Wonder women
History was made on Sunday when an all-female Sportsnet broadcast crew produced the Flames-Golden Knights game
CALGARY — Seconds before a simultaneously teary and beaming Tara Slone threw to Cassie Campbell-Pascall and Leah Hextall in the Scotiabank Saddledome press box, the former Canadian women’s hockey captain gave Hextall a nod.
Then a fist bump.
Then Campbell-Pascall gave a fist bump to statistician Michelle Methot, floor manager Heather Weatherly, and audio technician Caroline Ferris.
“Hey, how ya doing?” Mark Giordano greeted Christine Simpson, Sportsnet’s in-game host, for their brief — and flawless — 30-second pregame interview during the Flames’ warm-ups.
Max Pacioretty grinned as he glided over to Simpson, who has been at this job as a rinkside reporter and host for 22 years. Audio technician Riki Lynn Gale ensured the quick hits went off without a hitch while Steph Dunt home expertly operated the handheld camera to capture the feed.
This, by all accounts, was just another game. A Sunday afternoon clash between the Calgary Flames and Vegas Golden Knights, broadcast on Sportsnet. A 5 p.m. MT puck drop.
But it wasn’t.
In the broadcast booth. In the broadcast truck. Operating cameras.
On the sidelines.
This was an historic game that featured an all-female Sportsnet broadcast crew in celebration of International Women’s Day.
“The feeling is one of pride,” Simpson had been saying earlier in the day, dressed in a sharp, green plaid jacket and perfect make-up, her blonde hair styled flawlessly. “Just looking around, being in the truck and seeing the women. I mean, it kind of hits you when you see them. And not for any reason other than I am just so proud that there are so many women in so many roles that are doing this job any way. But it’s just really nice for us to finally be together at the same time so you do have more of a sense of pride.
“But, at the same time, the job I’m doing is the same job I do at any NHL broadcast.”
The three of them sat together in the broadcast booth prior to Sunday’s game, pre-taping a quick hit to be played during another broadcast.
They talked about the massive Pacific Division battle, one that meant the difference between a onepoint separation between the Flames and Golden Knights or a five-point gap. The Golden Knights had lost 4-0 to the Winnipeg Jets on Friday; the Flames had beat the Arizona Coyotes 3-2.
All three know the significance of the game.
But all three of them were also aware of the ripple effect of their visible presence on national television.
“The fact I’ve been doing this since 1998 and the fact that this is the first time I’m doing a game with women,” Simpson said. “It’s important to not completely gloss over that because that is something to be noticed and celebrated.
“But this is a really important game — for the Flames in particular, who are looking to catch Vegas.”
Hextall applied her lipstick and reviewed the Golden Knights’ starting defence pairings. Campbell-Pascall chatted quickly with her husband Brad Pascall, the Flames’ assistant general manager, and searched for their daughter Brooke, who was a spectator on this night. She adjusted her microphone.
Vegas general manager Kelly McCrimmon, knowing the significance of this day, stopped by the broadcast booth to wish them both good luck.
Hextall took a sip of water and began.
“David Rittich takes the net for the Flames,” pointed out the Flin Flon, Man., native, voice confident and strong. “And it’s kind of surprising, as Cam Talbot has won his last three starts …”
All three women — and many others and those before them who have also scratched and clawed for a seat at the table — have persevered in a world where they weren’t always welcomed.
Between the first and second periods, Simpson, earpiece in and waiting for the commercial break to finish, off-camera she offered her encouragement.
“Leah, you’re doing an awesome job,” she said.
Hextall, who started her broadcasting career 17 years ago in Brandon, didn’t miss a beat.
“Do you guys know anything about Hanifin returning?” said Hextall, referring to Flames defenceman Noah Hanifin who had disappeared down the team’s tunnel in the first period after getting caught up in Milan Lucic’s hit on Brandon Pirri along the boards. “The Flames don’t have anything on their Twitter.”
There is an intricate process and flow that happens behindthe-scenes from inside an NHL arena to what you see on your television.
Not only was Sunday’s on-camera talent all-female, 18 of the 25 on-site technicians producing the game were females from Calgary, Toronto, Ottawa and Edmonton. Four female SAIT broadcasting students were also on hand to observe and shadow the ongoings in the broadcast truck.
And, truth be told, Calgary has 10 females who regularly work Flames and NHL broadcasts. Three or four of them work every game.
“These women know what they’re doing, they’ve been training, they’re educated in it,” said A.J. Sullivan, an audio technician who is also pregnant with her second baby. “They’re all women that do this job regularly. They’re good at it. And they’ve just gathered us all together to highlight that there are women doing these roles.” And excelling at them. “It’s absolutely not a case of warm-body syndrome, filling these roles just to make it look female-heavy demographicwise,” pointed out Gale, who has worked in the business locally since 2003. “These are people that have done these jobs forever. Someone was explaining something to one of the camerawomen and she said, ‘I’ve been shooting hockey for 17 years.’
“But our day hasn’t changed. We still came in at the same time, do our set-ups the same way, we’re still doing the hockey game. Today would be a normal Sunday game whether it is a mostly female crew or mostly male crew. It’s the exact same broadcast.”
The show went off like clockwork for Simpson, who is somewhat of a trail-blazer in the broadcasting world who embraces being a role model for aspiring female reporters.
“Being asked so often over the years, ‘What’s it like to be a female and working in hockey?’ ” she said. “And it’s like, ‘I can tell you what it’s like to be a reporter in my shoes that happens to be female.’ You’re just there to do your job. And that’s all you focus on.”
Hextall’s path to the cramped quarters of the Scotiabank Saddledome television broadcast booth is winding but she’s paid her dues.
From Brandon to Sportsnet, TSN, ESPN, New England Sports Network to losing her job as part of Hockey Night in Canada cutbacks.
She rebuilt her identity in the broadcast world by using her experience calling games for the Manitoba Moose and parlaying it into play-by-play for the Canadian Women’s Hockey League and the MJHL’s Steinbach Pistons. To Sunday.
“We finished the broadcast and I looked at Cassie and I just said, ‘I called an NHL game,’ Hextall said after the eventual 5-3 Golden Knights victory over the Flames. “The excitement finally hit me. You’re focused on so much the task at hand and just doing the job and not trying to think about anything else or any of the outside noise.
“But then when you complete it, and you’ve actually done it, and you’re actually only a handful of women that have ever done it, it sets in … for me, it’s been a long journey.”
Which — for women in broadcasting and women in general — can’t end here. Not for Hextall, anyway. “Now, I just want to do it again,” Hextall said with a chuckle. “That’s the biggest thing. You hope that … no, I don’t hope. I KNOW I did enough to get another opportunity. That’s how I feel about it — I put in the work to do it and I thought we had a strong cast.
“But it all comes back to Cassie for me …”
It was Campbell-Pascall who first broke barriers in 2006 as the first female to do colour commentary on Hockey
Night in Canada when she filled in for Harry Neale, and has paved the way ever since.
“You know, that’s when we’ve made it as minorities — whether it’s race or gender — when we don’t need to have days to celebrate groups of people,” pointed out Campbell-Pascall.
“We just celebrate each other every day. That’s when you know we’ve made it … it would be really nice to not have to celebrate women and have a special day for women. It would be nice if we just celebrated that every single day.”
Between the second and third periods, off camera, Simpson clarified her next steps.
“And then I’ll throw to the ladies after the interview with Catriona Le May Doan?” she asked the production crew.
Throw to the ladies… covering a live NHL game.
That’s something you don’t hear often.
“I just look forward to the day where it’s like, ‘Chris, who are ya doing the game with? Oh, Cassie and Leah? OK,’ ” Simpson explained. “Instead of ‘Whaaaaaat?’ I want it to be more the norm.
“Hey, this is Step 1.”