Growing the Game: Canada's Largest Ball Hockey Tournament Won't Play in 2023

Growing the Game is Ian Kennedy’s weekly feature examining the global game, how social issues impact the sport, and how hockey’s important cultural shift continues to evolve.

Running since 2003, Play On! Canada is still Canada’s largest national mass participation event. It returned in 2022 as a not-for-profit organization following a three-year pause, but the nationwide street hockey event is seeking national and provincial funding to continue providing youth with the opportunity to play. After not getting federal funding, the group announced it will not play in 2023, turning its focus to 2024.

“For an event such as Play On! Canada to continue to exist, the reality is that we require support from federal, provincial, and municipal levels of government. We have worked and are continuing to work with these key stakeholders as well as with the private sector including foundations to try and make this happen,” said Play On! Canada’s board of directors in a statement.

The organization has been forced to undergo several changes in the past few years, including losing its core funding and promotional partner, CBC's Hockey Night in Canada, once Sportsnet took over the show. Sportsnet replaced CBC as the media and promotional partner through 2027, but funding remains a challenge.

Play On! Canada said it has received written support from more than 80 members of parliament, mayors, and senators. However, the organization’s request for multi-year funding as part of the 2023 federal budget was not successful.

“As a board of directors, we have resolved to use the balance of 2023 to continue to seek funding and partnerships for events to be held in all provinces and, ideally, territories, beginning again in May 2024. This timeline will allow the organization to ensure that the events can be held when the communities want them, typically in spring / early summer, and also to ensure that cost of participation remains affordable so that every Canadian that wishes to participate may do so,” the board of directors wrote.

The tournament has seen current and past NHL players participate, such as Connor McDavid, Jean-Gabriel Pageau, Devante Smith-Pelly and more.

To see the national street hockey event return, Play On! Canada is urging the public to contact Chrystia Freeland, Canada’s minister of finance, and Pascale St-Onge, Canada’s minister of sport, to ask for multi-year funding for the event.

In the quest for safer sport in Canada, London Police have received Hockey Canada’s report, conducted by law firm Henein Hutchison, seven months after requesting the documents, according to the Globe and Mail.

The report is examining the alleged group sexual assault committed by members of Hockey Canada’s 2018 world juniors team.

The Globe and Mail report notes the findings of the report include text messages, social media content, videos and interviews with coaches, witnesses, and accused players. Earlier, London Police’s own investigation deemed it had reasonable grounds to believe five players sexually assaulted a woman in a hotel room.

Alongside the now completed investigation are continued calls to Pascale St-Onge and the Canadian government to hold a judicial inquiry into safe sport in Canada. To this point, the calls, which have been led by leading scholars in Canada, have gone unfulfilled.

The signing spree in the PHF continues this off-season, showing that the future of professional women’s hockey in North America is looking brighter by the day.

Specifically, the league has been signing a plethora of NCAA stars, including Alina Muller, Emma Soderberg, Chloe Aurard, Gabrielle David, Sophie Shirley, Emma Seitz, Theresa Schafzahl, Lexie Adzija, Maggie Flaherty, Claire Dalton, Sandra Abstreiter and many more, including those yet to be announced. U Sports standouts, including Audrey-Anne Veillette and Rosalie Begin-Cyr have also signed.

For men’s hockey fans, this group is the equivalent of a contingent of first and second-round NHL picks. However, the PHF dropped its annual draft prior to last season, allowing all NCAA, U Sports and European athletes to be UFAs.

The significance of this group presents in many ways. Players including Muller (Switzerland), Soderberg (Sweden), Abstreiter (Germany), Schafzahl (Austria), and Aurard (France) are all current senior national team members. Others, including Adzija, Shirley, and David, were all members of Canada’s collegiate series team, the last stop before the Canadian senior national team, while others were prominent players for Canada and USA’s U-18 national teams.

The importance of this young group choosing the PHF signals that many players of the next generation have chosen a league to support moving forward. It creates questions about the ability of the PWHPA to operate their promised league with the best players in the world, as they’ve promised.

Throughout the NHL season, discourse grew surrounding the inclusion of Pride night festivities in NHL rinks. Several teams, including the New York Rangers, Minnesota Wild and Chicago Blackhawks, pulled their Pride night jerseys. Others, such as the Florida Panthers, San Jose Sharks, and Philadelphia Flyers, saw certain players choose not to wear a themed jersey in support of the LGBTQ+ community. It was a debate that only grew. 

In the MLB, a similar situation appeared to be underway when the Los Angeles Dodgers cancelled the inclusion of a specific group, the Sisters of Perpetual Indulgence, after complaints from pockets of fans.

The Dodgers, after communicating with the LGBTQ+ community directly, apologized, re-invited the group, and committed to educating themselves as an organization.

“...the Los Angeles Dodgers would like to offer our sincerest apologies to the Sisters of Perpetual Indulgence, members of the LGBTQ+ community and their friends and families,” the Dodgers’ statement read.

“We have asked the Sisters of Perpetual Indulgence to take their place on the field at our 10th annual LGBTQ+ Pride night on June 16. We are pleased to share that they have agreed to receive the gratitude of our collective communities for the lifesaving work that they have done tirelessly for decades. In the weeks ahead, we will continue to work with our LGBTQ+ partners to better educate ourselves, find ways to strengthen the ties that bind and use our platform to support all of our fans who make up the diversity of the Dodgers family.”