Happy Martin Luther King Day, America! The voice of the Civil Rights movement did a lot to promote the equality and human rights for minorities. I hope everyone is enjoying their long weekend and spends some time giving MLK and his struggle some of the time he gave you.
And that extends to hockey. For its entire existence in the world, minorities have struggled to gain equal rights and equal respect in the sport we all love together. It started with Willie O’Ree, and has extended to people like Manon Rhéaume breaking the gender barrier in men’s hockey, J.T. Brown standing up against police brutality, and Akim Aliu speaking out against his racial abusers. Each person has had to fight through their own struggles that stem from the common branch of discrimination.
2019 was a watershed moment for a lot of people and groups, including the NHL. Starting with Don Cherry’s hate speech against immigrants in Canada, forcing Akim Aliu to break his silence when it came to his experiences under Bill Peters and later the Colorado Eagles blackface stunt.
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It forced the NHL to really look in the mirror and make it known where they stand, especially after tip-toeing through Hockey is for Everyone after not intending it to be anything more than a PR stunt. They did a lot of good things, but this should only be the beginning.
There is a generation of young people looking to stamp their ticket into the”Old Boys Club” that is hockey, including about half the writers at this website — Matt Esteves, Lauren Kelly, and myself. We’ve had incredible mentors and allies in our short careers so far — primarily our beloved editors — and I think Lauren and Matt will agree that we can’t wait to keep pushing barriers and move forward.
Since there’s no hockey for the next little while, I wanted to highlight some of the positive breakthroughs we’ve made in this industry thanks to the people on the inside supporting us, but more importantly the readers for giving us the time of the day and hearing what we have to say on this platform.
This season, Matt increased his access to the Tampa Bay Lightning during game days. He has moved forward in the pressbox and been given more access to the team and players this season. For a blog like us, this has been unprecedented access as most teams don’t believe blogs like us can’t carry a professional beat. Matt has done an unbelievably good job of representing us with his maturity, charm, knowledge, and passion for this team. He’s had a lot happen in his personal life and yet through all that he hasn’t put a step wrong.
You may remember back in October that Lauren was given the opportunity to provide color commentary for a Mississauga Steelheads game in the OHL. Lauren is a brilliant and stunningly hard working analyst and is quickly becoming a premiere up-and-coming junior hockey reporter in this sport. And that’s not even including the fancy internship she currently has with a major broadcaster right now (all while finishing fourth year university). Not only did she knock her broadcasting debut out of the park, they’ve asked her to come back in a couple weekends time! So stay tuned for that!
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Seven standout players from Sunday’s game between the Mississauga Steelheads and Windsor Spitfires
As for me, bah, I can’t talk about myself well at all. I usually just end up spending my days tweeting about events happening in the hockey world that don’t get the attention they deserve. A lot of people told me to keep that quiet or on a second account when I first started. I’m glad I didn’t listen to them because I have too big of a mouth to keep any kind of secret about myself, haha. I guess at the end of the day, I’m not sure if people will like me, but at least I hope they can respect where I’m coming from.
On Saturday, Hockey Night in Canada aired Ron MacLean’s one-on-one interview with Akim Aliu, who spoke about what it’s like living on the outside and being forced out of the sport he loves because he tried to speak up. Aliu has quickly become one of my heros and his hope to create a hockey community that shows inclusivity and respect even at the deepest, most hardcore levels, is a fight I want to follow him in because, again, I couldn’t keep my mouth shut anyway.
“I felt for a long part of my career I was walking on eggshells in the room.”@Dreamer_Aliu78 sat down with @RonMacLeanHTH to talk about hockey culture’s issues with race and how we can work to make the game more inclusive.#TheShift | #HockeyNighthttps://t.co/68UpczsxW6
— Sportsnet (@Sportsnet) January 19, 2020
On Sunday, Winnipeg vs Chicago game was broadcast in Cree on the Aboriginal Peoples Television Network (APTN) in Canada. Here’s an article that expresses why Aboriginal reconciliation is vital in North America. It’s a story of human and civil rights that does not get discussed enough.
You can learn Cree hockey terms at https://t.co/4Ot1D9Sv87. #pihtokwahew is the one you should start with. #aptnhockey https://t.co/alifdOssV6
— APTN (@APTN) January 20, 2020
The Color of Hockey by William Douglas at NHL dot com is an incredible resource to read and learn about minorities making big strides in hockey. Here is one story about three young Aboriginal hockey players breaking out of their communities and onto the ice at the collegiate level. [NHL dot com]
“Her skills are above and beyond others in her age group, there’s no question about it,” said Haley, who coached Miswaggon for two weeks for the ‘Hit The Ice’ shows. “If she wants it, she’s got the ability. It definitely gets tougher as you go — there’s only 23 spots on that national team and there are a lot of young women that chase after [them] — but she certainly has the skill level to be in that conversation.”
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Color of Hockey: Indigenous players making their mark
At the NHL level, the 2020 NHL Draft midterm rankings came out last week. Douglas highlights the many visible minorities who were ranked, including Quinton Byfield, who could go first overall in June. [NHL dot com]
“David is an elite talent,” said Pat Ferschweiler, an associate head coach at Western Michigan University who coached the U.S. team at the Hlinka Gretzky tournament in August. “Despite his size, he’s extremely competitive; an elite skater with a high, high hockey IQ. He’s not going to blow up a lot of guys with huge body checks, but he’s a good angler, he’s competitive and he can win puck battles using his brains and his feet.”
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Color of Hockey: Byfield among top prospects for 2020 NHL Draft
Thank you for reading and letting me rant on a Monday morning. Hope everyone has a lovely day! Now, it’s snowed a metric crap tonne up here in Canada, so I’m going to go shovel.
