If you’re reading this, you know about #ForTheGame. Like me, you saw the coordinated blitz on social media; you likely watched it spread like wildfire, clicking ‘refresh’ repeatedly to see who became subsequent.
And then, at eleven:04, minutes after the most important names in North American hockey published their scheduled message, matters got exciting.
Forward Michelle Karvinen, who plays her membership hockey at Luleå Hockey/MSSK and the world over for Team Finland, became the first SDHL player to join. The first, and some distance from the last.
Ronja Savolainen, Andrea Dalen, Jenni Hiirikoski, Pernilla Winberg, Fanny Rask, Lovisa Berndtsson, Sara Grahn, Eveliina Suonpää —the list goes on. Players across the league loaned their voices to the movement. In neighboring Finland, Kiekko-Espoo defender Minttu Tuominen did the identical, the only Naisten Liiga participant (to the excellent of my know-how) to achieve this.
It’s vital to note that the #ForTheGame social media posts from European players in Finland and Sweden do not indicate an upcoming exertions stoppage in their respective leagues. Many of the most famous names to put up—like Hiirikoski, Grahn, and Tuominen—are already signed for the subsequent season.
Team Sweden’s head educates Ylva Martinsen, a former SDHL defender and Damkronorna Olympian, who also took the word.
“For me, the news of the movement is crucial even though I teach a countrywide team,” she instructed The Ice Garden. “I suppose this is a matter for many people inside the sport who fought so long for an alternate for the higher.”
The Issues
Inequality in girls’ hockey is as vintage as the sport, and parallels run effortlessly among Europe and North America.
Players inside the SDHL and the Naisten Liiga cannot financially support themselves through hockey alone. Some are students, others work as photograph designers, nurses, Air Force provider members, and crew General Managers, to name just a few.
Conditions, assets, and reimbursement where it’s available vary from crew to crew in both leagues. Luleå Hockey/MSSK, one of the finest-run women’s teams in the game, mounted pay for all their senior gamers’ final season instead of paying only some as they had before. It’s no longer a residing salary but enough to permit the team to lessen their job masses and teach at some point in the day rather than at night after a workday.
This, unluckily, is the exception rather than the rule of thumb. In reality, there’s insufficient investment in ladies’ hockey, and the economic burden of bridging that hole frequently falls on gamers.
Which sucks. A lot.
The pay-to-play structure is still in place in many places throughout Finland; some teams are working to mitigate it as low as possible. However, the fee remains an authentic problem for even the country’s most elite players. The issue has sent several of Finland’s great gamers overseas, mainly to Sweden: out of 23 players rostered at the 2019 IIHF Women’s World Championships, 10 play their club hockey inside the SDHL.
There’s also the difficulty of insurance. Naisten Liiga gamers pay for their coverage, but the Finnish federation deals with one specific corporation to get them a reduced hockey rate.
Over inside the SDHL, communications director Angelica Lindeberg informed The Ice Garden: “At the moment, the gamers don’t acquire any insurance through the league, but it is one of many things we’re working with to arrange.”
A Different Structure
The SDHL and the Naisten Liiga are administered with the aid of their respective countrywide federations, and the Swedish Ice Hockey Association currently prolonged its agreement with the SDHL via 2023. Neither USA Hockey nor Hockey Canada has (or had) any position in strolling the NWHL or the CWHL.
In other words, a #ForTheGame movement in Finland and Sweden might direct competition among countrywide governing bodies. The gamers, especially more youthful ones seeking to gain a gap in their countrywide groups, must ask if they’re willing to take that risk.
A Season Abroad?
Let’s say negotiations this offseason go completely nuclear—full-on, scorch-the-earth-and-salt-its barren-dregs nuclear. Do the North Americans head to Europe? Are they desired in Europe?
That depends on who you ask.
The debate about foreign players inside the SDHL has raged for years. Everyone from Swedish Ice Hockey Association chairman Anders Larsson to Swedish Olympic Committee CEO Peter Reinebo has opted to scapegoat import gamers for the Damkronorna’s disappointing international consequences as a substitute for really handling their very own companies’ screw-ups.
Despite the misgivings on the top, elite overseas skills are welcomed at an organizational level with clubs’ aid throughout the league. Ninety gamers from 17 countries worldwide joined a hundred forty-five Swedes last season, up from 77 in 2017-2018.
Former Calgary Inferno forward and 2019 Clarkson Cup champion Kelty Apperson has determined to attempt her success in Sweden, the first boycotting North America to do so.
(Kelty, if you’re studying this, I’m sorry I misspelled your call on Twitter.)
If M Marie-Philip Poulin signed to the signal with Brynäs (don’t strangle me, pricey readers, this is simple), local mightn’t be g erected in Gävle with open hands. Before the movement, Team Canada goaltender Ann-Renée Desbiens discussed the possibility of signing in Sweden as soon as she’d completed graduate college. What’s to prevent her now? After all, Leksand wishes for a goalie with Julia Åberg taking time without work, so why not now?
The Naisten Liiga’s mindset to overseas players is markedly specific. One of the problems introduced following the league’s rebrand in 2017 was creating “aggressive and appealing” surroundings for Finnish expertise and imports.
The teams carry larger rosters. However, gamers are frequently more youthful, and the ability stage varies. Does Kendall Coyne Schofield want to visit Rauman Lukko, for instance, and play on a group in which the youngest participant is 16, and the median age is nineteen.8? What about the iciness of Kuopio with KalPa? Her velocity would be an asset; put her on Tanja Niskanen’s wing and spot what takes place. Heck, throw her on a line with Elisa Holopainen and watch them move.
I’m concerned about the fine of high-quality North Americans heading across the Atlantic. Suppose the #ForTheGame boycotters want to head play in Europe and can do so without disrupting the talent already in the area. In that case, the eyes they bring with them will most effectively be wonderful. Time and time (and time…And time…) again, we listen to approximately how little attention is paid to the ladies’ sport. The media enhancement and the subsequent exposure from a wave of excessive-caliber talent could be terrific.
The Bottom Line – For Now
So, then, what does #ForTheGame truely mean for the SDHL and the Naisten Liiga?
From a sensible viewpoint, nothing yet. Displays of solidarity are crucial in labor movements. Undoubtedly, girl hockey gamers worldwide are watching this movement just as keenly as their North American opposite numbers.