of the cancellations, citing a need for fairness in women’s sports. Former President Donald Trump, the GOP nominee in this year’s presidential race, this week referenced an unidentified volleyball match when he was asked during a Fox News town hall about transgender athletes in women’s sports.

“I saw the slam, it was a slam. I never saw a ball hit so hard, hit the girl in the head,” Trump replied before he was asked what can be done. “You just ban it. The president bans it. You just don’t let it happen.”

After Trump’s comment, San Diego State issued a statement that said “it has been incorrectly reported that an San Diego State University student-athlete was hit in the face with a volleyball during match play with San Jose State University. The ball bounced off the shoulder of the student-athlete, and the athlete was uninjured and did not miss a play.”

San Jose State has not made any direct comments about the politicians’ “fairness” references, and Nevarez did not go into details.

“I’m learning a lot about the issue,” Nevarez said. “I don’t know a lot of the language yet or the science or the understanding nationally of how this issue plays out. The external influences are so far on either side. We have an election year. It’s political, so, yeah, it feels like a no-win based on all the external pressure.”

The cancellations could mean some teams will not qualify for the conference tournament Nov. 27-30 in Las Vegas, where the top six schools are slated to compete for the league championship.

“The student-athlete (in question) meets the eligibility standard, so if a team does not play them, it’s a forfeit, meaning they take a loss,” Nevarez said.

Ahead of the Oct. 26 match in Reno. Nevada released a statement acknowledging that “a majority of the Wolf Pack women’s volleyball team” had decided to forfeit against San Jose State. The school said only the university can take that step but any player who decides not to play would face no punishment.

___

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