The Hips Don't Lie

Eight teams were in action today in Canada West women's hockey action, but it was the one team who wasn't that lead to today's discovery. I'll talk more about those other games on The Rundown on Sunday, but it was an exhibition game between the Alberta Pandas and the ACAC's Red Deer Polytechnic Queens that had me checking Alberta's website for scoring information. While I was there, I noticed they had published the boxscore for their exhibition game last week against the NAIT Ooks, so I went ahead and made the updates to reflect that boxscore. Last week's edition of The Rundown now has all that scoring information added to it.

There was a name for the NAIT Ooks that jumped off the page, though, because the last time anyone had mentioned it was when this goaltender was with the Calgary Dinos where she was recovering from an injury. That player is the pictured Ella Howard above, and it turns out that she was injured in a way that affected her goaltending, and she has since transferred to NAIT where she now guards their net!

Howard was once viewed as the next goaltender behind Nicole Jackson who was born and trained in Great Britain. She has played at a number of international events already with the British national team, and it was expected that she would take more steps forward in her progress when she agreed to join the Calgary Dinos in Canada West. As a rookie, she didn't see much ice time, but there was hope that she could settle in and become the next Dinos goaltending sensation in the same way Kelsey Roberts and Gabriella Durante did.

As we know, though, things don't always go according to plan, and it was a major injury that felled Howard. According to this report filed by NAIT's athletics department, Howard was playing with pain in her hips and legs, but seems to have found some relief from this injury.

"I had a hip condition called FAI for several years," Howard told NAIT's reporter in the January 7 article, "which over time led to a labral tear and grade-four chondromalacia."

FAI is the acronym standing for "femoroacetabular impingement" which is where the ball of the femur and socket into which that ball fits have abnormal shapes, causing them to rub and pinch during movement, damaging joint tissues like the labrum and cartilage, leading to pain, stiffness, and limited motion. As Howard stated, her case led to a labral tear and a breakdown of the cartilage on the underside of the kneecap and femur which would be extremely painful for a goaltender based on the butterfly technique most use.

As the article states, Howard's choice of sports in kickboxing and hockey may have actually contributed to the FAI diagnosis with how the hips act as shock absorbers in both sports, and the abnormal bone growth may have been from the bone and socket repairing itself.

Surgery repaired the labrum that was torn, but it will be a lot of physical therapy work to get Howard back to the level she was when the Calgary Dinos invited her to join the team. Knowing she's on that path already by suiting up against the Pandas is a great sign for her, though, and I'm hopeful that Ella will continue her hockey journey!

Her recovery has also taught Ella a valuable lesson in being an athlete, stating, "I've had to learn to remain disciplined and have faith in long-term benefits that are often invisible."

Howard's results against the Pandas likely weren't where she wants them to be as she stopped eight of eleven shots in the one period of work she had. However, that line she offered above is the mantra she needs to carry forward as she embarks on her final phase of her rehabilitation where she hopes to see "as many different shots and scenarios as possible, so I won't need to second-guess" in the crease.

I doubt we'll see Ella Howard at this year's IIHF Women's World Championship Division-1B tournament as she works towards getting back to her old self, but I'm happy to see Howard back on the ice doing what she loves. Even if she doesn't ever wear a Great Britain jersey again, living without pain should already be considered a major win because it's allowing her to play, even at lower levels than what she once played, and there has to be joy in that for her.

She was gone from the hockey picture for what seemed like an incredinly long time, but finding out that Ella Howard will be suit up for the ACAC's NAIT Ooks in coming seasons is fantastic news.

Until next time, keep your sticks on the ice!