Today’s the NHL Entry Draft – even more than the Men’s World Juniors, it’s the event on the hockey calendar that makes me most uncomfortable with the ethos of the NHL. The NHL draft, since it’s played on paper and not on the ice, is pure ideology for NHL general managers. Skill seems to become…
Guest Post by Peter Donnelly Peter Donnelly is a Professor in the Faculty of Kinesiology and Physical Education at University of Toronto and Director of the Centre for Sport Policy Studies. His research interests include sport and gender policy, athlete labour, and sport and social change. This article is republished from The Conversation under a…
By Mark Norman This is the first of what I hope will be a handful of reviews of hockey podcasts that focus or touch on themes of interest to Hockey in Society. I begin by reviewing the hockey podcast which most obviously aligns with many of this blog’s various interests: Changing on the Fly. This…
Co-Authored by Brett Pardy and Courtney Szto. Mainstream (sports) media has no idea what to do with well-spoken and educated women. If they also excel at sports the confusion is compounded. This likely has a lot to do with the fact that 90% of sports editors, 70% of assistant sports editors, 83% of columnists, 89%…
By Mark Norman Two weeks ago, popular, and sometimes controversial, Vancouver Canucks journalist Jason Botchford passed away suddenly from heart failure. Botchford (or Botch, as he was affectionately called in the Vancouver marketplace) was 48 years old, and is survived by his wife and three young children. His untimely death led to an outpouring of…
You may be familiar with the movement to divest from fossil fuels broadly in our every day lives, but you likely haven’t heard of any sports organizations, teams, or leagues divesting. That’s because sports is slow. Sports, as an industry, is generally slow on the uptake with respect to social issues, which is why the…
It’s Friday night. I worked all day, had a 5:30pm tournament game, and came home from the rink to a text that read: “Why are the CWHL trophies on sale? Disgusting.” So here I am, at 7:30pm, hungry and rage-y, poking the keyboard because, as Kirsten Whalen wrote for the Victory Press on April 20th,…
On March 30th, 2019, the School of Kinesiology and Health Studies at Queen’s University in Kingston, Ontario held a Roundtable on Racism in Hockey. To the best of our knowledge, it was the first gathering of its kind with the objective to address racism as opposed to simply increasing diversity. This event was made possible…
Co-Authored by Brett Pardy and Courtney Szto *Note: We tend not to refer to the CWHL in the past tense in these posts because…it just feels wrong.* In 2001, Japan created a reality TV show titled, The Tigers of Money. This venture capitalist show was the impetus for the Dragons’ Den series that has been re-created…
Welcome to part two of the series Courtney Szto and I are writing on the dominant myths around the popularity of women’s hockey. It is common for women’s professional hockey, executives, experts, and players to argue that it “takes time” for leagues to establish themselves, and to remember where the NHL was at the same point…
Welcome to Part 1 of a 3-part series authored by Brett Pardy and myself, where we will bust three dominant myths associated with women’s hockey. We had planned this series before the CWHL announced its closure, and now these arguments become even more relevant. This first post will address the myth that the media only…
Feature photo of Voight Demeester taken by Brent Mullins, obtained from outsports.com ____________________________________________________________________________________________ As part of my postdoctoral work on LGBTQ inclusion in hockey at the University of Alberta, I had the opportunity to interview six openly gay competitive men’s hockey players. I spent anywhere from 30 to 90 minutes speaking with each of them…
