4 Nations Cup shows Canada has some work to
do
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| The U.S. team skates away with the 4 Nations Cup. |
At the moment, women’s hockey on the world stage belongs to
the United States.
If the 4 Nations Cup tournament that wrapped up last Saturday
in Saskatoon did anything, it reinforced the U.S.A. is still great. The U.S.
posted a perfect 4-0 record at the event held last Tuesday to Saturday at the
SaskTel Centre that featured the senior national women’s teams from Canada,
Finland and Sweden.
In Saturday’s final, the States claimed a sound 5-2 victory
over Canada. During the gold medal match, the U.S. transitioned up and down the
ice better than Canada did and looked more polished on the power play and
penalty kill units even with Canada scoring a power-play goal.
The U.S. can play physical, but their finesse style of play
was really something to behold. They have a really fine hockey team.
The U.S. victory in the gold medal final doesn’t come as a
surprise. They have taken the last four
world championship tournaments and captured gold over Canada at the last Winter
Olympics in PyeongChang, South Korea, held this past February.
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| Brianna Decker is the veteran leader for the U.S. |
Canada’s last win at
a major tournament championship game against the U.S. was at the 4 Nations Cup
in 2014 held in Kamloops, B.C. The U.S. has won the last four consecutive 4
Nations Cup tournaments.
At the moment, it doesn’t appear the U.S. is going to fall
off the mountaintop any time soon. Their team is stocked with a great group of
veterans like captain Brianna Decker, Hilary Knight, Kendall Coyne Schofield, Hannah Brandt, Amanda Kessel, Kacey Bellamy, Emily Pfalzer and netminder Alex Rigsby.
Besides the veterans, the U.S. showcased an impressive crop
of youngsters like Sydney Brodt, Melissa Samoskevich, Cayla Barnes, Mikaela
Gardner and Maddie Rooney.
While women’s hockey between U.S. and Canada is one of the
greatest rivalries in sports, it is hard to place a villain card on any of the
U.S. players, if you are a Canadian hockey fan that meets the U.S. players.
The members of the U.S. team came off very genuine and gave
a feeling of being good persons. They are quietly confident but not arrogant.
They also play with heart.
When you have those intangibles on top playing the sport
soundly on a technical level, your hockey team becomes incredibly tough to
beat.
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| Hannah Brandt is one of the U.S.’s veteran standouts. |
In another twist that Canadians might not realize, the U.S.
players value having success in the head-to-head games with Canada just like the
Canadian players do. Victories in those contests are meaningful and are the
things dreams are made of.
That realization was seen in the face of Brodt, who is a 20-year-old
right-winger playing in her first games ever with the U.S. senior women’s team
at the 4 Nations Cup.
Last Wednesday in the preliminary round encounter with
Canada, Brodt scored with winning goal with 1:48 remaining in the third period
to break a 1-1 tie and give the U.S. a 2-1 victory. The winning goal came
against legendary Canadian goaltender Shannon Szabados, and Brodt lived through
that moment in just her second game with the U.S. senior national women’s team.
During a post-game interview after that contest, she had a
huge smile and a warm glow was radiating from her face.
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| Sydney Brodt turned heads at the 4 Nations Cup. |
Brodt said she scored due to being in the right place at the
right time.
Still, you could almost sense she was still processing what
happened and might have been in disbelief about what actually took place,
because it was a dream moment that came in her second game with the U.S. senior
women’s national team.
The U.S. players likely have an even bigger bond after
fighting for and successfully receiving better compensation from U.S.A. Hockey
in late March of 2017. Actually, it appears that episode resulted in an even
stronger U.S. women’s program overall with a larger “all in” buy in from
everyone.
At the moment, the U.S. has set an incredibly high bar for
Canada to get up to. The roles were reversed for a lengthy time between the two
rivals, when Canada held the upper hand through much of the 1990s and the 2000s.
While it may sound strange, Canada might not be that far out
in reaching that bar. Veteran bench boss Perry Pearn guides Canada’s senior
national women’s team as head coach, and the 67-year-old has seen it all during
his time in the game.
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| Hilary Knight is still at the top of her game with the U.S. |
Pearn seems to have a good handle on the technical side of
things on what Canada needs to do to counter what the U.S. does in its game.
Following the gold medal loss last Saturday, Pearn mentioned technical areas
the Canadian side improved in from the preliminary round encounter. He said
small breakdowns snowballed to result in the sound U.S. win.
Pearn said he believed his side didn’t quit, and he was
correct in all of his assessments.
Canadian fans saw what they expected to see from veterans
like Marie-Philip Poulin, Natalie Spooner, Brianne Jenner, Rebecca Johnston,
Melodie Daoust, Laura Fortino and Szabados.
What was most impressive was the effort Canada received from
its youngsters, who were arguably the team’s best players at the 4 Nations Cup.
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| U.S. women’s hockey victory celebrations are a common sight. |
Offensive defender Jaime Bourbonnais, who recently turned 20-years-old, played in
her first week with Canada’s senior women’s national team, and she looked like
a veteran already. Of course, everyone took notice of the rocket shot power-play
goal she ripped past Rigsby in the gold medal final.
Canada received sound performances from the likes of Sarah
Fillier, Loren Gabel, Kristin O’Neill, Micah Zandee-Hart and Emerance
Maschmeyer.
The Canadian team does have the ingredients to turn the
tables on the U.S. in the future.
It also should be noted that, while women’s hockey on the
world stage has been traditionally a two-horse race between Canada and the
U.S., you still have to be aware that the Russian women’s team is starting to
make some noise and could be poised for a rise.
Women’s hockey on the world stage does have some interesting
storylines developing. With that said, the United States are the top guns until
someone finally beats them in a major tournament final.
Attendance 4 Nations Cup elephant
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| There were some empty seats at the SaskTel Centre at 4 Nations Cup. |
The biggest elephant in the room at the 4 Nations Cup was
hard to ignore.
When you caught games at the SaskTel Centre, it was hard to
not see the empty seats, and only the rink’s lower bowl, which is believed to
seat around 5,800, was open. No official attendance figures were released for
the event.
Crowds in games that didn’t involve Canada were sparse, and
it wouldn’t be a stretch to say those games might have reached 1,000 people.
The lower bowl did fill up more, when Canada played especially for the
preliminary round and gold medal game clashes with the United States.
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| Swedish supporters cheer on their team at 4 Nations Cup. |
Still, it was easy to navigate your way through the rink
during the games between Canada and the U.S., and spots where groups of seats
sat empty were noticeable. For the gold medal game, it would be safe to say the
lower bowl was about 70 per cent full.
To be fair, attendance at sporting events across Canada
appears to be down unless you are an NHL team. Attendance at sporting events in
Saskatoon has generally been down from past years except for those heading to University
of Saskatchewan Huskies hockey games to see the brand new Merlis Belsher Place.
The obvious is just being stated here, and there are no
quick solution. It seemed like most of the people that are involved with female
hockey in the province did turn out to see some part of the 4 Nations Cup.
With
the four competing teams featuring players that played in the
last Winter Olympics in PyeongChang, South
Korea, held this past February, it would have been great to see more casual
type fans out at the games.
Lieffers aces tough call in bronze medal
game
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| Referee Cianna Lieffers was in position call Finland’s bronze medal winner. |
Saskatoon area based
referee Cianna Lieffers had a highlight moment nailing a critical call during
the 4 Nations Cup.
In the third period
of the bronze medal game last Saturday, Finland and Sweden were locked in a 2-2
tie. Finland went ahead 3-2 at the 8:36 mark of the frame during a frantic
moment of action.
During the scoring play, Finnish centre Tanja Niskanen drove
hard to the Sweden’s net and was hacked down by a Swedish defender and slid
into netminder Maria Omberg.
Omberg managed to keep the puck out of the goal with her
glove hand, but it sat loose in the crease of the net.
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| Cianna Lieffers worked a number of games at 4 Nations Cup. |
Finnish left-winger
Annina Rajahuhta pounced on the loose puck knocking it into the goal to put
Finland in front.
There was a short protest by Sweden due to the fact Omberg couldn’t react to the rebound, because
she had Niskanen sitting on top of her, but the winning tally stood up.
Lieffers, who is
originally from Cudworth, Sask., was the referee nearest to the play, and the
24-year-old got the call right. The goal had to stand, because had Niskanen not
been knocked down by a Swedish defender, she wouldn’t have crashed into Omberg.
Besides getting that
part of the call right, Lieffers was in perfect position behind the net to see
Rajahunta score. Lieffers called the goal immediately.
That marker
ultimately stood up as the winner in a 4-2 victory for Finland.
Lieffers skated away
with the satisfaction of getting a tough call correct, when emotions were running
high in a game where the winning side claimed a medal.
Injured Clark hit with the biggest untrue
rumour
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| Emily Clark injured her left leg. |
It appears the
highest level of women’s hockey can be hit by the rumour mill like the NHL and
WHL.
Arguably the biggest
untrue rumour of the week involved Saskatoon product Emily Clark. Clark is a
22-year-old forward with Canada’s senior national women’s team and an alumna of
the Saskatoon Stars female midget AAA team.
She helped Canada win a silver medal at the Winter Olympics
held last February in PyeongChang, South Korea.
She missed the 4 Nations Cup having injured her left leg
while playing for the University of Wisconsin Badgers women’s hockey team of
the National Collegiate Athletic Association. Her injury occurred in the
opening minutes of a Badgers 4-2 home win on Oct. 13 against the University of
Minnesota Duluth Bulldogs.
Apparently, there were a couple of fans at the event that
didn’t believe the injury news. There was talk that Clark had become pregnant
down in Madison, Wisconsin.
It wasn’t the largest rumour out there, but it was something
that was heard around the rink. Of course, it is not true.
It also seem crazy that rumour got any traction at all.
Clark made appearances at the Saskatoon Blades home game on Nov. 1 and the Stars
home game on Nov. 3, and she had a walking boot visible on her left leg in both
of those appearances.
Players in the NHL and WHL are often dogged by various untrue
rumours that are out there. By human nature, it is going to happen at the
highest level of women’s hockey.
Pretty much the best way for a player to deal with those
rumours is to debunk them with teammates and have a chuckle over what you hear.
Media hit and miss at 4 Nations Cup
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| U.S. team members pose for media pictures with the 4 Nations Cup. |
During the 4 Nations Cup, it was easy to see the effects of
the budget cut era of the Canadian media industry.
A decade ago, an event like the 4 Nations Cup would have
attracted a sizable medial gathering. In the current budget cut era of the
Canadian media industry, the media presence was hit and miss at the 4 Nations
Cup.
During the first day of games, most of the outlets from
Saskatoon cycled through to make an appearance. After the first day, there was
an average of one or two media people at the early game that didn’t feature
Canada.
Canada’s clash with Finland last Friday night drew maybe
only four media members. All the Saskatoon outlets were represented in the two
encounters that featured Canada playing the United States.
The only out of town members covering the event appeared to
be one representative from The Canadian Press and one from the International
Ice Hockey Federation outside of the crew that was involved with TSN.
Still, it was good TSN showed the Friday night clash between
Canada and Finland and Saturday’s two medal games on television.
In 2016, the Canadian Association for the Advancement of
Women and Sport and Physical Activity released a study regarding the connection
between women and sport in Canada. A couple of the facts revolved around media
coverage.
An analysis was done on Canada’s primary national sports
networks in English and French in 2014. The study said only four per cent of
the coverage on those networks was dedicated to women’s sports and over half of
that number was dedicated to coverage of the Winter Olympics in Sochi, Russia.
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| Media members work to get pictures of the U.S. team celebrations. |
A study was done on the Saturday sports section front pages
in two of Canada’s highest circulated national newspapers from June 2008 to May
2010 and June 2013 to May 2015. Over those time frames, 5.1 per cent of the
coverage was dedicated to women’s sports.
Of course, that study only considered a small sampling size
of the print industry.
With that noted, TSN’s coverage of the 4 Nations Cup goes
towards the time the media in Canada spends covering women’s sports.
I covered all eight games at the 4 Nations Cup for my blog,
because I wanted to. With the 4 Nations Cup being a toured in event, I didn’t
expect to get many page views, because with being based in Saskatoon, I spent a
very small amount of time covering international women’s hockey.
That coverage is usually limited to local area athletes
heading off to play for national teams or attend national team hockey camps.
My only post that did well was a feature on Team Canada offensive-defender
Jaime Bourbonnais. The page views for the rest of my 4 Nations Cup posts were
some of the lowest page view totals I have had since starting this blog in late
August of 2014.
During the overall history of my blog, the majority of my
top viewed posts involve women’s sports and female athletes, so the audience is
there.
Unfortunately, female sports still face an uphill battle
with regards to media coverage. Female sports teams and athletes have to run
with and make miles with seemly any coverage that comes their way, and if the
coverage is deemed good, you have to really get the most out of it.
It is almost like when the rock band Bon Jovi started out.
If there was a ladder hanging over the crowd, someone in the band climbed it.
Personally, 4 Nations Cup was a great time
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| Team Canada celebrates Jaime Bourbonnais’s power-play goal. |
On a personal side, I have to say I enjoyed covering the 4
Nations Cup in Saskatoon.
It marked the first time I have covered an international
women’s hockey tournament featuring senior national teams. The players from
Canada, the United States, Finland and Sweden were super to deal with. They all
came off and genuine and likeable.
The staffs from all the competing teams were great to deal
with. The communications staff at Hockey Canada were super to work with.
During the tournament, it was cool to see so many people
attend games who are involved with female hockey in Saskatchewan. I enjoyed
seeing a number of faces from all over the province during games at the SaskTel
Centre.
Most of the rink staffers from games involving the WHL’s
Saskatoon Blades were out reprising their identical roles at 4 Nations Cup.
They allowed the game day experience to go on seamlessly.
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| Shannon Szabados makes a save in goal for Canada. |
Covering the tournament’s eight games over a five day period
will be something I always remember, because it was unique to anything else
that I have done. Now two days after the gold medal final has been played, I do
have a bit of that natural down feeling, because the 4 Nations Cup is over.
It might sound weird, but you should have that feeling if
you had fun working an event. I had a great time covering the 4 Nations Cup.
If you have any
comments you would like to pass along about this post, feel free to email them
to stankssports@gmail.com.
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