Column: On Last Night, the Past, and the Uncertain Future

It is difficult to try to write something coherent that isn’t a barrage of keysmashes and swear words across multiple languages, but here goes.

A lot of hockey culture is purported to be built on respect. For the game, for one’s opponents, for the past, for the fans, for the hallowed sanctity of skate blades meeting fresh ice. Legacy and history are established, brick by painstaking brick, on that seven-letter foundation held so dear across all corners of the sport.

Respect the game. Never expect, always earn. Respect, respect, respect.

Where was the respect last night?

Hundreds of players in both the PHF and the PWHPA learned the news at the same time the public did. They got no warning, no time to prepare, no time to process what this means for them. Contracts? Voided. Life plans? In shambolic limbo. Residency status tied to employment? Your guess is as good as mine.

To paraphrase a tweet I saw last night, the dream gap is alive and well.

Another popular word in hockey culture is ‘team.’ Everything is for the team, all those personal and professional sacrifices made for the greater good are worth it. Right? Right?

Something better is coming for everyone, if only you can hold on a little longer. Give a little bit more. Do it for the team.

Where was the team last night, when all these players in the PHF and the PWHPA were slapped with the stark realization that their careers might very well be over?

If, as reports state, the league will be down to 6 teams and try-outs will inevitably whittle out non-national team players, where are the American and Canadian national team players standing up for their teammates to ensure they get to be part of this new endeavor?

Where is the team spirit for players of color and the Toronto Six’s dissolved BIPOC ownership group? Where’s the respect for trans and gender-nonconforming players who now have to contemplate potentially being under the authority of blatantly and unapologetically transphobic PWHPA board members like the Lamoureux twins?

Or, will marginalized players and those without national team clout once again be asked to sacrifice for the team - to show respect - for a greater good that’s being designed to exclude them?

In the words of former CWHL commissioner Brenda Andress, here’s to better things for women’s hockey. In my words, here’s to better things for all players, especially the ones too often excluded from the narrative.