Women's hockey

[schneefink]

March posting meme, already a bit late: a female hockey player/women's hockey

Personal experiences first: about a year and a half ago, thanks to Hockey RPF fandom, I started playing hockey myself. At the same time as our practice, the main part of the rink is always full with kindergarten children. Sometimes they watch us play, and they always stare at us when we skate through the main rink to get to the locker rooms. At all of us, but especially the girls, and sometimes they call after us: "Hey, Eishockeymädchen!" (ice hockey girl(s)!) Most often it's young girls, sometimes boys too. They ask us if we really play hockey (obviously), if it's fun, if we play in tournaments, if it's difficult. Sometimes I see children stare at me when I carry my gear to and from practice, and sometimes I hear adults telling kids "that's an ice hockey stick. Yes, girls play ice hockey too." It makes me feel like a role model, and it feels awesome.

I'd planned to go to more games of Vienna's excellent women's hockey team, the EHV Sabres, this season, but in the end I only saw two live: at first I was busy with uni and then their season was already almost over. I was at the last championship game last Saturday, Vienna won 4-0 against Salzburg and was clearly the dominant team. Not many people in attendance, but it was fun to watch. Hopefully next season I'll go watch more. It looks like some of the best players may leave - not that I begrudge them finding better jobs, but still, having them in Vienna was a nice luxury. Anna Meixner is fast.

This season was the first one for the first professional women's league in North America, the NWHL. Exciting! They streamed almost all of their games online for free, I watched several and enjoyed it a lot. I rooted for the New York Riveters, initially mostly because of their great foreign players, Janine Weber and Lyudmila Belyakova and Nana Fujimoto. (I recently dreamed I watched a kids' hockey practice with Nana and at the end after some begging I was allowed to skate too and take a shot at her, it was great.) Unfortunately they didn't play that well this season, and were swept by the Pride in the playoffs. It's uncertain how many players will come back, but I hope many of them.

I read a lot less about the CWHL, but at least some things, including that the Calgary Inferno upset Les Canadiennes Montréal in the Clarkson Cup final. From my, very recent and limited, perspective, the CWHL isn't as good at PR as the NWHL, but that could change. I hope that the two leagues push each other to do better and raise the profile of women's hockey together. Unfortunately there seems to be some animosity between the leagues' front offices, I don't know what happened behind the scenes but hopefully that gets resolved soon.

I'm not very interested in women's hockey RPF, also because they aren't that famous so I don't feel as comfortable with it. Maybe that'll change when the media coverage increases, or if I encounter a "storyline" that really grabs me, who knows.

Comments

[escritoireazul]

At all of us, but especially the girls, and sometimes they call after us: "Hey, Eishockeymädchen!" (ice hockey girl(s)!) Most often it's young girls, sometimes boys too. They ask us if we really play hockey (obviously), if it's fun, if we play in tournaments, if it's difficult. Sometimes I see children stare at me when I carry my gear to and from practice, and sometimes I hear adults telling kids "that's an ice hockey stick. Yes, girls play ice hockey too." It makes me feel like a role model, and it feels awesome.

This made me tear up a little and feel all awesome about the world. You are doing such great things for those kids. I can't even imagine how I would have felt growing up, actually seeing women play too.

[schneefink]

My favorite part of reading about the NWHL is reading about all the girls, and the college students, who suddenly realize that they could play hockey as a career. (There's an older women's pro league, but it's in Russia and many hesitate to move there, unsurprisingly.) If I could inspire even one girl to try out hockey that's fantastic :)

[gaffsie]

That's cool! I've got nothing but respect for the gals who play hockey. I was actually at a game last weekend. I was there with my Red Cross First Aid unit (the dudes' team get an actual ambulance, the women get us. Go figure).

[schneefink]

Maybe the rules for medical teams are different because women's hockey is supposed to have less hitting? I read that female hockey players have a higher risk of concussions than male, but I don't know about broken bones etc.

[monksandbones]

Aww man, how did I miss that the NWHL was streaming their games online?!! I was never able to decide whether to support the Boston Pride (does my anti-Boston hockey antipathy extend to female teams from Boston? Or should I embrace my somewhat hometown team?) or the Connecticut Whale (not a Boston team! wearing Canucks-ish colours!), but if they stream the games next year I should definitely figure out how to watch!

[schneefink]

The streams weren't NHL quality, and I heard sometimes there were connection problems, but I was still very happy they existed. They regularly (at least from what I remember) had female announcers too.
Near the end of the season even the CWHL streamed a few games! Hopefully the trend continues :)
(Otoh maybe there will be fewer streams if they get TV deals... we'll see.)

There are complete games on the NWHL youtube channel, that may help you decide on a team :) But it's not even sure yet how many teams there will be next year, so you still have time to pick.

[james]

I was rooting for the Connecticut Whale because I like their logo. :-) I wish they would come out to the California coast to have a game so I could go in person.

[schneefink]

The Whale had the best puns, a point in their favor :)
I was disappointed to find out that the NWHL season is already over when I come to NYC, but maybe another time. Hopefully the league exists for a long time and there will be many opportunities.

[zombieallomorph]

It's a bit sad kids still find that odd, but yay, you're a role model!

[schneefink]

It is :( Hopefully not much longer.

[kiki_eng]

I am so glad I prompted you to write on this topic; I really enjoyed reading what you wrote.

[schneefink]

I'm glad :)