Integrity Matters

I fully believe that fan interaction is the number-one way to get butts into seats and watching on TV - if that option exists - for leagues needing a push. When fans are involved, there's usually buy-in to whatever a league is doing regarding its teams, players, and promotions for those teams and players. The CWHL was humming along with their Goalie of the Week fan vote where fans could vote on who they believed was the outstanding netkeeper from the previous week's games. One goalie per team would be nominated from the teams that played, and fans could vote on who they believed was the most outstanding goaltender from that group for that week. Sounds like nothing could really go wrong with that setup, right?

Well, something DID go wrong last week as Marie-Soleil Deschenes of les Canadiennes de Montreal was named as the fan's choice for Goaltender of the Week. This isn't to say that Miss Deschenes didn't have a good game or was unworthy of the award in any way. She was nominated and certainly played extremely well in her appearance last week. The only problem was that the votes on the CWHL's site reflected an entirely different picture.

If you look closely at the image posted above, you can see that Jetta Rackleff of the Worcester Blades clearly has a larger vote total than Miss Deschenes does. If that's the case, why wasn't Jetta Rackleff named as the Goalie of the Week by the CWHL when they posted this tweet?

The winner of the Goalie of the Week is Marie-Soleil Deschenes ! pic.twitter.com/YlWcNMdP7e

— CWHL (@TheCWHL) November 22, 2018

I was curious about these results, but the CWHL had also added this tweet some two-and-a-half hours earlier indicating there was some sort of technical error.

Due to a minor technical error, we will get back to you on Goalie of the Week! Stay tuned

— CWHL (@TheCWHL) November 22, 2018

What kind of technical error, you ask? That's precisely what I asked when I decided to email Jessica Rochwerg, the Supervisor of Communications for the CWHL, for an explanation on what error had occurred and how this affected the final outcome of the fan vote. Miss Rochwerg replied via email,

We get an internal report with every vote that had proved Marie-Soleil Deschenes as the winner. It wasn’t until we recognized the difference on the website that there was an issue which is why it was taken down and we sent out a tweet. It appears there was a glitch in our system and we have since rectified by making some changes/updates to the poll. We always take the results from our internal report.

Hopefully that answers your question. Thank you for continuing to support us!

Well, no, it actually doesn't answer my question at all. In fact, it simply leads to more questions since this wall of mystery that she threw up about the very vote in which fans are supposed to have a say seems to be secured with a lock and key held by Miss Rochwerg. I don't know what it is with the CWHL and transparency when it comes to simple stuff like this, but it's not like I asked for corporate secrets when I responded,

When you say that you get an internal report "with every vote" that proved Marie-Soleil Deschenes as the winner, can you elaborate on how the results on the site - which are still showing today - differ from the results of the report? Simply stating that "our numbers are different" doesn't really lend faith to the poll numbers shown for each fan vote if there isn't some sort of reasonable explanation on how the numbers differ. I know this seems like I'm digging, but I'd like to believe that voting in the poll actually counts for something. With more than 2500 votes cast, what exactly is on said report if it is reporting on every vote?

Secondly, the tweet you sent out spoke of a "minor technical error" and gave zero explanation on how the results were incorrect. Could you elaborate on this error that you called "a glitch" in your email? What has been implemented to prevent this from happening again?

Since that email left my outbox, there has been radio silence from Jessica and the league on this despite the fact that the results can still be found on their website AND still show Jetta Rackleff in the lead in terms of the vote. Without answering some rather simple, straight-forward questions about this vote, how the results are determined, what is being tracked "with every vote," and what changes have been implemented to prevent this again, does my vote actually count for anything?

The fact that they won't even acknowledge they made a mistake is baffling, and I'd totally be fine if they just said, "we forgot to end the poll at a specific time, allowing additional votes to be added to totals." Hey, human error happens, I wouldn't even have bothered with the emails, and life goes on. It's not like the CWHL's Goalie of the Week vote is a Florida Senate race or anything. Recounts wouldn't even be needed. It's just an "oops" in some code on the website, and we own up to making a mistake. It's not hard to type that out, and the CWHL doesn't even have to name names of anyone who may be involved. Just put out a statement that reads, "We messed up, we fixed the problem by doing A, B, and C, and we'll strive to ensure it won't happen again." It's that easy.

Instead, the CWHL throws up walls around the whole debacle and shuts down any inquiries. I've followed up with them twice now, and it's like I'm speaking into a void. Maybe I'm asking too many questions? Maybe I'm asking the wrong questions? Maybe I simply haven't kissed their feet and worshipped their holiness enough to be able to question their practices? Whatever the case may be, they're quickly losing me as a fan with their unwillingness to engage me as a fan and blogger.

Henry Clay once said, "Courtesies of a small and trivial character are the ones which strike deepest in the grateful and appreciating heart." As small and trivial the discrepancy in the Goalie for the Week vote is, it wouldn't have taken Jessica much to explain where the discrepancy occurred for clarity in what happened. This simple act of courtesy likely would have also prevented this article from being written and would have set things right going forward. One of the key elements of a democratic and free vote is the transparency of the process. This is all I want to see after there was a clear difference between the player who earned the highest number of votes and the player named as Goalie of the Week.

William H. McRaven famously stated, "If you can't do the little things right, you will never do the big things right." Truer words may never have been spoken.

Until next time, keep your sticks on the ice!