Thanks For Doing The Bare Minimum

I struggle with the idea that one person can call all the shots when it comes to a mainstream media outlet. It would seem that one particular news outlet that rhymes with "Jockey Clues" has a women's hockey section that's controlled entirely by one person, and his efforts in reporting stories from the Canadian university game are subpar at best. Forget that he rarely pays attention to what's happening at the U SPORTS level in Canada because that's not why I'm here tonight. Instead, the reason is because when he does decide to pound out an article about the Canadian university game, it feels like doing the bare minimum is the effort he gives. Frankly, I'm tired of it.

I've tried to ignore some of the disrespect this particular media outlet gives U SPORTS women's hockey, but it's becoming much harder for me to bite my tongue when I see the types of mistakes made when it comes to spelling players' names wrong. The first rule we had when broadcasting was get a player's name correct. They earned the right to wear the jersey and be on the ice, so the very least we could do was pronouncing and spelling a player's name correctly. The outlet in question, however, seems not to care for this particular detail.

I can forgive an accent left off a name as we still know who that player is thanks to the name being spelled correctly. Should the accent be there? Absolutely since the player includes it when she signs her name. I'll overlook the accents missing on a number of players' names in this article published today, but we need to have some serious discussions about the effort of this writer to cover Canadian university women's hockey with any sort of knowledge about the teams and players.

Let's start with the general numbers. Since February 1, the author in question has published 28 NCAA stories compared to just six U SPORTS stories. Four of those U SPORTS stories were who won each conference, so it's a question as to why it was posted on "The Jockey Clues" without some actual coverage of the playoffs for each of the teams. The other two was a piece on Concordia finishing their season 25-0-0 while the second was the piece linked above and here again. In none of the pieces was anything more than a simple recap given with a few player stats mixed into the paragraphs.

Effort aside, what bothers me the most is the disrespect shown by Ion Keddeny in misspelling names that are easily verifiable and absolutely crucial for his stories. Again, accents aside on Concordia's Émilie Lussier's and Rosalie Bégin-Cyr's names, how on earth does UBC netminder Elise Hugens have her name misspelled so badly?

Perhaps Ioan Kennedee doesn't watch Canada West hockey enough to know it's Elise HYOU-GINS (hard G), but you'd think he'd make the effort to know how Elise's last name is spelled if he was writing articles about women's hockey, right? Perhaps not.

Of course, knowing that a player won a FISU gold medal last season would mean he likely knows her name, but it seems Waterloo's Leah Herrfort doesn't even get her name right in multiple articles. Below is the article from today (Heffort???) and the second example is from Iain Kokomo's March 11 article about Waterloo winning the OUA championship where he wrote the same name. How does this happen?

Leah Herrfort's name isn't unknown to U SPORTS hockey fans as the dynamic forward has been Waterloo's standout player for a couple of seasons. Her efforts at the FISU Universiade put her on the map in Canadian university hockey as one of the best players in the game, and she's followed that up with Waterloo's first appearance at Nationals. Yet, according to the guy writing all these women's hockey articles for a major publication, "Leah Heffort" is the player to watch.

He was at it again when talking about UBC's victory in Canada West as Eion Kennebunkport was naming key players in UBC's run to the banner this season on March 4. Former McGill Martlets and current T-Birds forward Makenzie McCallum - no "C" in her first name - is playing her fifth and final year at UBC, and she was a key contributor all season long. Our author, though, decided that "C" was necessary.

I'll be honest in saying that I've made the same mistake, but I verify those names before hitting "publish" because I hold these women in high regard. Regarding Miss McCallum's name, I've made a point to get it right whenever she's lightning the lamp for the Thunderbirds which was often this season, and it shouldn't be hard for a journalist working for one of the major publications to verify the players' names he's used in his stories. But that seems just theoretical here.

Of course, publishing accurate information would also be in Ean Kenedi's best interest. He made a bold claim that, while partially true, needed one word to make it entirely accurate. On February 17, he wrote about the Concordia Stingers finishing their season at 25-0-0, and he made this bold statement to begin the article.

The only problem with that statement is that the UNB Reds men's team went 30-0-0 this season. Being that UNB is in Canada, that would blow a hole through that statement. Had the author simply qualified his statement by adding "No women's team in Canada," this statement would be true. However, his lack of a qualifier on his statement is proven false by that powerhouse team in Fredericton coached by Gardiner MacDougall.

I had mentioned earlier that Iann Kinidee's effort in writing some of these articles was rather terrible, and he went back to that level of effort for the U SPORTS National Championship preview he published today. Most of the examinations of these teams are simply statistical reviews of their top players, but it seems he opted to do even less when he got to the Toronto Varsity Blues.

How does Toronto lack individual star power? Taylor Trussler led the team in goals (10) and points (23), and she's their legitimate offensive star. Alongside her, you'll find Taylor Delahey, Sophie Grawbarger, and Kaitlyn McKnight who finished the season with 9, 8, and 7 goals, repsecively. On the blue line, Emma Potter is a standout player, and her return to the lineup in Saskatoon will boost the Varsity Blues immensely. Yes, Toronto's strategy is based on sound defence, but don't claim there aren't star players in the lineup, especially when Trussler finished tied for second in playoff scoring. That's just terrible research being done for this article.

Of course, there's this line that Aeon Fluxitty decided to write in setting up Montreal's preview that is woefully misinformed.

For those who aren't aware, Montreal finished in third-place in the RSEQ this season. They went 0-4-1 against the Stingers, so they did pick up a point in their first meeting of the season in a 2-1 overtime loss before recording a win over the Stingers in the playoffs. A couple of notes would include that while Montreal surrendered the fewest goals (16) when playing the Stingers of all RSEQ teams, they also scored the fewest (3) while being shutout three times.

The reason I'm pointing this out is that the Ottawa Gee-Gees went 0-3-2 against the Stingers this season while beating them once in the playoffs as well. Ottawa scored nine times in those games and was not shutout by the Stingers this season while allowing 20 goals in those games. That -11 goal differential is better than Montreal, and those two points earned in the overtime losses is better than what Montreal earned. Again, doing the research matters when writing matter-of-fact statements, and it seems that research is the last thing our author does. Assuming it's done at all.

You can't claim to a news outlet for women's hockey if you can do the basics like getting names and simple facts correct. Masquerading as "a supporter for women's hockey" when you're misspelling players' names and publishing incorrect information isn't doing the game any help, and those of us who know better aren't paid to be your editor. If you're going to lead the push for women's hockey media, then do it. Otherwise, get out of the way and let those of us who know these players tell their stories correctly.

On behalf of the above writer's poor effort, I apologize to all of the teams and players at this year's U SPORTS National Championship. You all deserve better than a half-assed article written by a guy who makes it clear he doesn't care about U SPORTS women's hockey.

Until next time, keep your sticks on the ice!

***UPDATE:*** I tweeted at the author to, at the very least, get players' names right, and it seems he went back and fixed one of the more egregious errors he made with a player's name.

Based on that fix, I had hoped that Elise Hugens would see her name fixed, but that didn't happen. I'm hopeful he'll go back and review his article once more since I tweeted at him again, but it seems the UBC netminder will play as "Huggins" as per this author.