Brian Burke and Andrew Ference coached the two teams before Bettman presented the Toronto Gay Hockey Association with a cheque.
Brian Burke and Andrew Ference coached the two teams before Bettman presented the Toronto Gay Hockey Association with a cheque.
For the first time ever at NHL All-Star Weekend, there was a Pride Cup.
Tucked away in the far right corner of the Metro Toronto Convention Center, players from the Toronto Gay Hockey Association warmed up as they prepared to compete in a ball hockey game.
Starting at 10 a.m., right as the NHL Fan Fair's doors opened up, the game began with Executive Director of the Professional Women's Hockey League Players Association Brian Burke and former NHLer Andrew Ference coaching the two sides.
"I'll go anywhere to coach in a Pride game," Burke told The Hockey News on Saturday morning. "If it were at six in the morning, I would've been here."
For some, this might be a positive step for the direction of hockey. For others, this might be a little too late, given the NHL had banned Pride Tape earlier this season, and then reversed their course when there was backlash.
For Burke, having the Pride Cup at the All-Star festivities is a step in the right direction.
"It should be an important part of All-Star, it is," Burke added. "I'd be annoyed if it weren't."
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Shane Hobson, commissioner of the Toronto Gay Hockey Association, sat in the stands ahead of the game, and you couldn't wipe the smile off his face.
"I think it's an example of the NHL listening and responding in a progressive and inclusive way," Hobson said. "It takes something they did, realizing it needs to change, and reacted quite well."
Each of the players took the game seriously, as any competitor would. But you also couldn't help but see all of the happy faces as the event moved forward.
Whether it's a little or big step, though, remains to be seen.
"What I'd say is whether it's big or small, I don't know. But the fact that they were able to listen and respond is the most important aspect," Hobson said.
"Our community has been banging at the doors of a lot of organizations for years, and maybe it took this for people to start listening. And it's not just listening but responding. I think that's what it is. The journey is going to be long."
Midway through game, NHL commissioner Gary Bettman showed up and stood beside Burke as he manned the door, opening and closing it for the players participating.
Bettman, when the game concluded, presented the winning team with the Pride Cup before also handing a wide check of $25,000 to the entire Toronto Gay Hockey Association.
"It's professional hockey, corporate sponsorship, and community organizations working together to move it on three levels," Hobson said, as he sat in the stands awaiting the start of the game, about how there can be change moving forward.
"One, in the community space, corporate sport, and then the professional skate teams supporting the movement. So, you have the three working together, because it's not going to be just the professional organizations, it's gotta be all together."
As the cheque was presented, it was Ferrence, who works with the NHL as the director of youth strategy, with one of the biggest smiles. He says having an event like this at the NHL Fan Fair is progression.
"We do things like this, eight years ago, none of that was happening," he said. "So to me, like, that's incredible progress. It's great. There's the monetary support, there's the cultural support of having it at a venue like this and having the commissioner come out and do that, and having so many players just having fun.
"Because at the end of the day, like, this isn't a political statement, this is sports. This is just people being comfortable playing the sport they love and making friends with their teammates, and why wouldn't we want more of that?"
But for those who think the NHL isn't doing enough, isn't trying their best to shift the culture, isn't making the game more accessible, what would Ference say to them?
"I think there's always a desire for more, especially for any of us that have things in our lives that we're really passionate about. You always want more, and that's good. I mean, so you should. That's what advocacy is. It's not just being okay with where things are at, you want to progress things, you want to care about things.
"But I think, like, for me, I do step back and I want more, I always want for things that I'm passionate about as well. But it is important to step back and look at where you came from and where you're at, and understand that, there's continued growth from that.
"I think at those times, when there's frustrations, which I get too, and anybody at the corporate world gets about wanting more, I think if you step back and look at where you're at and you understand that there's more progress to be had. And it's not always as fast as we want, but we're going in the right direction.
"Eight years ago, like I said, we didn't even know if a kickstarter project would work with this and we didn't even know if a team would let us use it in an event.
"And now we're here. It's a tidal change from one to the other."
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