Weekly Links: Steve Montador’s family sues the NHL; Patrick O’Sullivan talks about his abusive father; the NWHL get its first corporate sponsor; and more.

The Weekly Links post highlights important or interesting writing from the hockey blogosphere and media. Enjoy! If you haven’t read Patrick O’Sullivan’s piece for [The Player’s Tribune] about his experiences as a victim of child abuse, stop what you are doing and read it RIGHT NOW. It is extremely poignant, reflective, and a necessary conversation.…

#isupport88: The reproduction of rape culture

*Warning: explicit language included in this post. Chicago sports journalist/broadcaster Julie DiCaro has come under recent fire for her reporting of the Patrick Kane case.  She received a litany of abusive tweets and death threats from the Kane supporters, and one rather specific tweet about her movements that forced her to briefly stay away from her office for fear…

On Beliveau, Masculinity and “Class”

By Matt Ventresca Upon hearing the news of Jean Beliveau’s passing a few days ago, I was immediately taken back to my most enduring and endearing memory of Le Gros Bill. In a past life, a time when I thought a career spent toiling away in academia was for suckers (and yet here I am),…

Hockey Research at the 2014 “Putting it on Ice” Conference

Starting tomorrow in London, ON, hockey researchers and academics will gather at Western University for the fourth Putting it on Ice Conference. This conference, which was last held in Halifax, NS in 2012, is exclusively focused on scholarship related to hockey, whether that be sociological, political, historical, media, literary or economic research. Not surprisingly, there…

Drop-In Ball Hockey at the YMCA: An Ethnographic Study

By Alvin Ma “It’s fun to stay at the Y-M-C-A” goes the refrain of the famous Village People disco song. As someone studying sport policy, I decided to see if it’s true. What is the experience of a new visitor to a Toronto-area YMCA drop-in ball hockey program? Some students at an English language centre…

The KHL as Cartel Buster? Ilya Kovalchuk, the Kontinental Hockey League, and the Challenge to the NHL’s Control of Labour Conditions

The (North American) hockey world was shocked yesterday to learn that superstar winger Ilya Kovalchuk was retiring from the National Hockey League and, according to subsequent reports, planning to sign with SKA St. Petersburg of the Kontinental Hockey League. Today, it was announced that he has signed with the KHL club for four years. Kovalchuk’s…