THE STRIDES IN WOMEN’S HOCKEY GO WELL BEYOND THE SCOREBOARD
If you just went by the Olympic tournament in Pyeongchang, you’d wonder what exactly has changed in women’s hockey over the last 20 years.
Canada and the United States delivered another epic chapter in the game’s greatest rivalry on Wednesday. The rest of the world struggled against the sport’s two super powers. This produced dark mutterings about the competitiveness of the tournament and future of women’s hockey in the Olympics.
As it happens, those were the storylines — more or less — at the 1998 Games in Nagano, in Salt Lake in ’02, in Turin in ’06, Vancouver in 2010 and four years ago in Sochi. True, there were some plot twists along the way — Sweden’s upset of the U.S. in Italy principal among them — but the dramatic sea change the hockey world hopes for hasn’t materialized.
So where is the women’s game? More to the point, where is it heading and will the world championships and Olympics ever be more than a stage for Canada and the U.S. to do the Ali-Frazier thing?
For those who drop in to the women’s game every four years, those are the big questions. If you just went by the Olympics, you’d understand how a certain perception is formed. But a wide-angle lens is required to fully appreciate the advancements that have been made in women’s hockey, to understand great things are happening, even if they aren’t apparent to the average fan.
For starters, the quality of the game is light years ahead of where it was in 1998. Your agent covered every women’s Olympic tournament from 2002 to 2014 and the improvement made over that time is astonishing.
There is no comparison in the speed of the game. Same with the skill level. Same with the conditioning. The field is also deeper. Switzerland and Finland have built programs. Sweden never really advanced on its success in Italy, but the Russian team in Pyeongchang was a massive improvement over its entry in Sochi.
Does it always show up on the scoreboard? That depends how you view these things.
Canada beat the Olympic Athletes from Russia 5-0 in one semifinal and the U.S. blanked Finland 5-0. In past Olympics there were a lot of 8-1 games at a similar juncture. Maybe it’s difficult to sell the growth of the women’s game when the drubbings of a past generation have turned into milder beatdowns. But the games are more competitive.
The real gains, however, have been made in areas away from the scoreboard, in areas that have little to do with wins and losses. That’s also where the greatest potential for change lies, along with the real hope for the future of the women’s game.
A world away, China has made a wholesale commitment to the sport with a view toward icing a competitive team at the 2022 Games in Beijing.
There are currently two Chinese-based teams in the Canadian Women’s Hockey League — Kunlun Red Star and Vanke Rays — that will serve as the developmental program for the Chinese national team.
Kunlun is led by former American star Kelli Stack and Finnish goalie Noora Raty and augmented by Chinese-heritage players and Chinese nationals.
Their coach, Digit Murphy, says the team’s ambition is to win gold in Beijing.
Consider that for a moment. Consider what that would mean to the women’s game globally. Consider what even a Chinese medal in 2022 would do for the sport and the excitement it would create.
China, moreover, is just one part of a movement that has created opportunities for women unheard of 20 years ago.
The single biggest development in that area has been the growth of women’s programs at the NCAA level. At the 2017 World Championship, every member of Canada and the U.S. played Division 1 hockey with the exception of Canadian goalie Shannon Szabados and just under half of all players had a connection to Division 1. These included nine players from Sweden, six from Finland four from Germany, three from the Czech Republic and two from Switzerland, including all-American blue-liner Lara Stalder.
There’s also the CWHL to consider, the American-based National Women’s Hockey League, and a dozen leagues in Europe, including the Turkish Women’s Ice Hockey League. Just wondering what a roadie looks like in Turkey?
Beyond the players, those teams and those leagues provide opportunities for coaches, for trainers, for administrators. In Pyeongchang, there were three female head coaches. In each of the five previous Olympic tournaments there was one.
It’s unclear how you measure progress in these cases but, clearly, there are forces pushing the game forward.
How far and how fast it’s being pushed is the next question. Just a year ago, the U.S. women’s team threatened to boycott the world championship over U.S. Hockey’s treatment of its program.
The players would eventually win a four-year agreement that included a raise in the training stipend from $1,000 a month to $2,000, travel and insurance provisions, and performance-based bonus payments.
Their fight became part of the larger narrative in their goldmedal victory over Canada this week and it continues. But so does the progress.