Articles in Hockey Related

from Adriana.Sinishtaj of OutSports,

My earliest life memory is the 1997 Stanley Cup parade.

I’m a “legacy” hockey fan. My parents came to Detroit as kids. My dad went all-in on sports, and my mom was all-in on Red Wings player Steve Yzerman. It was fate that they met and passed their passion for hockey down to their six kids.

I loved watching my brothers play street hockey, seeing Joe Kocur at my uncle’s restaurant on off days, attending Detroit Vipers IHL games, and admiring our family’s growing collection of memorabilia.

As a young girl unaware of her queerness, the draw was the action and passion, but traditional hockey culture made it hard to foster my love of the game.

Overemphasis on metrics, blunt dismissal of newer or uninformed fans, female fans almost being required to “prove” their fandom, and outright disdain for anyone deemed “other” – It all sapped my enjoyment of the great game.

Despite Detroit being firmly in dynasty territory at the time, my love and interest evaporated around age 10. It was clear that I didn’t belong and my perspective wasn’t valuable. If I didn’t know everything there was to know, I might as well kick rocks.

So I did.

continued

from Ken Campbell of kencampbell.substack.com,

Twenty-five years ago today, Dominik Hasek stood between Russia and an Olympic gold medal. And as the greatest goalie in NHL history – yeah, I said it – celebrates one of the crowning achievements of his Hall of Fame career on the silver anniversary of the Czech Republic’s gold in Nagano, he’s still standing up to Russia.

The man who grew up during Communist rule and Soviet occupation in the former Czechoslovakia has not hid his disdain for the Russian invasion of Ukraine. He spoke out about it early and often and has been highly critical of the NHL for allowing Russian-born players to continue to play in the best league in the world. When the San Jose Sharks and Nashville Predators played games in Prague to open the 2022-23 regular season, Hasek made it clear that the Russian players – Alexander Barabanov of the Sharks and Yakov Trenin of the Predators – were not welcome, and he lobbied the NHL and his own government to keep them off the ice.

“What is bothering me is people are dying,” Hasek said in a telephone interview with Hockey Unfiltered. “By the hundreds every day, on both sides. I’m trying to help because I know what I’m doing is the right thing. I will try to do anything to shorten the war and help (fewer) people die. That is my goal and anything I do and anything I say is just for this one goal.”

continued