Ian Kennedy discusses a glass helmet movement in Sweden's women's league, LA’s Jewish Heritage Night, Akim Aliu and a ball hockey tournament in Tennessee.

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.

Swedish Women Breaking the Glass Helmet

The “glass ceiling” has long been discussed as the invisible barrier restricting the rise of women in professional sport, education, workplaces, and society in general. This season, women in Sweden’s SDHL made this invisible concept visible when captains from nine SDHL organizations entered the ice wearing a glass helmet.

In Sweden, the movement took the media by storm and quickly gained the support of men’s hockey players in the SHL, including former NHL players Marcus Kruger, Joel Lundqvist and Anton Lander, who all wore the helmet in solidarity.

Collaboratively, the Swedish Ice Hockey Association, SDHL, and SHL also penned a letter to Swedish politicians aiming to address systemic barriers women face, particularly in hockey, including inequitable facilities and funding. 

“In order for confederations…to be able to meet the growth of increased girls' teams, the lack of facilities needs to be taken seriously and made understandable,” the group said in the letter in Swedish.

The need is being discussed due to an unprecedented 30-percent increase in women’s participation in hockey in Sweden from 2021 to 2022. To continue this growth and to break the glass ceiling, Swedish hockey groups are asking for assistance “to offer good development environments based on the needs of the target group.”

Sweden’s SDHL is one of the top women’s hockey leagues in the world, and Sweden’s national program is on the rise, having recently won silver at the U-18 World Championship.

Kings Hosting Jewish Heritage Night

The Los Angeles Kings have added a night of representation to their events calendar, as the organization will host Jewish Heritage Night on March 14 against the New York Islanders.

The night is spearheaded by Chelsey Goldberg, a longtime member of the PWHPA and former CWHL player, who also helped launch a women’s division at the 2022 Maccabiah Games. The event will aim to celebrate Jewish culture and welcome the large population of Jewish residents to hockey in Los Angeles.

“This event is extremely important to me especially because it has been awhile since the Kings have attempted to host this event, and I want to make it as special as possible for all parties involved,” said Goldberg. “LA is a heavily Jewish populated city, and I am so excited to help expose the sport of hockey to the Jewish culture and those who may not have been exposed to the sport before and ultimately combine sport and faith.”

Goldberg will sit on a pre-game panel alongside other prominent Jewish figures to discuss how sports and faith intersect, alongside the rise of anti-semitism in North America.

Toronto Dream Becomes A Nightmare

Former NHLer Akim Aliu is known for pushing the envelope when it comes to expanding inclusion and diversity in hockey. This week, news broke that Aliu and partners had attempted to enter a new organization into the Greater Toronto Hockey League (GTHL) known as the Toronto Dream, which would mandate managerial, coaching and on-ice positions for racialized people and women.

Aliu originally spoke with TSN’s Rick Westhead about the issue, claiming the GTHL had repeatedly “delayed” and “stonewalled” his attempts to launch the organization. Aliu already runs hockey programming in the Toronto area through the Hockey Diversity Alliance, a group he co-founded.

In Westhead’s report, multiple GTHL team officials spoke in opposition to adding a team that ensured space for racialized youth. Specifically, Don Mills Flyers’ president Peter MacInnis opposed the team, making comments criticized by many. 

“I'm really not too sure where they're trying to go with this,” MacInnis told Westhead. “If you're talking inclusion, if we want to have inclusion with Black kids and Indigenous kids and Oriental kids and white kids all playing together, what the hell are we doing with a team all full of Black players? That's ridiculous. That’s not inclusion.”

One individual who did not support the reported comments was GTHL executive director and chief operating officer Scott Oakman. In speaking with Oakman this week, he told me that “certainly the language that was attributed to (MacInnis) is not something that we as a league would expect from any leadership in our organization."

The GTHL also released a statement in rebuttal to Aliu’s initial claims, saying he declined “an opportunity for the HDA to partner with the GTHL.” 

Aliu, in turn, criticized the statement, saying, “They’re just words. At the end of the day, they can say all of the things they want to say, but unless there’s action behind it, it doesn’t mean anything. They were not willing to bend one bit; they didn’t grant us anything.”

The GTHL and Aliu are now left to settle this situation in the public forum. Although Aliu said was never his intention, he eventually felt as though it was his only option.

“This was not the avenue I wanted to take, but this was the only route that’s been left to allow the general public to decide on what we’re going to do and how they view this,” he said.

First Women’s Ball Hockey Tournament in Tennessee a Success

Earlier this year, The Hockey News featured a story about a new organization known as Ball Hockey Boot Camp, which aimed to introduce hockey to underrepresented communities, specifically women, to hockey through ball hockey.

This past weekend, the group co-ordinated and ran the first-ever ball hockey tournament in the state of Tennessee. The four-team tournament, known as Ball on Broadway, was eventually won by the Beach Babes.

“It is truly amazing to see an idea come to life in such a monumental way,” said Ball Hockey Boot Camp founder Ashley Mouzzon. “I am very proud of what my organization Ball Hockey Boot Camp has accomplished and I am thankful for everyone’s support along the way.”