Our Friday night feature was all about the graduates who finished up their final seasons in Canada West women's hockey either due to the completion of their degrees or due to them playing out their final seasons of eligibility. The exodus of talent leaving the university ranks is significant as five former U SPORTS National Champions are playing their final games this season while a number of Canada West award-winners are on their ways out. 33 players will look to new opportunities next season, so we felt we needed to pay tribute to these exceptional women who wowed us with their talents, skills, and abilities for so long! Yes, I did mention that 31 women were moving on, but apparently I missed counting two players in my totalling of the count. That's what I get for not counting twice. The good news, though, is that all 33 women were included in the video and all of the women had some stats and facts listed about their careers.
To all 33 graduates, it has been an honour to call games, to have witnessed your greatness in person, and to have met some of you as both a fan and broadcaster of this game. I wish you nothing but the best in wherever your path leads next, and I hope that whatever those next endeavours are will be as successful as you all were on the ice. Best of luck, ladies, and don't be strangers!
Saturday's intermission feature was all about having U SPORTS hockey collide with Black History Month. As you may be aware, the U SPORTS Men's Hockey National Championship is set to take place at Acadia University in Halifax, Nova Scotia while the U SPORTS Women's Hockey Championship is set to be played at UPEI in Charlottetown, PEI. What you may not know is that Canada's hockey history has a very interesting story to tell from the Maritimes as this is where the Coloured Hockey League played its games!
30 years before the NHL was even a thing, hockey was being played in the Maritimes by Black men who had come to the east coast cities to work. Through their churches, these Black men would play hockey against other churches in the area, and from this organization grew the Coloured Hockey League of the Maritimes. By the time the league hit the turn of the century in 1900, twelve teams had been organized for play.
It's an important part of Canada's hockey history, and it's an era in history that should be told. Because of the U SPORTS National Hockey Championships' locations this year, we felt it would be appropriate to give everyone watching a quick introduction to the Coloured Hockey League of the Maritimes as part of Canada West's ongoing effort in promoting Black History Month. I want to give shout-outs and stick-taps to George Stroumboulopoulos, the AHL's Toronto Marlies, and The Canadian Press for their videos that we pieced together in this clip as they all did a great job in bringing the Coloured Hockey League to the forefront with these efforts. As you know, I'm a big fan of hockey history, so putting this piece together certainly brought a smile to my face!
If you're heading to the east coast to watch your teams, I'd normally direct you to find a way to get to Windsor, Nova Scotia where The Birthplace of Hockey Museum is situated, but the museum is closed until June 2022. They have all sorts of information about the Coloured Hockey League of the Maritimes there along with a pile of artifacts and information about hockey's infancy in Canada in that region. With the museum closed, you'll have to do more research on the interwebs if you want more details, but perhaps it's a reason to go back to the east coast once the museum opens?
Being that it was potentially our last broadcasts of the season, we felt it necessary to bring forth an important piece of Canadian hockey history that ties in Black History Month and the U SPORTS National Championships, and we needed to honour the women who have made the last number of years of Canada West women's hockey so much fun to watch and call!
Comments, questions, hate mail, and anything in between those options can be dropped in the comment section below, but I hope you found these pieces information and interesting! We're a few weeks away from crowning the 2022 U SPORTS National Champions, so keep your eyes on what's happening out in Canada West to see who will represent the conference in Halifax and Charlottetown!
Until next time, keep your sticks on the ice!
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