Womens Hockey. One sport that no one seems to care about. Why? Is the world Sexist? Or is it that people don't think that girls have any talent at the sport we call "Hockey". Well i asked one of the best about this and she says that people should pay attention to female hockey.
"The game is getting faster and the players are a lot bigger," said 2010 Hockey Hall of Famer and 7 time International Gold Medalist Angela James. "I think the game has improved in the last 5 years and the players are more conditioned and train for their sport which in turn will increase the power of skating , shooting and the game overall. I would like to see a Womens National Hockey League as well.
"We need to share our resources to help other countries. Send over different coaches. They do this on the men's side. Attitudes in other countries need to change for woman's hockey. They are still in the mind set of 25 years ago.
"I think you will see more women go into the hall as well as women builders."
James, along with Cammi Granato, were the first women inducted as players in the Hockey Hall of Fame. That was great for the sport and they certainly deserve to be there. But the competion lacks in the womens game, so will there be many more inducted in the next while? Well considering only a few major players have retired and major people like Pat Burns, Paul Henderson, Ron Ellis, Wendel Clark, Doug Gilmour, Ed Belfour, Ron Hextall, Theo Fleury, Alexander Mogilny, the list goes on and on and on and on, it may be a while before we see and more women in the HHOF. With only one women hockey player to play an NHL game, it may be even harder.
Think about all the girls who go to the Olympics, hoping they can win the Gold Medal. Well unless you play for team Canada or the United States, you might as well be shopping. Canada and the U.S dominate all international events. And why is this? It's because they are the only countries with strong programs trying to make womens hockey competitive. Countries like Sweden, Russia, Czech Republic, and Finland could care less about their womens programs as they only want to make their men's programs better. How do you think it makes players feel when their country doesn't in any way support what they want to do when they grow up?
I want to tell you about a 14 year old girl named Katie Bidulka. She is a goalie who plays AA bantam for her city. She has major hopes of making Team Canada in the next 5-10 years. But there has been talk about womens Hockey getting pulled from the Olympics, due to the lack of competition.
"It better be in the Olympics or i will somehow putting up a fight. This is what i want to do. I think it will evolve more, with China recently getting a new rink. Like all sports people will want to be better then others, and then there's all the competition with canada and usa being the better teams for womens hockey, everyones going to want be competing with them."
The owner of the site, better known as Oilersjambalaya from twitter, says this about womens hockey:
"I have 2 girls myself and there is nothing more that I want then to see one of them make the NHL in 18 years. Not sure yet how I feel about women in the HHOF, but I am softening more to it."
I also asked Detroit Red Wings Coach Mike Babcock about this. He said that he hopes that the game of hockey will appeal more to other countries, meaning more competion in world events.
I agree with that. Watching the 2010 Olympics, i thought that if Canada and the U.S were going to dominate, they might as well have a bunch of different Canada and U.S teams in the tournament, instead of just two teams who win by 10 goals in every game. It's Always been a Slaughterhouse. Nobody wants to pay a big chunk of money to see one team completley dominate the world. Look at the World Juniors. Canada won 7-2 and 10-1 in 2 of the games. Is that competion? No. But that is mens hockey. The teams that lose by huge amounts in those games could probably destroy most womens teams in the olympics.
There are many young girls who would love to compete in the olympics for their countries. But the IOC and the IIHF have talked a lot about taking the womens game out of future games. Is this what needs to be done? Is the game officially dead? Well if the same 2 teams dominate the 2014 olympics, i think that the game will be immediatley removed and the sport will be forgotten, even more then it has been right now. If countries dont stop ignoring Womens Hockey, we will not see any more Angela James' or Cammi Granato's Or Haley Wickenheiser.
Girls can play too. Give them a chance, and they can play as well or even better as a big portion of the players in the NHL. Remove the Derek Boogard's and Colton Orr's: Include players that are good enough to make the greatest league ever, better.
Unfourtanley, i still think Womens hockey in the olympics will not be around much longer. It's a slap in the face for Girls with talent. But since the biggest league in the world is the NHL, which is all Men, i don't see other countries paying attention to females, resulting in a collapse of all womens leagues.
I would like to thank all who contributed to this.
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