That’s likely to be the response from some fans on New Year’s Day when USA Hockey announces the roster for the men’s team that will compete at the 2018 Winter Olympics in PyeongChang, South Korea Feb. 9-25.
Forward Jordan Greenway has represented the U.S. before. Will he do it again in PyeongChang? (Photo/Andre Ringuette/HHOF-IIHF Images)
The National Hockey League isn’t pausing its season to send its star players to the Winter Games for the first time in 30 years, meaning hockey powers such as the United States, Canada, and Russia are going to have to be creative in filling out their Olympic rosters.
The U.S. team could be a mixture of young collegiate stars and seasoned former NHLers who are still playing the game in North American minor leagues, Europe, or elsewhere.
If that’s the case, watch out for two names: Jordan Greenway and Robbie Earl. Greenway, a left wing for Boston University and a 2015 second-round draft pick of the Minnesota Wild, made an international splash about this time last year at the International Ice Hockey Federation World Junior Championship in Toronto and Montreal.
The 6-foot-6, 227-pound forward from Canton, New York, was physical force with a deft scoring touch at the tournament. He notched 3 goals and 5 assists in seven games at the 2017 World Juniors.
Boston University forward Jordan Greenway played in both the IIHF’s World Junor Championship and World Championship in 2017 (Photo/Andre Ringuette/HHOF-IIHF Images).
Greenway, 20, also appeared in eight games for the U.S. at the 2017 IIHF World Championship in Paris and Cologne in May. He went scoreless in a tourney that featured squads stocked with NHL players whose teams didn’t make or were eliminated early from the Stanley Cup Playoffs.
Greenway got off to an admitted slow start at BU this season, tallying 7 goals and 10 assists in 19 games.
“I don’t think I’ve played as well as I wanted to here in the first few games of the season,” Greenway told the St. Paul, Minnesota’s twincities.com in November. “I still have a couple of months to show them what I can do. I do think I could play in the Olympics, for sure.”
Jordan Greenway hopes to overcome a slow start at Boston University this season and make the U.S. men’s Olympic hockey team (Photo/Boston University).
Slow start or not, U.S. hockey people like Greenway’s game. He participated in the Team USA pre-Olympic media summit at Park City, Utah, in September and posed for pictures wearing a U.S. national team jersey with the American flag in the background.
“I feel very fortunate for this opportunity,” he told reporters at the summit. “I didn’t think it would come this soon, but I’m going to take full advantage of it.”
Will forward Robbie Earl go from 2005-06 Frozen Four MVP to 2018 U.S. Olympian?
Earl also appears to be trying to take advantage of opportunity presented to him. The 32-year-old forward from Chicago is an assistant captain for EHC Biel, a team in Switzerland’s National League.
He had an Olympics audition of sorts playing for the U.S. at the four-team Deutschland Cup tournament in November. He was scoreless in three games.
Earl played college hockey at the University of Wisconsin from 2003-04 to 2005-06. The Badgers won the NCAA Frozen Four title in Earl’s final year at the school and he was named the tournament’s most valuable player. He scored 58 goals and 63 assists in 125 games in his collegiate career.
He was taken by the Toronto Maple Leafs in the sixth round of the 2004 NHL Draft. He appeared in 47 NHL games between the Leafs and the Minnesota Wild, tallying only 6 goals and 1 assist.
Robbie Earl skated for Team USA at the 2017 Deutschland Cup in November Photo/von Mathias Renner/City-Press GbR via USA Hockey).
Earl had a productive North American minor league career playing for the Leafs’ American Hockey League affiliate in Toronto and the Wild’s former farm team in Houston, collecting 66 goals and 103 assists in 313 games.
His scoring carried over to Switzerland where he’s skated for Biel, EV Zug, and Raspperswil-Jona. He has 91 goals and 110 assists in 225 NLA games since 2012-13.
An assistant captain on the Biel team this season, Earl has 11 goals and 13 assists in 30 games.
Chicago native Robbie Earl is a swift-skating scoring threat for EHC Biel in Switzerland (Photo/Hervé Chavaillaz).
While Greenway and Earl represent opposite ends of the hockey spectrum – one player nearing the start of his professional career while the other is approaching the twilight of his – they have one thing in common: University of Wisconsin connections.
Earl is a Wisconsin alum. Tony Granato, the U.S. men’s Olympic hockey team head coach, is also the Badgers bench boss. Greenway’s younger brother, J.D., is a sophomore defenseman who plays for Granato at Wisconsin.
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Brigette Lacquette hasn’t set skate on Winter Olympic ice yet, and she’s already scored.
Team Canada defenseman Brigette Lacquette (Photo/Dave Holland/Hockey Canada Images).
The 25-year-old defenseman from Mallard, Manitoba, achieved a dream last week when she became the first First Nations member to be selected to Canada’s Olympic women’s hockey team. She will compete at the 2018 Winter Games in PyeongChang, South Korea, in February.
“It’s pretty special,” Lacquette told Sportsnet.ca. “Growing up, I really didn’t have that female role model to look to. It’s just very special for me to be that role model for young First Nations kids across Canada.”
And what a role model she has been. Lacquette, who is Cote First Nation, won silver medals with Canada’s national women’s team at the 2017 4 Nations Cup in Tampa, the 2017Nations Cup in Germany and Austria, the 2016International Ice Hockey FederationWomen’s World Championship in Kamloops, British Columbia, Canada, and the 2015IIHF Women’s World Championship in Malmo, Sweden.
Team Canada defenseman Brigette Lacquette in action at the 2016 Women’s 4 Nations Cup against Finland (Photo/Riku Laukkanen/Hockey Canada Images).
Lacquette was also a member of Canada’s gold medal-winning team at the 2010 IIHFWomen’s Under-18 Championship in Chicago.
Last season, she was the second-leading scoring defenseman for the Calgary Inferno of the Canadian Women’s Hockey League with 4 goals and 10 assists in 19 games. She has a goal in eight games for the Inferno this season.
She played at the University of Minnesota-Duluth from 2011-12 to 2014-15 and tallied 20 goals and 49 assists in 106 games at the NCAA Division I school.
“I’ve worked my whole life towards this, and just being that role model for young First Nations is huge,” Lacquette told hockeycanada.ca in September. “I didn’t have that growing up, have that women’s hockey player to look up to that was Aboriginal, so being the first one, it means a lot.”
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The former University of Wisconsin forward was named to the Canadian women’s hockey team that will compete at the 2018 Winter Olympics in PyeongChang, South Korea in February.
Forward Sarah Nurse is headed to the 2018 WinterOlympics (Photo/Hockey Canada).
Nurse, the cousin of Edmonton Oilers defenseman Darnell Nurseand University ofConnecticut basketball point guard Kia Nurseand niece of former National FootballLeague quarterback Donovan McNabb, tallied 76 goals and 61 assists in 150 games for the Badgers from 2013-14 to 2016-17.
She was the Badgers’ second-leading scorer in her senior year with 25 goals and 28 assists in 39 games.
Nurse led NCAA Division I women’s hockey players with three hat tricks last season, including the first three-goal game by a Badgers player against the University ofMinnesota last December. Nurse is the 22nd Wisconsin hockey player in program history to reach 100 career points.
The 5-foot-8 Hamilton, Ontario, Canada, native brings a wealth of international experience to Team Canada. She was a member of the country’s gold medal-winning team at the 2013 International Ice Hockey Federation Women’s Under-18 Championship in Helsinki, Finland, in 2013.
She also helped Canada capture gold at the 2015 Nation’s Cup in Germany and silver at the 2017 Four Nations Cup in Tampa, Florida. She has 3 goals and 1 assists in 11 international games.
The Olympics are becoming a Nurse family tradition. Cousin Kia represented Canada on its women’s basketball team at the 2016 Olympics in Rio de Janeiro.
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It wouldn’t be the holiday season without a P.K. Subban surprise.
The Nashville Predators‘ All Star defenseman went old school – or should we say old man – again to help spread some holiday joy in Nashville. and of course, to his old friends at the Montreal Children’s Hospital.
Subban is enjoying a fine 2017-18 season in Nashville with 7 goals and 17 assists in 34 games. He’s sixth in the NHL in goals among defensemen and tenth in overall scoring – the combination of goals and assists – among the league’s blue-liners.
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Editor’s Note: The Color of Hockey is pleased to feature this post written by Erica L. Ayala, a multi-talented New York-based sportswriter, blogger, podcaster, and general media force of nature. She has her own site, ericalayala.com, co-hosts “The Founding Four,” a podcast that focuses on the National Women’s Hockey League, and has written for Excelle Sports, SBNation’s “The Ice Garden,” FanRag Sports, and The Victory Press.
Kim Davis, the NHL’s VP for Social Impact, Growth Initiatives& Legislative Affairs.
Davis brings an extensive amount of experience from the corporate sector to her new role. Previously, she worked on corporate social responsibility (CSR) efforts at firms such as the JP Morgan Chase Foundation and, most recently, Teneo, a CEO advisory firm.
She joins Michele Roberts (Executive Director, NBA Players Association), Lisa Borders (President, WNBA), Katrina Adams (President, United States Tennis Association) – to name a few – as women of color in executive roles in professional sports.
In 2012, Davis was profiled with First LadyMichelle Obama in Essence magazine’s 28 Most Influential Black Women in America. She has been named to The Business Journal’s 100 Most Influential Women and Fast Company’s100 Most Creative People in Business.
As an executive, Davis is no doubt a first star. How will that translate to professional hockey? The Color of Hockey caught up with the Spelman College alumna on her second day on the job to discuss the league’s diversity and inclusion efforts such as Hockey is forEveryoneand the Declaration of Principles, as well as the state of professional women’s hockey.
Washington Capitals All Star forward Alex Ovechkin, kneeling, with players from the Fort Dupont Ice Hockey Club, a member of the NHL’s Hockey is for Everyone program (Photo/Patrick McDermott).
“I have a lot to learn about about the sport and the game,” Davis said. “I hope that we’ll have a chance to follow up in the coming months and hopefully you’ll see us making some progress in many of the areas that you outlined.”
As with many insider terms, CSR is often perceived solely in the light of companies donating money and other resources to a cause or community. However, Davis is eager to blend her corporate experience with the goals of the NHL to expand CSR to something more involved.
“When people typically think about corporate social responsibility they often digress to the notion that CSR is philanthropy,” Davis said in a phone interview last Tuesday.
“While a part of CSR is clearly philanthropy the concept of CSR really refers to business and societal practices that operate together to benefit a company or an organization like the NHL stakeholders,” she added.
Addressing the societal practices and culture surrounding hockey includes stakeholders such as coaches, owners, players, fans and the greater community.
Even one of those groups is likely to have varied opinions, let alone all of them. However, Davis feels that hockey and the culture it has cultivated is uniquely designed with certain fundamentals already embedded.
“I think that hockey is uniquely in a position because of the attributes of the games – the humility of the players, the leadership that comes from the way the sport is organized and played. I’m hoping to continue to contribute in bridging that societal piece and that business piece in a way that allows the game to grow and expand its fan base.”
However, there are times when the hockey community has fallen short of inclusion for some. From homophobic language to microaggressions in the broadcast booth, the NHL has endured a fair share of criticism in the last calendar year alone. Add to that limited exposure and professional opportunities for the women’s game and the job of corporate social responsibility and community engagement seems daunting.
Yet, embracing the diversity of hockey is something the league seems eager to do more effectively. In addition to its Hockey is For Everyone initiative, the league has hosted activities that focus awareness on such areas as LGBTQ, ethnicity and gender equality, socio-economic status and people with disabilities.
One such event was the 2017 Willie O’Ree Skills Weekend. It was there that Davis got her first real exposure to the game. She was working with the league as a consultant for diversity and inclusion at the time.
The skills weekend event is named for O’Ree, the NHL’sfirst black player. He now serves as the NHL’s director for youth development.
“I was bowled over with excitement and fascination by the commitment that so many of these coaches and others sponsors and mentors had for the game,” Davis said. “I also have to say that I was pleasantly surprised to see the number of kids of color who were exposed to the sport and knowledgeable and fantastic at the sport.”
In addition to the Hockey is For Everyone, the NHL participated in the development of the Declaration of Principles. NHL Commissioner Gary Bettman and other leaders in hockey unveiled the eight principles in September that state:
Hockey should be an enjoyable family experience; all stakeholders— organizations, players, parents, siblings, coaches, referees, volunteers and rink operators — play a role in this effort.
All hockey organizations – regardless of size or level of competition – bring value to players and families in their ability to deliver a positive family experience.
Hockey programs should be age-appropriate for all players, accounting for each individual’s physical, emotional and cognitive development.
All hockey programs should provide a safe, positive and inclusive environment for players and families regardless of race, color, religion, national origin, gender, age, disability, sexual orientation and socio-economic status. Simply put, hockey is for everyone.
Davis is now part of a team that seeks to bring these principles to life.
Part of the conversation over the past several years has been where women in hockey fits into such initiatives.
Both the professional Canadian Women’s HockeyLeague and the National Women’s Hockey League have enjoyed partnerships of some kind with individual NHL markets, including the opportunity for the women to play on NHL ice.
These partnerships are important, but have not trickled down to the salaries of female players quite yet. In October,The Ice Garden released salary detailsfor both women’s hockey leagues. Salaries are said to range from $2,000-$10,000 in the CWHL and $5,000-$7,000 in the NWHL.
When asked about the women’s game, Davis said she was unaware of any specific plans. But she noted that “There is a great deal of support and enthusiasm (within the league) about finding new ways to engage women and women in the sport of hockey…”
In her first 30 days, Davis is focused on listening and learning from her team in hopes of starting off 2018 on the right foot.
With Davis’ appointment, the NHL has placed a diversity and inclusion expert at the helm. Now, we eagerly await the impact of her expertise on making manifest the words, hockey is for everyone.
Follow Erica L. Ayala on Twitter at @elindsay08 and at ericalayala.com.
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We interrupt this hockey blog to give a Color of Hockey big shout-out to Maame Biney, who became the first African-American woman to make the U.S. Olympic speedskating team.
The 17-year-old short track skater from Reston, Virginia, punched her ticket to PyeongChang, South Korea, in February with a dominating performance at the U.S. Olympic trials over the weekend in Kerns, Utah.
She swept the women’s 500-meter finals with a 43.291 finishing time in her first final and a personal-best 43.161 in the second 500-meter final.
“When I crossed the finish line, I wasn’t sure what I was thinking,” Biney said. “At first I was like, “‘Hey, cool, I won.’ When I realized I made the Olympic team, I started cheering like crazy.”
Her father was apparently pumped, too. He held up a sign before her second final that read “Kick Some Hiney Biney.”
Bineyis no stranger to international competition. She won a bronze medal in the 2016-17 Short Track World Junior Championship and was a member of the 2015-16 U.S. world junior short track team.
While she’s the first African-American woman to make the U.S. Olympic speedskating team, African-American women have an illustrious history of participation in other Winter Games sports.
Vonetta Flowers was the first African-American athlete to win an Olympic gold medal when her two-person bobsled finished first at the 2002 Winter Games in Salt Lake City, Utah.
Debi Thomas captured a bronze medal at the 1988 Winter Games in Calgary, Alberta, Canada, in figure skating. The 2014 women’s Olympic bobsled team that competed in Sochi, Russia, featured fiveblack women. The 2018 team could be mostly minorityas well.
Biney began speedskating at age 6 after she was told she was too fast for figure skating. She’s an alum of the Fort Dupont Kids on Ice Speedskating, a Washington, D.C. program that was conducted at one of the few ice skating rinks in the United States located in a largely African-American neighborhood.
According to her Team USA bio, she wants to be a chemical engineer. She said that if she could have any super-power it would be the ability to freeze time.
Apparently, she already has the ability to crush it.
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Three players of Asian heritage are vying for spots on the U.S. and Canadian teams that will compete at the 2018 International Ice Hockey Federation World JuniorChampionship.
Forwards Jonathan Ang and Nick Suzuki were among 32 players Hockey Canada selected last week to participate in the selection camp to determine Canada’s 22-player roster for the eight-team WJC tournament to be played Dec, 26-Jan.5 in Buffalo, New York.
Ang, a center for the Peterborough Petes of the Ontario Hockey League, and Suzuki, a center for the OHL’s Owen Sound Attack, begin their quest for roster spots Monday at Hockey Canada’s four-day camp in St. Catharines, Ontario.
“It’s an honor to be given the opportunity to attend selection camp,” Ang said. “Growing up and watching the World Juniors every year, it’s an unbelievable feeling to be considered for this year’s National Junior Team and to be given a chance to represent our country.”
Peterborough Petes forward Jonathan Ang hopes he’ll don Team Canada’s jersey at the 2018 International Ice Hockey Federation World Junior Championship in Buffalo, New York Dec. 26-Jan. 5 (Photo/ Matthew Murnaghan/Hockey Canada Images).
Kailer Yamamoto, a right wing for the Spokane Chiefs of the Western Hockey League, was chosen for the United States’ preliminary WJC roster. He’ll be among 23 U.S. players who’ll attend USA Hockey’s training camp Dec. 15-19 at Nationwide Arena and OhioHealth Ice Haus in Columbus, Ohio.
If Yamamoto, makes the cut, he’ll attend an additional camp in Jamestown, New York, Dec. 20-23.
Suzuki, whose great-great grandparents immigrated to Canada from Japan in the early 1900s, was the 13th overall pick in the 2017 National Hockey League Draft, chosen by the expansion Vegas Golden Knights.
He leads the Attack, a major junior team, in scoring with 17 goals and 27 assists in 26 games. He said he’s looking forward to Canada’s World Juniors camp.
“It’s been on my mind since the summer. I definitely want to make that team,” he told the Owen Sound Sun Times. “I think I can PK (penalty kill), or be on the power play, or maybe even be a lower-line guy and just build energy for the top line…I think I could do any role for the team.”
Ang, 19, became the first player of Malaysian heritage to be drafted by an NHL team when the Florida Panthers, chose him in the fourth round of the 2016 draft. He signed a three-year entry level contract with the NHL team in November.
Ang is the Petes’ top scorer this season with 15 goals and 20 assists in 31 games.
Yamamoto, 19, was taken by the Edmonton Oilers in the first round of the 2017 draft with the 22nd overall pick.
He appeared in nine games for the Oilers this season, collecting 3 assists before being reassigned to Spokane. He has 1 goal and 9 assists in 12 games since returning to Washington State.
A Spokane native of Japanese and Hawaiian heritage, Yamamotoled the Chiefs in scoring in 2016-17 with 42 goals and 47 assists in 65 games.
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Change has been good for two Subbans. Will it be good for a third?
Defenseman Jordan Subban goes from Canucks to Kings.
Defenseman Jordan Subban, who was a Vancouver Canucks, 2013 fourth-round draft pick, was traded to the Los Angeles Kings Friday for forward Nic Dowd.
Jordan, an undersized blue’liner at 5-foot-9, 185-pounds, had spent most of the last three seasons playing for the Utica Comets, the Canuck’s American Hockey League affiliate. He tallied 5 assists in 16 games for the Comets.
He was an offensive dynamo for Utica last season, finishing sixth on the team in scoring with 16 goals and 20 assists in 65 games. He was seventeenth in scoring among all AHL defensemen.
Overall, Subban has totaled 27 goals, 50 assists and 87 penalty minutes in 148 regular season games in the AHL.
Jordan becomes the second Subban brother to relocate in the 2017-18 hockey season. Goaltender Malcolm Subban, a Boston Bruins 2014 first-round draft pick, was snatched up by the Vegas Golden Knights after the Bruins placed him on waivers in October.
Before the move, Malcolm was viewed by some as a player with unfulfilled potential. He appeared in 32 games for the Providence Bruins, Boston’s AHL farm team, and posted an 11-14-1 record with a 2.41 goals-against average and .917 save percentage.
Since his shift to the desert, Malcolm has become an integral part of the feel-good story that is the Golden Knights inaugural season. He’s filled in admirably since after starter Marc-Andre Fleury suffered an injury.
The acrobatic Subban has a 6-2 record in eight games with a 2.27 goals-against average – 10th-best among NHL goalies – and a .923 save percentage.
MALCOLM SUBBAN WAS PUT ON WAIVERS? WHAT A SAVE, HOLY! IS THIS THE SAVE OF THE WEEK OR WHAT? pic.twitter.com/O04zRQx6mg
The NHL rookie netminder faced one his biggest tests Friday night – older brother P.K. Subban and his Nashville Predators. Malcolm made 41 saves and registered a shootout shut out against Nashville in a dramatic 4-3 Golden Knights win.
The contest at Nashville’s Bridgestone Arena was the first time the brothers played against each other in an NHL regular season game. Proud papa Karl Subban, was in attendance.
The hockey world was stunned when P.K., a Norris Trophy-winning defenseman, was traded from the Montreal Canadiens to the Predators in June 2016 for Nashville defenseman Shea Weber.
Montreal’s brain trust felt Weber was a more-reliable blue-liner and a missing piece to their Stanley Cup Final puzzle than the flashier Subban.
Nashville went on to play the Pittsburgh Penguins for the Stanley Cup last season while the Canadiens lostto the New York Rangers in six games in the playoff’s Eastern Conference quarter final.
P.K. is the Predators’ sixth-leading scorer with 4 goals and 14 assists in 28 games so far this season. He’s 15th in scoring among NHL defensemen. Weber is 22nd among the league’s blue-liners with 6 goals and 10 assists in 23 games.
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Charles and Devin Williams aren’t brothers, but they do belong to hockey’s goaltending brotherhood and have a lot in common.
Both are African-American Michiganders – Charles from Canton and Devin from Saginaw.
Manchester Monarchs goaltender Charles Williams.
Both were go-to goalies: Charles led tiny Canisius College to its first Atlantic Hockeyregular season championship last season and Devin backstopped formidable Erie Ottersteams in the Ontario Hockey League that featured a young phenom named Connor McDavid .
Both were skipped over by National Hockey League teams in recent drafts. Now both are enjoying impressive rookie seasons in the ECHL.
Charles, 25, has continued his winning ways from Canisius to the ECHL’sManchesterMonarchs, a Los Angeles Kings farm team that signed him to a contract in March.
He has a 7-3-1 record in 11 games and a 2.15 goals-against average, third-best in the ECHL. He has a .932 save percentage.
Charles Williams doing for the Manchester Monarchs what he did for Canisius College – locking down the net.
Devin, 22, has been hot for the Tulsa Oilers, a St. Louis Blues ECHL affiliate. He has a 4-2-2 record, 2.80 goals-against average, and a .912 save percentage in 11 games.
Tulsa Oilers goalie Devin Williams.
He was named the CCM/ECHL Goalie of the Month for October after going 4-0 with a 1.83 goals-against average and a .949 save percentage in five games.
Devin signed with Tulsa in September after playing a season of Canadian college hockey at Acadia University in Wolfville, Nova Scotia, where he posted an 8-4-0 record with a 2.80 goalst-against average and .896 save percentage.
“The game is quicker, but the big difference is how smart the guys are,” he told The Tulsa Worldof the adjustment from college to the pro game. “The higher you move up, I think, the smarter the guys are…I have been putting in a lot of work in practice to make sure I am ready for the game.”
Tulsa Oilers’ rookie Devin Williams earned ECHL Goalie of the Month honors for October (Photo/TeeJay Crawford Photography).
He enrolled at Acadia after he watched Erie teammates like McDavid, Nick Baptiste, Alex DeBrincat, and Dylan Strome get snatched up in NHL drafts.Teams took a pass on Devin despite his being a top OHL goalie, winning theDave Pinkney Trophyin 2013-14 for having the league’s lowest goals-against average, being a second-team OHL all-star in 2015-16, and posting 73 wins in 102 games between 2014 and 2016.
Devin Williams played for the OHL’s Erie Otters from 2012-13 to 2015-16 (Photo/Aaron Bell/OHL Images).
While going to college helped keep Devin’s pro dreams alive, switching colleges helped re-ignite Charles’ pro ambitions.Charles had a decent career at NCAA Division I Ferris State University, posting a 22-15 record, 3.00 goals-against average, and a .899 save percentage over three seasons.
He missed the entire 2014-15 season at Ferris State because of injury. He was granted a fifth year of NCAA eligibility and transferred to Canisius, a D-I school in Buffalo, New York.
Goaltender Charles Williams was a finalist for the Hobey Baker Award, given to NCAA Division I’s best college hockey player, for his 2016-17 season at Canisius College in Buffalo, New York (Photo/Canisius College).
There, he compiled a 15-6-4 record in 34 regular season appearances last season and helped lead the Golden Griffins on a 17-game unbeaten string.A 2017 Hobey Baker Award finalist, Charles led all NCAA D-I goalies with a .946 save percentage, tied for second with 6 shutouts, and his 1.83 goals-against average was second-best in the nation .
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We interrupt this hockey blog to give a Color of Hockey big shout-out to Maame Biney, who became the first African-American woman to make the U.S. Olympic speedskating team.
