There are talks of a big Lunar New Year celebration taking place within the Vancouver Goldeneyes’ locker room sometime this week. The shift from the year of the snake to year of the horse occurs on February 17, making now the perfect time for an introduction that Anna Segedi and Katie Chan [https://thehockeynews.com/womens/pwhl/how-an-early-start-helped-katie-chan-make-her-pwhl-debut-with-her-hometown-vancouver-goldeneyes] have had long in the making. “We were talking about how we need to go [...] do hot pot and Korean barbecue,” Segedi told The Hockey News about a potential plan for Lunar New Year. “We were going to introduce Sammo [Maddy Samosevich] because she doesn’t know what it is. And we were like, ‘we’re taking you there because it’s awesome.’ Maybe we’ll do that this week. Now, I have a reason to go.” The hot pot discourse within the Goldeneyes’ locker room has been going on since earlier on in the season [https://thehockeynews.com/womens/pwhl/goldeneyes-forward-anna-segedi-is-finding-her-footing-in-both-the-pwhl-and-vancouver]. With today being one of the biggest holidays in Chinese culture, there’s little better time than now for the trio to indulge in one of the culture’s most popular delicacies. “We haven’t decided on a place yet. I’m from Richmond, and there’s so many good places there — you can’t go wrong — so we’ll probably pick a spot there,” Chan added. In China, many will get the entire two weeks off to celebrate Lunar New Year, also referred to as the spring festival. As important as the day itself is, oftentimes, the celebrations last for over two weeks. These include parades, lantern festivals, or even home-cooked family dinners at home. For some of the Goldeneyes, their celebrations won’t necessarily happen the day of. “I’m planning to go to the Lunar New Year parade on Sunday. So that will be kind of fun,” goaltender Kim Newell [https://thehockeynews.com/womens/pwhl/hockey-has-always-been-the-answer-for-vancouver-goldeneyes-goaltender-kim-newell] said. “I think there’s maybe a few other teammates that will be going as well. Just going to celebrate and go with a few friends, and have a good time.” On the day itself, Segedi is planning on keeping her celebrations pretty simple. The Goldeneyes forward’s experience with Lunar New Year stems from both of her parents, who adopted her from China but have worked hard to continue to celebrate her cultural background. “I’ll probably call my family and talk to my parents and wish them a happy Lunar New Year. My dad always would come home when I was younger [...] come home from work with the red envelopes and the little coins inside, so it’s something that I always look forward to. Being that he’s not here, I’ll probably just give him a call and hang out with my roommate.” In previous years, Chan’s typical Lunar New Year experiences include elements from different parts of her family. “Growing up, at my church, we would always have the red envelopes during services, and we would celebrate that way. My Nana was an ESL teacher as well, so I would go, when I was little, to their ESL and celebrate with them sometimes.” Food is a big part of Lunar New Year celebrations as well as Chinese culture as a whole. Chan recalled her and her family’s dinners in the past, reflecting on some of the more-traditional dishes her father would cook for the holiday. “My dad would cook. Gai lan was one of his dishes, bok choy. He has his signature fried rice — that’s my favourite. Whenever I’m homesick, I always would cook that at school, and it would just be really nostalgic for me,” she explained. Credit @ PWHL [https://deweb-519a7.b-cdn.net/post-images/a1253fcd-1cca-43ea-965a-028eb80e7adb.jpeg] Credit @ PWHL Newell, who is Chinese on her mom’s side, also reflected on food as a part of the cultural celebrations, speaking on her experiences with making dumplings with her mom. “It was kind of like a special treat to spend the whole day. You would make everything from scratch, the dough from scratch, and the filling from scratch, and you would sit there around the table and make dumplings all day. So that was the special treat for her growing up. We did that a few times when I was home for Lunar New Year, and I think that was kind of special to hear some of her stories, because she doesn’t talk about growing up too much. So I was like, ‘Oh, I get to have a little window into what it was like for her.’” Prior to joining the Goldeneyes, Newell spent multiple seasons playing hockey in China, whether that was as part of the Olympic team or the KRS Vanke Rays. Funnily enough, the dumpling-making celebrations also followed her there. “One year we actually did also make dumplings,” she chuckled. “I thought that was cool, just having a bit of that cultural exchange. The Chinese teammates would obviously show the North American or European teammates some of these traditions. It was a lot of fun.” Segedi also spent a couple of seasons playing in China, though her experience celebrating Lunar New Year there was somewhat halted due to the COVID-19 pandemic. “When I was there for Lunar New Year, we were in somewhere really north of Beijing in the mountains, in this training facility, and we were quarantining [...] they gave us dinner, we had a special dinner, but I didn’t get to go out into Beijing or Shenzhen and experience that, which I really wish I would have.” As Lunar New Year celebrations begin, the Goldeneyes will begin welcoming players back from the 2026 Winter Olympics and start preparing for a five-game homestand that will take them to near the end of March. With nearly half of their regular-season [https://thehockeynews.com/womens/pwhl/offence-woes-fan-support-highlight-the-goldeneyes-main-storylines-through-the-first-half-of-the-2025-26-season] remaining, Vancouver will look for prosperity and good fortune as they prepare to gallop their way to a playoff spot.
