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.”
History was made and barriers were broke. It was such an honor to be the first woman to compete in the @nhl All Star Skills Competition last night. I can’t wait to see what the future holds! #NHLAllStarpic.twitter.com/Sc125oBGCx
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.
Kendall Coyne Schofield (@KendallCoyne) with the bounce!
“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.
Introducing the roster for the Elite Women’s 3-on-3 presented by @adidas! American and Canadian All-Stars will face off during the #NHLAllStar Skills competition on Jan. 24.
VANCOUVER – The Vancouver Whitecaps will begin their post-season campaign with a play-in game against the Timbers in Portland on Wednesday.
The ‘Caps (13-13-8) ended the regular season with a 2-1 loss to Real Salt Lake on Saturday and finished eighth in Major League Soccer’s Western Conference standings.
The eighth and ninth spots from each conference meet in a play-in game this week, with the winner going on to face the No. 1 seed in the first round of the playoffs.
Each eighth-place team was set to host the play-in game, but Vancouver announced Friday that its home stadium, B.C. Place, is not available, so the club will cede home-field advantage to Portland (12-11-11), the ninth-place team.
The ‘Caps and Timbers split their three-game series during regular-season play, with each side taking a win, a loss and a draw.
The first round of the MLS playoffs is set to begin next weekend.
This report by The Canadian Press was first published Oct. 19, 2024.
SANDY, Utah (AP) — Diego Luna scored a tying goal in the 73rd minute and Real Salt Lake added another on an own goal for a 2-1 victory over the Vancouver Whitecaps on Saturday night to set a single-season club record for points.
Real Salt Lake (16-7-11) secured the No. 3 spot in the Western Conference and will face Minnesota in the first round of the Major League Soccer playoffs. RSL reached 59 points this season, topping the 2012 team with 57.
Vancouver (13-13-8) will play the Portland Timbers on Wednesday in a wild-card game for a chance to play top-seeded LAFC.
Luna settled a long cross from Braian Ojeda before taking four touches to slot home a shot inside the far post for his eighth goal of the season.
RSL went ahead in the 83rd when Vancouver goalkeeper Isaac Boehmer misplayed a lofted ball that rolled into the back of the net.
Vancouver midfielder Ryan Gauld opened the scoring in the 58th to become the first player in club history to produce multiple seasons with at least 10 goals and 10 assists.
CLEVELAND (AP) — Juan Soto’s arrival last winter was supposed to be that move that pushed the New York Yankees back to the top.
They’re one step away.
Soto hit a three-run homer with two outs in the 10th inning and the Yankees advanced to their 41st World Series — and first in 15 years — by beating the Cleveland Guardians 5-2 in Game 5 of the AL Championship Series on Saturday night.
Baseball’s biggest brand is going back to October’s main stage.
Soto, who was acquired in a seven-player trade from San Diego in December, pushed the Bronx Bombers into position with one big swing.
This was why he came, for this moment and for so many more.
“We’re right where we belong,” said Yankees general manager Brian Cashman, who pulled off the deal for Soto.
The Yankees will try to win their 28th title against either the New York Mets or Los Angeles Dodgers. Game 6 of the NL Championship Series is on Sunday at Dodger Stadium.
In the third consecutive tight game in three nights at Progressive Field, Austin Wells walked with one out in the 10th and Alex Verdugo followed with a grounder to Guardians second baseman Andrés Giménez, whose soft toss to the bag was dropped by rookie shortstop Brayan Rocchio for an error.
Hunter Gaddis struck out Gleyber Torres and had Soto in a 1-2 count before New York’s stylish outfielder sent a shot over the wall in center. Soto danced down the first-base line and paused to celebrate with his teammates before circling the bases.
“I was just saying to myself, `You’re all over that guy. You’re all over that guy. He ain’t got anything,’” said Soto, who moved alongside his manager, Aaron Boone, as the only New York players to homer in an extra-inning, series-clinching win.
Luke Weaver got the final three outs with Lane Thomas flying out for the last one, which was caught by Soto.
“We get to play for a world championship,” Boone said. “That’s pretty sweet.”
The 25-year-old Soto is eligible for free agency this winter, and Yankees fans chanted “Re-sign Soto!” during the postgame festivities. He’s expected to get a contract upwards of $600 million, and his heroics in Game 5 may have raised his price.
Giancarlo Stanton hit a two-run homer and was named ALCS MVP as the Yankees took care of the Guardians in five games. It wasn’t easy.
New York won the first two at Yankee Stadium without much fanfare or any major drama. However, it was a different story in Cleveland as all three games at Progressive Field were nail-biters.
The Guardians rallied to win Game 3 on two, two-run homers in their last two at-bats, and the Yankees held on to win Game 4 after blowing a four-run lead.
“This was a rollercoaster and we were able to just keep punching back,” Stanton said. “We know there’s much more work to do and it’s only uphill from here and we got to get it done.”
Cleveland just didn’t have enough and a surprising season under first-year manager Stephen Vogt ended just short of a World Series. The franchise remains without a title since 1948, baseball’s current longest drought.
“There’s only one team that gets to win the last game of the year, and unfortunately it’s not going to be us,” Vogt said. “But we accomplished a lot as a group. We got better. We worked extremely hard. I couldn’t be more proud of this group. We just didn’t get quite as far as we wanted to.”
The Yankees are back in the World Series, back where their fans expect them to be every year.
The club’s 82-80, fourth-place finish in the AL East last season led to some “soul searching as an organization” during the winter, according to Boone, who has been widely criticized but is one of just three managers to take New York to playoffs in six of his first seven seasons.
While the team’s core stayed mostly intact, getting Soto in a blockbuster trade on Dec. 7 — New York sent five players to San Diego for the three-time All-Star — accelerated the team returning to title contender.
“That was a good day,” Boone said with a laugh before the game.
Stanton’s 446-foot rocket into the left-field bleachers tied it at 2 in the sixth and chased Tanner Bibee, who had struck out New York’s dangerous DH in his first two at-bats and held the Yankees scoreless for the first five innings.
It was Stanton’s fourth homer in this series — his third in three days — and his 16th in the postseason, moving him into fourth place on the club’s career list behind Bernie Williams (22), Derek Jeter (20) and Mickey Mantle (18).
Before the game, Boone was asked what makes Stanton so good.
“He can hit it harder than anyone, first of all,” Boone said. “So there’s the physical nature of what he does that’s different than just about everyone in the world.”
But Boone went on to compliment Stanton’s discipline at the plate, “his approach, his process, how he studies guys.”
“There’s something that he does when he gets familiarity with people on top of being very physically gifted,” Boone said.
The Guardians took a 2-0 lead in the fifth off Carlos Rodón on Steven Kwan’s RBI single with two outs. But Cleveland missed a big chance for more, leaving the bases loaded when Lane Thomas grounded out on the first pitch to him from Mark Leiter Jr.
TRAINER’S ROOM
Yankees: LHP Nestor Cortes (elbow strain) had another successful live batting practice session. The reliever remains on track to join the Yankees on their World Series roster. Boone said Cortes would throw again early next week. Cortes went 9-10 with a 3.77 ERA in 30 starts.
