TheColorOfHockey

~ Hockey for Fans and Players of Color

TheColorOfHockey

Monthly Archives: August 2018

Dr. Joel Boyd, the NHL’s first black team physician, is Wild about hockey

26 Sunday Aug 2018

Posted by William Douglas in Uncategorized

≈ Leave a comment

Tags

Dr. Joel Boyd, Minnesota Lynx, Minnesota Vikings, Minnesota Wild, USA Hockey, Winter Olympics

Call Dr. Joel Boyd an original.

He’s been taking care of broken bones, meniscus tears and other serious upper and lower body injuries as the Minnesota Wild’s physician and orthopedic surgeon since the team’s inception in 2000.

Dr. Joel Boyd (Photo/Minnesota Wild).

Before he became the National Hockey League’s first black team physician, Dr. Boyd was the physician for the U.S. men’s hockey team at the 1998 Winter Olympics in Nagano, Japan – the first Olympiad that featured squads comprised of NHL players.

“There weren’t very many African-American team physicians, period, especially at the pro level,” Dr. Boyd recalled. “And you consider how many African-Americans are playing the game, almost no matter what game you’re talking about, aside from hockey. At the time, there were no Major League Baseball black team physicians, no National Football League black head team physicians…”

Dr. Boyd has helped change that in a big way.  In addition to caring for Wild players, he’s the team physician for University of Minnesota football, the former team doc for the NFL Minnesota Vikings (He was the NFL’s second black team physician) and former physician for the Minnesota Lynx of the National Women’s Basketball Association.

Dr. Joel Boyd, second row, served as team physician for the U.S. men’s hockey team at the 1998 Winter Olympics in Nagano, Japan, the first Olympiad that allowed NHL players to participate (Photo/USA Hockey).

He didn’t set out to be a hockey doc. Football was Dr. Boyd’s main game, having been a star running back at Bucknell University in the late 1970s.

But hockey always seemed to be in the background. He knew a bit about the game from growing up in the District of Columbia and watching a woeful 1974-75 Washington Capitals expansion team that featured Mike Marson, a rookie forward who became the NHL’s second black player.

“My friends and I would go and watch them play because they had a black player and we were, like, ‘Wow, we’ve got to see this,'” Dr. Boyd said. “It was just, like, ‘Wow, that’s awesome.'”

Dr. Joel Boyd was first drawn to hockey by the woeful expansion 1974-75 Washington Capitals and the exploits of rookie forward Mike Marson, who was the NHL’s second black player (Photo/Washington Capitals).

But hockey fell off of Dr. Boyd’s radar as he turned his attention to football and his studies at Bucknell in Lewisburg, Pennsylvania, and later at Temple University’s Lewis Katz School of Medicine in Philadelphia.

Hockey re-entered his world during a sports medicine fellowship at the University of Western Ontario in Canada where part of his training dealt with hockey injuries.

Dr. Boyd pulled double-duty at UWO, keeping with his fellowship while putting his Bucknell gridiron experience to use by serving as running backs coach for the Canadian university’s championship football team.

Dr. Joel Boyd, the NHL’s first black team physician, hangs out with Willie O’Ree, the NHL’s first black player, at the 2017 NHL All-Star Game in Los Angeles (Photo/Courtesy Dr. Joel Boyd).

The team had several black players from Halifax, Nova Scotia, who told Dr. Boyd about how scores of African-Americans fled the U.S. South to the Canadian Maritimes to escape the dehumanizing scourge of slavery.

There, they established the Coloured Hockey League, whose players authors George and Darril Fosty credit with creating some of the elements of modern hockey, including the slap shot and butterfly goaltending.

Dr. Boyd’s hockey involvement grew through a United States Olympic Committee training program for physicians that led to opportunities with USA Hockey.

By the mid-1990s, he was serving as a physician for the old Minnesota Moose of the International Hockey League and for USA Hockey’s Under-17 teams and international squads.

He advanced in USA Hockey’s medical ranks to serve as national team physician from 1996 to 2000. His USA Hockey affiliation also began a sort of six degrees of separation chain that led to Dr. Boyd’s hiring by the Wild.

Through USA Hockey, Dr. Boyd met Bryant McBride, who was an architect of the NHL Diversity Task Force, the predecessor of the league’s “Hockey is for Everyone” initiative.

The initiative provides support and unique programming to some 30 nonprofit youth hockey organizations across North America, offering kids of all backgrounds the opportunity to play the game and learn life lessons through the prism of hockey.

Working with McBride and the diversity task force, Dr. Boyd met Willie O’Ree, the NHL’s first black player and the league’s diversity ambassador.

A light bulb clicked on in Dr. Boyd’s mind.

Dr. Joel Boyd, the NHL’s first black team physician, said he’s learned a lot about hockey from talking to Willie O’Ree, who became the league’s first black player in 1958 (Photo/Courtesy Dr. Joel Boyd).

“The whole thing started coming together in terms of what I learned in Canada about Halifax, meeting Willie, and putting the pieces together about blacks and hockey,” Dr. Boyd said.

Dr. Boyd’s task force work also put him into NHL Commissioner Gary Bettman’s orbit. Impressed the doctor’s career, Bettman put in a good word on his behalf with the expansion Wild’s ownership team.

“There were a number of people who helped support me locally, getting me to know the ownership group,” Dr. Boyd said. “But one of the big letters for me was actually from Gary Bettman. At that point, I had already been working with the Diversity Task Force for several years, so I had gotten to know Gary. I still have that letter he sent to the ownership group. That was sort of the beginning.”

In addition to serving as the Minnesota Wild’s team physician, Dr. Joel Boyd was the team physician for the NFL’s Minnesota Vikings. Here, he’s tending to former Vikings running back Adrian Peterson (Photo/Courtesy Dr. Joel Boyd).

Now, Dr. Boyd can be found in an office along the main corridor of St. Paul’s Xcel Energy Center during most Wild home games, hoping that none of the players on the ice suddenly require his attention, but standing ready if they do.

“I love the game,” he said. “My boys love playing hockey. They played here in high school, my youngest son coaches at the high school where he went to school. They both played club hockey at Dartmouth.”

As for their dad?  “I look back and kind of go, ‘If I had learned to skate early, this might have been the sport for me,'” Dr. Boyd said with a laugh.

Follow the Color of Hockey on Facebook and Twitter @ColorOfHockey. And download the Color of Hockey podcast from iTunes, Stitcher, SoundCloud and Google Play.

 

.

 

 

 

 

Share this:

  • Twitter
  • Facebook
  • Email
  • More
  • LinkedIn
  • Print
  • Reddit
  • Telegram
  • WhatsApp
  • Skype

Like this:

Like Loading...

Blake Bolden returns to the NWHL, signs with Buffalo Beauts

16 Thursday Aug 2018

Posted by William Douglas in Uncategorized

≈ Leave a comment

Tags

Blake Bolden, Boston College, Buffalo Beauts, CWHL, NWHL

Blake Bolden is back in the National Women’s Hockey League.

After two seasons with the Boston Pride, defenseman Blake Bolden is playing this season with HC Lugano (Photo/NWHL).

The 27-year-old two-time NWHL All-Star defenseman from Ohio signed with the Buffalo Beauts Wednesday after playing last season for HC Lugano in Switzerland.

“My decision was made pretty quickly,” Bolden told The Buffalo News at the city’s HarborCenter Wednesday. “I had been going back and forth on where I wanted to play next season. I had no idea, and it just felt right about Buffalo. I think it’s going to be a great decision, a great move for me.”

Bolden made the move to Switzerland to get a taste of international hockey and cure a case of wanderlust after she didn’t receive an invite from USA Hockey to attend training camp for the U.S. women’s team that competed in the 2018 Winter Olympics in February.

Defenseman Blake Bolden is bringing her talents back to the NWHL after playing one season in Switzerland (Photo/Courtesy HC Lugano).

“I just wanted a fresh start, something I’ve never done before, a new experience,” Bolden told me last November before heading to Lugano. “I’ve played in every league I could possibly play in North America. I didn’t think it was time for me to quit and I really wanted to put myself out of my comfort zone and experience new things and be able to travel in a basically different environment.”

From her native Ohio to Boston to Lugano and now to Buffalo. Oh, the places hockey has taken defenseman Blake Bolden (Photo/Courtesy HC Lugano).

The former Boston College team captain responded by tallying 16 goals and 11 assists in 20 regular season games for Lugano in 2017-18. She added a goal and 3 assists in six playoff contests.

Bolden is a trailblazer in women’s hockey. She was the first African-American to play in the NWHL and the Canadian Women’s Hockey League. She was an All-Star and won the Clarkson Cup in 2014-15 with the CWHL’s Boston Blades.

View this post on Instagram

Excited is an understatement!! I’m ready for you @buffalobeauts 👑 #beautsnation #onebuffalo #nwhl #imback

A post shared by Blake Bolden (@sportblake) on Aug 15, 2018 at 9:29am PDT

She hoisted the NWHL’s Isobel Cup championship trophy in 2015-16 season and earned All-Star honors with the Boston Pride.

Beauts General Manager Nik Fattey said signing Bolden was a no-brainer.

Blake Bolden 👉 Buffalo Beaut

The #IsobelCup champion defender, is coming to Buffalo for the 18-19 season! pic.twitter.com/S4X1PnBWnZ

— Buffalo Beauts (@BuffaloBeauts) August 15, 2018

“Great player. Big shot, Really good reports on being a great teammate and a hard worker…,” Fattey told The Buffalo News. “It just seemed like a good fit.”

Follow the Color of Hockey on Facebook and Twitter @ColorOfHockey. And download the Color of Hockey podcast from iTunes, Stitcher, SoundCloud and Google Play.

 

Share this:

  • Twitter
  • Facebook
  • Email
  • More
  • LinkedIn
  • Print
  • Reddit
  • Telegram
  • WhatsApp
  • Skype

Like this:

Like Loading...

Caps’ Smith-Pelly does the rounds with Stanley Cup at Toronto area pub, hospital

07 Tuesday Aug 2018

Posted by William Douglas in Uncategorized

≈ Leave a comment

Tags

Alex Ovechkin, Chris Stewart, Devante Smith-Pelly, Stanley Cup, Washington Capitals

Talk about Soul on Ice.

Washington Capitals forward Devante Smith-Pelly had a cool day with the Stanley Cup Monday complete with an ice sculpture likeness of him in at a Scarborough, Ontario, pub hoisting the treasured trophy.

Washington Capitals right wing Devante-Smith Pelly.

Hundreds of fans braved torrential rain in the Toronto area to venture to the Black Dog Pub to get a glimpse of the Cup and the man of the hour.

“When I saw it start to rain, I didn’t know what to expect,” Smith-Pelly told NHL.com. “To see the line of people snaked around and down the block, I’m so excited…I  mean, you want to bring the Stanley Cup where you grew up. I grew up right down the street from here and used to come here and hang out.”

Chris Stewart, a forward who skated for the Minnesota Wild and Calgary Flames last season, was among the water-logged faithful at the Black Dog.

“He’s come a long way. I’m proud of him,” said Stewart, who has 160 goals and 161 assists in 652 National Hockey League games. “He stuck it out and now he’s on top.”

How cool is this? Washington Capitals forward Devante Smith-Pelly and an ice sculpture likeness of him with Stanley Cup (Photo/Courtesy Phil Prtichard/HHOF).

The Black Dog Pub wasn’t Smith-Pelly’s only stop with Stanley on Monday. He took the Cup to downtown Toronto’s Hospital for Sick Children and showed off the trophy to family and close friends in private moments.

Capitals left wing Alex Ovechkin won the Conn Smythe Trophy as the playoff’s most valuable player, but Smith-Pelly also had a heroic Stanley Cup run.

Devante Smith-Pelly with Toronto Mayor John Tory, left, and some young hockey fans (Photo/Courtesy Phil Pritchard/HHOF).

He tallied 7 goals and 1 assist in 24 playoff games; potted a goal in three consecutive Stanley Cup Final games against the Vegas Golden Knights; netted the game-winning goal in Game 4; scored the tying goal in Cup-clinching Game 5, a highlight reel kick-the-puck-onto-the-stick and fly-in-the-air snipe past goalie Marc-Andre Fleury; and the series-clinching goal in Game 6 of the Eastern Conference quarterfinal against the Columbus Blue Jackets.

Not bad for a guy who only scored 7 goals and 9 assists in 75 games and averaged 12:21 minutes of ice time per game during the regular season and 12:02 minutes per game in the playoffs.

Devante Smith-Pelly has a little quiet time with the Stanley Cup and his grandparents, who rocked the Washington Capitals red hockey jerseys (Photo/Courtesy Phil Pritchard/HHOF).

“There’s been some struggles,” Smith-Pelly told NHL.com. But at the same time, I’m not the first guy to go through it and I won’t be the mast. You can’t feel sorry for yourself. You’ve got to go out there and do what you have to do.”

Smith-Pelly’s playoff prowess made Capitals fans love him. And Smith-Pelly fell in love with Washington. So much so that he rejected contract offers from other teams with longer terms and more money to sign one-year, $1 million deal to return to the Capitals.

Ain’t no party like a Stanley Cup party. Washington Capitals’ Devante Smith-Pelly shares the Stanley Cup with some of his long-time buddies (Photo/Courtesy Phil Pritchard/HHOF).

“It wasn’t worth it to leave somewhere where I’m happy and somewhere where I really want to be,” Smith-Pelly told the Associated Press in June. “The money to me personally is not that important if I’m not going to be happy somewhere else.”

Follow the Color of Hockey on Facebook and Twitter @ColorOfHockey. And download the Color of Hockey podcast from iTunes, Stitcher, SoundCloud and Google Play.

Share this:

  • Twitter
  • Facebook
  • Email
  • More
  • LinkedIn
  • Print
  • Reddit
  • Telegram
  • WhatsApp
  • Skype

Like this:

Like Loading...

Recent Posts

  • Asian & Pacific Islander heritage players on 2020-21 team rosters in pictures
  • Meet the Black players on NCAA women’s hockey rosters in 2020-21
  • Jaden Lindo adds new chapter to ‘Soul on Ice’ by winning hockey championship
  • Sarah Nurse seeks gold at IIHF world championship after winning Olympic silver
  • Hockey Family Photo Album, Page 2

Archives

  • May 2021
  • February 2021
  • March 2019
  • February 2019
  • January 2019
  • December 2018
  • November 2018
  • October 2018
  • September 2018
  • August 2018
  • July 2018
  • June 2018
  • May 2018
  • April 2018
  • March 2018
  • February 2018
  • January 2018
  • December 2017
  • November 2017
  • October 2017
  • September 2017
  • August 2017
  • July 2017
  • June 2017
  • May 2017
  • April 2017
  • March 2017
  • February 2017
  • January 2017
  • December 2016
  • November 2016
  • October 2016
  • September 2016
  • August 2016
  • July 2016
  • June 2016
  • May 2016
  • April 2016
  • March 2016
  • February 2016
  • January 2016
  • December 2015
  • November 2015
  • October 2015
  • September 2015
  • August 2015
  • July 2015
  • June 2015
  • May 2015
  • April 2015
  • March 2015
  • February 2015
  • January 2015
  • December 2014
  • November 2014
  • October 2014
  • September 2014
  • August 2014
  • July 2014
  • June 2014
  • May 2014
  • April 2014
  • March 2014
  • February 2014
  • January 2014
  • December 2013
  • November 2013
  • October 2013
  • September 2013
  • August 2013
  • July 2013
  • June 2013
  • April 2013
  • December 2012

Categories

  • John Tortorella
  • nhl.com
  • Uncategorized

Hockey Links

  • American Collegiate Hockey Association
  • Black Ice Book
  • Detroit Hockey Association
  • Ed Snider Youth Hockey Foundation
  • Fort Dupont Ice Arena
  • Hasek's Heroes
  • Hockey is for Everyone
  • Hockeyland Canada
  • Ice Hockey in Harlem
  • International Ice Hockey Federation
  • Jamaica Olympic Ice Hockey Federation
  • Kevin Weekes Online
  • NHL official website
  • NHL Uniforms
  • Ted's Take
  • The American Hockey League
  • The ECHL
  • TSN
  • USA Hockey

Powered by WordPress.com.

 

Loading Comments...
 

    %d bloggers like this: