journalism.

A better Mirror: Inside Hockey Night Punjabi’s fight to BE part of Canada’s game

Sportsnet

“The significance of this visual can’t be overstated. For the people behind Hockey Night Punjabi, this set, and the studio it sits within, are more than just an address stamped on a business card. This is the final, shining stop on a circuitous path that has run from Toronto to Calgary to Vancouver, with all manner of unexpected turns and detours along the way. It is the tangible proof that after fighting for a voice and devoting years to reinventing and refining it with eyes on bringing about positive change for their community, Hockey Night Punjabi has found itself.”

[Finalist for the RTDNA’s national Sports Feature Reporting Award in 2019]

‘truth tellers’: Why the voices of hockey’s black women are essential for the game’s pursuit of progress

Sportsnet

“If you’ve never come face-to-face with racism, never had it directed at your own skin, you might envision it only in the extreme — moments grounded in the deepest and most traumatic of conflicts. Or in the abstract — an amorphous inconvenience that somehow crystallizes into a quieter sort of intentional oppression. But the daily experience goes beyond this, still. In between these precise inflictions, racism is doled out more haphazardly, spilled along the sidewalk for people of colour to twist and tip-toe around, lest we step through with purpose and risk offending the spillers by splashing around and causing a scene. It’s at times subtle, and far-reaching. This is what the everyday looks like for Black women in the game.”

[Finalist for the RTDNA’s national award for Excellence in Sports Reporting in 2021]

‘Beautiful, Needed and important as all hell’: Inside the Nolan family’s next chapter

Sportsnet

“To understand the true weight of this moment, you have to trace the Nolan family’s story back to a time before that paint met that metal. From a father who set this journey in motion, with a meteoric rise marred by betrayal; to an older brother who carved out a hard-fought path, only to see it cut short too soon; to a younger brother who followed that well-worn trail of footsteps to etch the family name in history. After all the Nolans endured in the game, it would’ve been easy to walk away. But in giving all they had to find greatness on the ice, the Nolans found their true calling, too — sharing their stories with Indigenous youth, bringing their people together, and dedicating themselves to leading the next generation of leaders.”

For Our Legacy: Akil Thomas is redefining what it means to be young and Black in pro hockey

Sportsnet

“Rewind the tape back to that summer day in Scarborough, to the scene playing out on that laneway. To the camera rolling on Akil Thomas, those four letters emblazoned across his chest, his skill unapologetically on display — a celebration of the youthful individuality professional hockey often stifles. Another step towards normal. Behind Thomas, the chorus rings out, one particular string of lyrics capturing all that he, Roberts and Mason have poured into this game, and why. ‘Early mornings, sleepless nights. Paid our dues and earned our stripes. We do this for our legacy.’”

Over the Border: Inside the fight to save hockey in the rio grande valley

Sportsnet

“Hidden away in Tamaulipas, a small but dedicated hockey community has been hitting the pavement for hockey games for years. On the other side of the Valley, Lopez and fellow hockey lover Nathaniel Mata are hoping to tap into the same model that nurtured that passion, to build upon what Mexico already has and help the game flourish across the border, as well. But after seeing once-loved teams leave town, after seeing the area’s only ice rink shut down by the pandemic, hockey is hanging on by a thread in south Texas. Now, Lopez, Mata and their non-profit, RGV Roller, have aligned to reignite interest in the sport, fight for its place in the Valley, and offer the hockey world a blueprint for how to grow the game even in the unlikeliest of locales.”

‘I’m trying to leave it better than i found it’: Why Chanel Keenan is exactly what hockey needs

Sportsnet

“In October 2020, Chanel Keenan was hired by the Seattle Kraken to serve as the organization’s intersectionality consultant, a novel role in the pro hockey space. A year and a half in, the impact of her perspective — not only as a member of the disabled community but also as a woman of colour, as an East Coaster, as a social media afficionado, as one who adores the sport with limitless passion — has reverberated throughout the organization. But Keenan’s eyes remained fixed on the big picture, on the growth still possible beyond herself, beyond Seattle, beyond hockey. And staring down her first opportunity to affect real change in the game, she’s just getting started.”

Enough Talk: hockey’s homophobic language problem is putting kids’ lives at risk

Sportsnet

“To understand the gravity of the situation hockey’s persistent and pervasive use of homophobic language creates, you first have to understand two things: One, that Brock McGillis’s experience is heartbreakingly common. And two, that the science around how exactly this language affects young gay athletes has been known for years. And what that science tells us is that the time for fact-finding is long past, that urgent action is the only way forward. What it tells us is eradicating homophobic language from hockey is less about simply making the game more welcoming, and more about keeping kids alive.”

call the wolf: Inside Marco argentino’s journey to the heart of hockey’s gear obsession

Sportsnet

“The son of a shoemaker from Italy who opened that shop on Wellington Street and saw it become a Montreal hockey staple, Marco Argentino’s taken the artistry passed down to him from his father and forged his own path, becoming the man generations of legends — Wayne Gretzky, Sidney Crosby, Connor McDavid — trust with perfecting their gear. As the world of NHL gear continues to advance, both as a business and technologically, Argentino is a call-back to the old school. A reminder that there are still some things a creative mind and a deft touch can do that a machine still simply can’t.”

Hometown Hero: How Mikyla Grant-Mentis quietly became one of hockey’s most dynamic talents

Sportsnet

“Thinking back, with 12 years to reflect on that day, Mikyla Grant-Mentis marvels at her mother’s strength. ‘We had to pull over a couple of times so she could throw up, because she was sick from the chemo, but all she wanted was to get me to my hockey game,’ she says. It was Sandra’s unrelenting determination — that day in the car and in the months that followed as she battled her way through to the other side of her cancer diagnosis — that changed things for Grant-Mentis. Watching her mom refuse to wilt, Grant-Mentis felt she owed it to her to adopt the same attitude. ‘I knew that I had to be the best,’ she says. ‘I had to make sure I’m doing this for my mom, because she was doing so much for me.’”

The people’s choice: Why Larry Kwong’s legacy is about so much more than one big-league minute

Sportsnet

“That moment of glory wasn’t all that it seemed. Like the famed arena he tore up in his New York days, with its understated façade masking the weight of all that went on within, there’s more to Kwong’s story. Look deeper into the journey that carried the young phenom from Vernon to New York and eventually overseas, and you find the story of a trailblazer who rose to historic heights in the game despite that signature big-league moment, not because of it. Now, as a group of hockey historians push to have Kwong inducted into the Hall of Fame as a Builder, their message is a simple one: it wasn’t that one-minute shift, but rather everything that came before and after it, that makes Larry Kwong worthy of that title.”

‘We’re still here. we’re still fighting.’: Why the little NHL remains an enduring symbol of indigenous joy

Sportsnet

“He was eight years old, maybe seven. Young enough to leave tears on the ice as the referee tossed him from the championship game. Young enough for the devastation to evaporate the moment he saw his team win it all anyways. He remembers the medal, the weight of it against his chest, the thrill of being able to take it home and marvel at it in solitude. By the time Peltier had that medal around his neck, he’d already amassed years of cherished moments at that tournament, the annual hockey summit for First Nation youth in Ontario, officially dubbed the Little Native Hockey League but affectionately known as the Little NHL. And years more would follow, the magnetic pull of that tournament bringing him back, again and again.”

For the Next Ones: Why Dampy brar and apna hockey won’t stop fighting for the south asian community

Sportsnet

“Two decades removed from his on-ice career, Dampy Brar’s now working to rid hockey of those uncomfortable moments. The player-turned-coach is the co-founder of Apna Hockey, an organization working relentlessly to grow the game among Canada’s South Asian community. But, while he spends his time training everyone from young skaters with NHL dreams to older community members going for their first spin, Brar’s work is just as much about getting South Asians acquainted with hockey as it is the reverse. It’s about getting more people in the hockey world to a place where they see enough brown faces in enough places that, at the very least, they know what they’re looking at…”

‘We were these kids’: Inside akim aliu, HDA’s mission to grow the game

Sportsnet

“In 2020, when Akim Aliu founded the Hockey Diversity Alliance with seven other current and former NHLers at his side, one of the first orders of business was figuring out how to open doors for kids like the ones they’d played alongside in all those cul-de-sacs and parking lots back home. ‘We got lucky,’ Aliu says. ‘We got support at critical times along the way of our journey to be able to make it to the level that we made it to. But the fact is that a lot of kids similar to us slip through the cracks, because they aren’t able to get that support.’”

Witnessing the Masterpiece: Riding shotgun with sidney crosby

Sportsnet

“For Cole Harbour’s favourite son, glory came through sheer force of will. Through a relentless, methodical infliction of effort on every aspect of his skill set, until all that was left was greatness. But Sidney Crosby isn’t a performance act at centre stage. He doesn’t give it to you all at once. He’s a painter moving across a grand canvas, slowly perfecting each square inch, each minute detail. And while, standing back, we can recognize we’re in the presence of a masterpiece, it’s only those who’ve been by his side along the way who truly understand what he’s done. This is an inside look at how Crosby became Crosby, as told by those linemates who were out there with him as it happened.”

proving ground: inside the prairie journey that shaped generational prospect connor bedard

Sportsnet

“Connor Bedard has played his last game as a Regina Pat. Tabbed with the No. 1 pick at the 2023 NHL Draft, he’ll soon begin a new life in Chicago. But for the city he leaves behind, his presence won’t soon be forgotten. For those who haven’t spent time in Saskatchewan, it may be difficult to fully understand the depth of the bond formed over Bedard’s three years in Regina — a city that allowed him enough calm to become the phenom he was expected to be; a city that helped raise him as he navigated a meteoric ascent; a city to whom he gave an experience like nothing it had ever seen. This is the story of Connor Bedard, the Prairie Hero, and the three-year run that shaped one of the most promising prospects the game has ever seen.”

oN Eagles’ Wings: Inside the program revolutionizing German hockey and building the NHL's next powerhouse

Sportsnet

“On the heels of Leon Draisaitl becoming the first German NHLer to ever win the league’s scoring title or earn MVP honours, Tim Stützle represents another seismic step forward for their country — on track to take his place alongside the Oilers pivot and Seider as the most important leaders of Germany’s golden generation. But long before Draisaitl, Seider and Stützle exported German on-ice excellence to North America, each passed through the same town in Germany, their future molded by the same youth academy program. This is the story of the Adler Mannheim, and a 20-year effort that produced the three best talents German hockey has ever seen…”

Mind over Matter: How Darnell Nurse turned the most difficult year of his career into his most prolific

Sportsnet

“But Darnell Nurse’s immense growth over the past year is about far more than the number of times he’s made the twine flutter. After the searing disappointment that ended his club’s 2020 post-season, the big man came back and turned in the best overall campaign of his career, one that’s catapulted him into any conversation about the game’s best rearguards. And No. 25’s ascent, along with his ability to somehow turn one of the most uncomfortable years of his life into his most prolific, has given the Oilers something they’ve long lacked as they push to turn potential into greatness…”

‘Same way, but better’: Erik Karlsson believes he can still be great, and he doesn’t care who agrees

Sportsnet

“Erik Karlsson’s mastered the art of expending in these moments precisely the action and effort required — no more, no less. It’s the central truth Mario Ferraro learned about the veteran’s training philosophy during their unique off-season together, one that granted him and his teammates a closer look at how the 31-year-old — once considered the most dominant defenceman in the world — is adapting to this new chapter of his career. Gone are the trophies and historic comparisons, replaced by more skeptical looks and fewer looks overall. But that summer, Karlsson, ever the plotter, was already envisioning the comeback.”

Killer instinct: Inside Conor Garland’s fearless, endearing approach to the game

Sportsnet

“If not for that stubbornness translating into a steadfast belief in himself, Conor Garland might’ve never made it to this point. Turned away by team after team in high school, told he was too small to play more times than he can count, buried on the fourth line when he finally began his pro career, he’s been doubted at every turn. Now, after clawing his way to the big leagues and fighting to become an everyday NHLer, Garland finds himself against the ropes again. His Canucks have dug themselves a deep hole, allowed the doubts to stockpile, their early struggles prompting ownership to clean house above them. But Garland’s been here before. And as his team begins to navigate its way out of the dark, the fiery winger is emerging as a leader by doing what he’s done his entire career.”

‘he was loved here’: how sean monahan built an enduring legacy in calgary

Sportsnet

“For those outside of Calgary, there’s one name synonymous with the past decade of Flames hockey: Johnny Gaudreau. But for the locals — those who’ve sat in the Saddledome nosebleeds and swapped Red Mile stories at the Varsity ODR — before Johnny, there was Mony. Walk through the Dome on game night, gaze up into the ‘C of Red,’ and you’ll spot as many No. 23’s as 13’s on the backs of the jerseys milling about. You’ll hear as many stories of Mony game-winners from the good old days as ones about those potted by his star linemate. Because while the wider hockey world might only have ever seen Sean Monahan as the stoic sidekick to the high-flying Gaudreau, in the city in which he made his name, Sean Monahan meant so much more.”

No Fear: How a young, Unflinching steve yzerman became the pride of nepean

Sportsnet

“Run down the list of the NHL’s all-time leading scorers and just six names sit above Steve Yzerman’s. Only seven players in league history managed to set up more goals than the Canadian pivot. A mere eight scored more than the 692 he put in the back of the net himself. The Hall of Famer who built the Detroit Red Wings into a juggernaut on the ice and eventually did the same for the Tampa Bay Lightning from the front office has a trophy case stuffed with team and individual awards. But before all that — before he was captaining big-league squads to back-to-back Cup Final sweeps in the late ’90s — Yzerman was a quiet, doggedly determined kid in Nepean, Ont., routinely making life nightmarish for his teenage foes.”

How Alphabet Sports Collective is bringing together hockey's LGBTQ+ community

Sportsnet

“It was feeling the isolation firsthand that made Brock McGillis and Bayne Pettinger imagine another way forward. It was experiencing the loneliness themselves, the lost-at-sea voyage of being a queer person in hockey’s ecosystem, that made them wonder about other possibilities. ‘There are so many queer people in hockey, whether it’s players, people working in the sport, fans. We exist, but we are fragmented,’ McGills says. Now, he and Pettinger are bringing those fragments together.”

The Catalyst: In the nhl, skating is king. and dawn braid is a kingmaker.

Sportsnet

“A sport with a history of being set in its ways — hesitant to open its doors to diverse leaders or look outside for ways to improve something as fundamental as skating — is now undergoing a rapid evolution, forcing players to get faster and more precise with each passing season. Coaches like Braid, a national-level figure skater whose transition to hockey made her the first woman in NHL history to coach full-time, have been working behind the scenes to spur that speed-hungry transformation for nearly two decades…”

Inside the Toronto maple leafs’ first playoff series win in 19 years

Sportsnet

“The real glory, the real achievement, still sits miles ahead — 12 wins away, to be precise. For many outside of Toronto, this team has proved little yet. But within the walls of Scotiabank Arena, spilling out into Maple Leaf Square, up York St. and beyond, it’s understood: Regardless of what happens next, some measure of cloud-clearing, of curse-breaking, of waving away ghosts, was done here. The Maple Leafs are moving on.”

Back home, Muslim hockey community beaming after Kadri's historic moment

Sportsnet

“More than anything else, it’s the little ones that Hafejee, Essawi and Sedu think of most when they reflect on what Kadri’s moment means, on who the ripple effects will move most profoundly. For those who were around to see No. 91 become the first, it was a great day. But for the kids who will grow up with Kadri’s championship ways to point to, it'll be something else entirely. ‘All the kids are going to look for his name when they go visit the Stanley Cup at the Hockey Hall of Fame” Hafejee says. ‘They're all going to be searching for his name, finding his name. Saying, hey, he's one of us.’”

Beyond the Highlights: Aito iguchi’s quest to put japanese hockey on the map

Sportsnet

“He is one of hockey’s most intriguing, if misunderstood, prospects. The 15-year-old face of a group of phenoms from a small club team in Saitama, trained by a famed Soviet defenceman and on a mission to forever change the perception of Japanese hockey. After lighting up the internet with stunningly skillful combinations from the age of 11, Iguchi now faces a career-defining, life-altering decision: whether to remain an overseas mystery or dive headfirst into the grind that is the North American development ranks...”

The First Year: What it’s like to play an NHL expansion franchise’s inaugural season

Sportsnet

“You only get one first step. For the NHL’s Seattle Kraken, this is it — October 12, 2021 will forever mark the first game in the first season in franchise history. And for every single player granted the opportunity to don a Kraken jersey, the year ahead will be one to remember, no matter how it goes down. Only those who’ve worn the jersey and stepped on the ice in those games can understand the experience of playing an inaugural season, of planting NHL hockey where it had never been before. From Ottawa to Anaheim, Columbus to Tampa Bay, Minnesota to San Jose, this is what it feels like to be part of the First Year, from those who were there and lived to tell the stories.”

Colisée Classic: inside the world’s greatest minor hockey tournament

Sportsnet

“For two decades, the Colisée stood as the last bastion of on-ice glory in Quebec City. It was within these walls that the provincial capital salvaged its love of the game in the late ’90s. In the forced absence of the NHL’s Nordiques, the Colisée’s other prime inhabitant — the Tournoi International de Hockey Pee-wee de Québec — took centre stage. This is the story of the world’s greatest minor hockey tournament, as told by the NHLers who were there to experience it themselves…”

The interview: Zach sullivan on his journey to come out to the hockey world

Sportsnet

“Standing in the locker room with his team post-game the night before he posted the tweet, Sullivan told his teammates he planned to come out publicly. They answered with applause. … For a sport entrenched in traditionalism, seemingly hesitant to embrace individuality in a way that keeps many in the game silent, Sullivan’s experience offers a glimpse of what it looks like when the hockey world simply leans into embracing and supporting its own. This is his story, in his words.”

The Interview: Allan Walsh’s path from california courtrooms to nhl boardrooms

Sportsnet

“Allan Walsh has never been one to go quietly. It’s in fact his inclination to do the opposite that’s made his name in the game. But back before he first went to the negotiating table for NHLers, Walsh was a young prosecutor in L.A., thrown into the fire navigating murder cases and wondering how his dream of working in hockey had taken such a sharp left turn. This is how the most outspoken player agent in the game found his way back to the sport he’s long worshipped, in his own words.”

Why the legacy of the North American Indigenous Games remains vital as ever

Sportsnet

“With the legacy of the North American Indigenous Games long established by this point, the years between NAIG arrivals — the last was back in 2017 in Toronto — tend to see the anticipation swell and bubble. But for the newest generation of Indigenous athletes to earn the chance to compete, that dream of being in the stands, of watching those opening ceremonies unfold, has twice been taken from them.”

Why hockey is more than a pastime for the enoch cree nation

Sportsnet

"For those who’ve been around long enough to know, the Old Barn is more than a rink. It’s more than the walls that enclose it or the roof that protects it. It is, rather, the holder of decades upon decades of memories. It’s also, at long last, the home of Enoch’s own minor-hockey organization, the Enoch Cree Hockey Association. After going more than three decades without one, Enoch has watched the ECHA proudly restore the community’s yearning for the game they love.”

Nunavut hockey’s ‘band of brothers’ sparking a new era for the North

Sportsnet

“For the names that comprise the Team Nunavut’s roster, the battle just to play the game has revealed plenty. Passion for the sport isn’t tough to come by in the North, but the environment in which that passion lives presents its own novel difficulties not experienced by young players elsewhere in the country. In Nunavut, adversity comes as physical distance, in the vast expanses that lie between teammates from different remote communities across the territory…”

How Peguis First Nation’s young champions revived its hockey legacy

Sportsnet

“Pinning down the importance of hockey to Peguis First Nation isn’t so much a matter of tracing the depth of its roots as it is seeing the two as irreversibly intertwined. Ask anyone from the community about its passion for the game, and that becomes abundantly clear. ‘Peguis is hockey, and hockey is Peguis,’ says Lawrence Bear, a former player and writer from the community. “Hockey is in our blood. Ice runs through our veins. The moment we set foot on the ice, we become warriors like our ancestors.’”

Canadian icon harry jerome’s legacy extends well beyond the track

Sportsnet

“While the most potent moments of Jerome’s athletics career can be summarized in a collection of numbers etched in metal, the impact of the life he led cannot be corralled so easily. To scrawl all the details of his legacy would require those letters to spread across the entirety of this rectangular stone block, to continue onto the park’s grassy floor and spill over the sea wall into the water.”

How minor hockey survived the chaos of the Fort McMurray fires

Sportsnet

“Any timeline that runs through Fort McMurray figures to feature a similar peculiarity when it reaches May of 2016. It was in the early days of that month that a wildfire swept through town with devastating intensity, forcing the largest evacuation in Alberta’s history — more than 88,000 residents forced to leave everything behind, many for the last time as roughly 2,500 homes were destroyed in the blaze.”

Aisha visram reflects on the impact of her nhl moment

Sportsnet

“It was when the lights went low and the anthems rung out within the walls of the Los Angeles Kings’ arena that Aisha Visram truly felt the weight of her big-league moment. Thrust into the spotlight last Thursday with her presence on the bench making some NHL history, it was in that near-darkness that Visram was granted a quiet moment to reflect on the path that had brought her there.”

How Álvaro Montoya is helping hockey reach out to underrepresented communities

Sportsnet

“From the very beginning, Álvaro Montoya could feel there was something particular about his presence in the hockey world, something special. It wasn’t just the titles or the wins or anything else that transpired on the ice, though. It was something more. It was the signs he’d see dotted among the crowd, the shirts with his name scrawled across, that endless love from Hispanic fans that followed him from city to city. It was that feeling he had in June 2004, when the Rangers called his name with the sixth pick at the NHL Draft, and in doing so, made him the first-ever Cuban-American NHLer, and the League’s first native Spanish speaker.”

After a long road back, Marco rossi reflects on the toughest year of his life

Sportsnet

“In the darkest hours of it, with little to distract from his new reality, it was difficult not to let the mind wander. To wonder if his career, his dreams, all he’d worked towards, might be over ‘It was really hard. You're thinking about everything at that point, because the doctors are all saying, ‘After you're recovered, we don't know if you're ever going to be the same person as before. On the ice, we don't know if you can perform on the ice. We have no idea,’’ Rossi said. ‘So, these were scary moments for myself, because it’s my hockey career. You're thinking 24/7, every time, ‘Can I be a hockey player again?’”

Remembering Rob Sneath, the Wayne Gretzky of Canadian Forces hockey

Sportsnet

“Inducted into the CAF Sports Hall of Fame just a month before his passing in 2017 following a long battle with cancer, Sgt. (Ret’d) Rob Sneath was an absolute force during his 24 years with the Armed Forces. Regarded as hands down the best to ever take the ice in Canadian military hockey, Sneath earned appearances in 21 straight Canadian Forces National Hockey Championships between the late ’80s and early 2000s. This is his story.”

Walter Gretzky embodied the heart, spirit of Canadian community hockey

Sportsnet

“Few surnames have become as inextricably linked with a sport, with a country, as the one that’s scattered throughout the NHL record books more than any other. To speak of hockey in Canada, perhaps anywhere, is to speak of the Gretzkys. The First Family of On-ice Greatness means more to the game than simply records and numbers, though. The statistical dominance, the historic amassing of trophies — no one represents that aspect of the sport better than its most prolific scorer, Wayne Gretzky. But the heart of the game, what it looks like not under the bright lights of NHL arenas but in the dimmer glow of community rinks dotted throughout the country, that calls to mind the memory of another with that surname: Walter, hockey’s most beloved hockey dad.”

Dale Hawerchuk’s quiet brilliance made Winnipeg, and Canada, a winner

Sportsnet

“Dale Hawerchuk’s skillset seemed ahead of its time — as if a prodigy of today’s dynamic, creative age was dropped in the ’80s. He was an elite playmaker, a dog on any loose puck that dared float into a corner with him present, and, at 18, as patient and poised with the puck as No. 99, says Morris Lukowich. And, of course, he was an ever-deceptive goal-scorer. ‘There are some players that when they come into the NHL, it’s as if God has reached down and touched them.… Dale was one of those.’”

Why former Flame, Maple Leaf Matt Stajan isn’t ready to hang up the dream

Sportsnet

“It’s been eight months since Matt Stajan last took to the ice in front of the Saddledome faithful, the flaming ‘C’ draped across his chest. But even now that the 15-year NHL veteran is suiting up in Germany, his name is still very much alive in the Calgary Flames‘ dressing room. Quite literally, in fact…”

How the Raptors’ title run inspired a coast-to-coast Jurassic Park frenzy

Sportsnet

“You can still spot a few ‘We The North’ shirts dotted among the Flames and Stampeders paraphernalia floating around downtown Calgary. A few clawed basketballs adorning hats where flaming C’s might usually sit, bobbing casually through the crowd. A couple weeks ago, you would’ve been hard-pressed to catch a glimpse of anything but such tributes, with thousands milling about the downtown area en route to the site of Jurassic Park Calgary.”

Stylists to NBA's best offer perspective on how fashion can help hockey grow

Sportsnet

“Arena entrances have become runways for the game’s best dressed. Entire media ventures have been launched dedicated to covering gameday looks. Hoopers have become fashion icons. For the hockey world, where an embrace of fashion is just beginning to make early waves, that whole world is largely misunderstood — seen by some as unnecessary, by others as disrespectful to the sanctity of the sport. But ask those who've already seen how this timeline plays out, who've worked with some of the most prominent athletes in the world and better understand why exactly they care so deeply about expressing themselves through their style, and they see it differently.”

football, basketball coaches on how McDavid’s skill transcends the hockey world

Sportsnet

“There are certain moments, watching Connor McDavid, where the gap between his skill-set and the rest of the league seems exaggerated to a comical degree. It’s not just that McDavid moves in a way we’ve rarely seen in the game before. It’s that his advanced skating ability seems to allow him to pull in patterns of movement that we see from greats in other sports, layering those in on top of his well-established ability to dominate his own. So I showed clips of No. 97 to coaches who work in the basketball and football worlds to get their take on how the Oilers captain’s skill-set overlaps with what they see from the best in their own sports. Here's how they saw it.”

Inside the highlight reel: Stickhandling sensation pavel barber dissects the game’s silkiest moves

Sportsnet

“Since the beginning of the sports world’s shutdown, we’ve called on YouTube-phenom-turned-skills-coach Pavel Barber to share his on-ice expertise for young players using the downtime to fine-tune their skillsets. Over the series’ run, Barber’s dissected Mitch Marner’s backhand toe drag, Sidney Crosby’s one-handed magic, Connor McDavid’s use of the art of deception, Elias Pettersson’s mastery of ‘The Forsberg’, David Pastrnak’s trophy-clinching creativity, Alex Ovechkin’s go-to dangle, Evgeni Malkin’s backhand spin-o-rama, Matthew Tkachuk’s between-the-legs, top-shelf snipe, and Auston Matthews’ drag-release shot. Here’s a deeper look Inside the Highlight Reel.”