The scene is as familiar as the sunrise in countless rinks across Canada. Hockey remains a beloved pastime, a source of pride and joy and something that has knitted the vast nation together for more than 150 years.

Behind the scenes of the goals and celebrations is an alarming trend: Youth hockey participation in the cradle of the sport has decreased by nearly a quarter over the past decade and a half, a decline that began well before the pandemic from a peak of over half a million kids taking part as recently as 2010.

Because of growing costs for everything from equipment and ice time to specialized coaching and travel programs, families are choosing other sports like soccer and basketball over hockey. There are concerns about the future of grassroots hockey in the country that has nourished it into the popular, vibrant sport that is seeing growth elsewhere, including the United States.

“It does sadden me,” said Alex Klimsiak, who coaches two teams in Brampton as his way to giving back to the game he still plays recreationally in suburban Toronto at the age of 44. “Enrollment’s probably been declining for the last five, six years. Definitely before the pandemic you could see it. A pandemic just put a magnifying glass and escalated it.”

In 2022, about two months after Canada celebrated what was then its 18th world junior hockey championship, the CEO of hockey equipment giant Bauer, Ed Kinnaly, declared: “The number of kids getting involved in hockey in Canada is spiraling downward … but nobody’s talking about that.”

At the time, Hockey Canada reported 411,818 youths younger than 18 participating in the sport, a 22% drop from 523,785 just 13 years earlier, not counting an introductory program that is has been separated from registration numbers since 2021. That number slightly rebounded in 2023 to 436,895 but is still below pre-pandemic levels even while soccer and tennis numbers in Canada have already recovered.

“I’m concerned but I’m not panicked,” Kinnaly told The Associated Press. “I’m concerned obviously at what the numbers say. I’m not panicked because I do believe that the sport is evolving. I do think the right people — the National Hockey League, USA Hockey, Hockey Canada, private corporations — are all starting to have the honest dialogue with each other, which is, A, we’ve got to stop talking about what’s wrong and, B, we’ve got to start investing in change for the sake of the sport.”

Choices beyond hockey

Few things are more closely associated with Canada than hockey, a place where kids and adults alike look forward to winter and lakes and ponds freezing over so they can lace up their skates, push a net out and play some shinny. When Canada faced the U.S. in the 2010 Olympic final on home ice in Vancouver, half the country’s total population watched Sidney Crosby score the “golden goal,” etched into national lore. Millions are watching Edmonton this spring as the Oilers try to end the nation’s 31-year Stanley Cup championship drought.

Yet the sport may no longer be the go-to for kids in Canada. According to the Canadian Youth Sports Report released last summer by Solutions Research Group, soccer is the top choice at 16%, followed by swimming, hockey and basketball. Raw participation numbers for the sports are not comparable given differences in registration requirements across various governing bodies.

Parents cited financial issues as their top concern (58%), followed by family care and youth mental health, including bullying. There are some concerns, too, that the time needed for practices and drills even at the lower levels of competitive hockey is part of the problem.

While youth hockey participation in Canada shrinks, the US is seeing steady growth

“It definitely is a big commitment,” said Priyanka Kwatra, whose 10-year-old son Shawn has developed a love for the sport and plays in suburban Toronto. “It’s a very time-consuming sort of sport.”

Time-consuming in large part because of the limited availability of ice that pushes practices and games to very early in the morning or late at night. Many youth programs train nine months or more per year, on the ice three to five times a week along with off-ice workouts.

When her husband, Amit, first looked at equipment for Shawn, the $1,000 price tag was a shock. Add to that limits on available ice for practices or for fun and games and basketball or soccer suddenly seem easier.

“Getting someone into hockey, it’s not as simple as getting someone into soccer where you just need a soccer ball,” Amit Kwatra said. “Hockey, the amount of gear that’s required in order to kind of get the game started is a lot, and I think that is the biggest barrier for a lot of people that initiate their kids into hockey.”

Other sports can also feel like a safer choice than hockey with its speed, hits and sharp skates. Gianfranco Talarico is the founder of Daredevil Hockey, which has been making cut-proof gear for more than a decade. He said his company’s feedback and surveys have shown safety and cost are the biggest things hindering a more rapid growth of the sport.

“It’s so intertwined in the fabric of Canadians,” he said. “If we don’t collectively focus on making hockey a safer sport, the potential brand equity of hockey in general will start to diminish.”

‘Professionalization of hockey’

During All-Star Weekend in Toronto, the NHL put on a youth event in nearby York. With daughter Sharon, Priyanka and Amit watched their son on the ice, he and more than 100 other young players all in their first set of gear provided by Bauer as part of NHL/NHLPA First Shift, one of many learn-to-play efforts intended to keep hockey in Canada’s bloodlines.

“It’s a low-cost entry point, and then it obviously is able to accelerate growth because it provides opportunity,” said Matt Herr, a former NHL player who is now the league’s senior director of youth hockey and industry growth. “Especially in Canada, we’re competing now where it used to be the pastime. … it was everybody’s first choice, and now there’s all these different choices and we’ve got to make sure we’re still everybody’s first choice.”

Herr and others know the equipment costs are potentially becoming a barrier. The quality of sticks, helmets and pads has increased sharply thanks to technological advances, but with that comes higher pricing — and with that comes the risk of leaving out lower-income families eager to try hockey, especially with higher levels of the sport running nearly year-round.

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Rachael Bishop for her 2017 honors thesis at Dalhousie University in Halifax, Nova Scotia, found a massive gap between the household incomes of families in hockey compared with other sports, an indication of the means necessary to afford it.

“I do think it’s more so probably a factor of cost, and we’re seeing it become prohibitively expensive now,” Bishop told The AP. “You see the professionalization of hockey: It’s a full-year sport now: You’ve got to join summer leagues, you want to get all the best equipment. Then there’s always like power-skating lessons, summer camps, so I think a lot of it is cost more so than anything.”

Klimsiak, the Brampton coach, estimated that the cost of being on a competitive team — the ones that travel to tournaments and have multiple set practice times as opposed to recreational teams — starts at $4,000, with some teams charging $10,000 or more. He said some Toronto hockey organizations are combining resources because there aren’t enough players to go around.

“The cost of the game has gone up,” said Klimsiak, who has three sons playing, one on his team, which he has trouble finding goaltenders for. “Referee costs have gone up. It’s tough. It’s proportional. It’s like cost of living, so everything’s gone up and now unfortunately the parents have to pay more.”

Cost is something University of Toronto professor Simon Darnell is all too aware of. The parent of a 9-year-old playing competitive hockey, the expert in sports culture and sociology calls costs one of the “exclusionary practices in hockey that go back a long time,” along with the culture of winning and the obsession over climbing up to the next team.

Darnell, acknowledging the willingness to shell out money for ice and other expenses, also understands the early-morning, nearly year-round aspect of hockey is one of factors keeping some out.

“It’s like if you don’t want to participate in hockey on those terms, then there isn’t as much space for you I think as there should be,” Darnell said. “It’s if you don’t want to play by those rules, then there isn’t space for you and then you go and play a different sport.”

Stopping the slide

A further concern: Are there enough ice rinks to accommodate hockey as a source of fun and character-building for children? Canada’s population, now nearly 40 million, has doubled in 50 years, and the International Ice Hockey Federation reports there are still just 2,860 indoor ice rinks across the sprawling country. Renting ice can cost hundreds of dollars just for 1-2 hours.

Kinnaly pointed to a 2019 Parks and Recreation Ontario plan to invest $2 billion over the next two decades on 45 new soccer fields, 30 basketball courts, 18 indoor pools and a single hockey rink as further cause for concern

“The number of rinks that are in disrepair or have closed further compresses the availability of ice time,” Kinnaly said. “If there aren’t places for people to play, it’s going to continue to be a headwind, a real challenge.”

Programs like First Shift and Scotiabank’s Hockey For All are among the steps being taken to stop the slide. Kinnaly said Bauer’s program has been “immensely successful” at not only getting kids into hockey but keeping them, with a retention rate around 60%, and has discussed ways of introducing new Canadians to the game like equipment being part of the welcome package upon signing up for a checking account.

But there are still systemic issues, from crumbling infrastructure and a lack of new rinks to inflationary pressure on pricing.

The woes are not being seen at the NHL level, where revenue continues to rise and fan interest is growing. In the U.S., youth hockey participation has slowly grown to nearly 400,000 registered players.

Instead, the existential crisis for the home of hockey exists at places like the Brampton rink, where the players and fans of tomorrow are developed. There are encouraging signs, such as hockey still being the preferred sports for First Nations youth and nearly 40% of First Shift participants being girls as the women’s game gets more attention — but the overall trend has presented a painful question that must be answered.

“I don’t think hockey can rest on its position in a way that it used to, and there’s part of me that’s OK with that,” said Darnell, the Toronto professor. “I think it makes sense if we’re going to invest in hockey in Canada as somehow representative of Canadian culture that we actually need to think about what does Canadian culture look like and is it reflected in hockey? Because right now it’s not.”

“That’s kind of what roped us in,” said Phil Gershkovich, whose sons Eli and Josh each got into it and Josh is still playing in high school. “That gets a lot of people in, and that’s a good avenue.”

The United States has experienced steady growth in the sport over the past decade while Canada grapples with youth numbers declining significantly over the same period of time. Efforts by USA Hockey, National Hockey League teams and others to bring in more diverse families — and a boom especially in girls participation — have fueled the increase and opened the door for the U.S. to one day overtake its neighbor to the north as the game’s preeminent power.

“When I was younger, it was always Canada,” said Logan Cooley, a Pittsburgh native and graduate of the U.S. National Team Development Program who just completed his first NHL season with Arizona. “There were even kind of kids from my age growing up moving to Canada and all you heard about was Canada hockey and all the stars they had. But now it’s really cool to see that the USA’s kind of right up there with them.”

Girls growing the game

USA Hockey reported 387,910 registered youth players in 2022-23 — up from just under 340,000 in 2009-10, and an increase of more than 12%. In its most recent annual report, the organization said over 70,000 girls under age 18 are registered to play, which could soon surpass Canada.

USA Hockey’s Kevin Erlenbach cited specifically a 94% increase at age 8 and younger.

“Whether it’s female hockey, if it’s just underserved communities, even our disabled community, if you can see it, then you can be it and it makes way more impact,” said Erlenbach, the organization’s assistant executive director of membership.

More gains could be coming in that department after the inaugural season of the Professional Women’s Hockey League, though the success of the U.S. national team at recent Olympics also has played a part in increased girls’ participation. Canadian star Brianne Jenner said she believes the PWHL is “going to change our sport more than anything ever has, and I think it’s also going to change our communities.”

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The communities getting into hockey are already changing, with industry leaders hoping to tap into folks who never saw the sport as a place for them. Sean Grevy’s New York-based 43 Oak Foundation, which provides opportunities for minority and underprivileged kids to learn how to progress through the game, now has 150 families involved.

“My main goal, my main focus, my main priority with this program is to make this sport more inclusive so that other people from other backgrounds that experience that same level of camaraderie that we were also lucky enough to experience as kids ourselves,” Grevy said.

Diverse participation

Sky Silverstein, the first graduate of the program who now works for 43 Oak, is an example of that progress. Silverstein, who is Black, played Division III hockey at Endicott College and UMass-Dartmouth and wants kids who look up to him to know there is a path for them.

“People are going to tell you, ’It’s a white sport,’ and that’s not what we want it to be — but that’s how it is,” Silverstein said. “You have to have money, at least a little bit. … It’s just one of those things. You’ve got to have access to the game.”

Free programs and learn-to-play efforts are considered critical. But a big reason for the U.S. growth has to do with changes made at the national level more than a decade ago, including mandates that those at the youngest ages play on one-third of a rink, essentially making room to triple the amount of skaters on the ice at one time and giving them more opportunities to touch the puck, hone their skills and enjoy the experience more.

“It helped with retention a lot, too, just because it was a totally different experience and more cost effective,” Erlenbach said.

Costs remain a concern across North America for hockey, not just for equipment but ice time, coaching and more. That’s where organizations like 43 Oak come in, and the success that foundation has had with financial help from UBS and the New York Islanders is something being replicated all over the country.

“We should be working together to grow together,” Grevy said. “We encourage that. We don’t want to be the only ones doing this. This is not a competition for us. In fact, it changes the space of diverse hockey and create an ecosystem where we all work together.”

And the Stanley Cup Final took a heated turn Monday night.

Evan Rodrigues had a pair of third-period goals, Niko Mikkola and Aaron Ekblad also scored and the Panthers used yet another airtight finishing kick to pull away and beat the Oilers 4-1 for a 2-0 lead in the Stanley Cup Final.

Sergei Bobrovsky stopped 18 shots for Florida, which was 1-8 all-time in Cup final games before this series started — and now is two wins away from capturing its first championship. Score through two games: Florida 7, Edmonton 1.

“A six-man job against the best players in the world,” Ekblad said.

But the win came with a price for Florida as the Panthers lost Barkov, their captain when Edmonton forward Draisaitl launched toward him midway through the third period and hit him in the head. Barkov remained down for some time, needed help getting to the bench and went down the tunnel for the Florida locker room for further evaluation.

Florida coach Paul Maurice offered no update on Barkov’s condition, and was far more tight-lipped than he tends to be after wins.

“This isn’t The Oprah Winfrey Show,” Maurice said of the Barkov hit. “My feelings don’t matter.”

Mattias Ekholm scored and Stuart Skinner stopped 25 shots for the Oilers, who now have to buck some serious history.

Edmonton has only successfully rallied from a 2-0 deficit in a best-of-seven series once — against San Jose in Round 2 of the 2006 playoffs. And teams that start the Stanley Cup Final down 2-0 have come back to win only five times in 54 previous situations.

“I think we feel that we came here and played well enough that we should have a split,” Oilers coach Kris Knoblauch said. “It doesn’t always happen.”

The series resumes with Game 3 in Edmonton on Thursday night.

“We can certainly be better,” Draisaitl said. “It starts with me. … I certainly have a lot more to give. Not my best tonight. Obviously, owning that.”

Draisaitl was given only a minor penalty for roughing on the hit that knocked Barkov from the game. Rodrigues got a tip-in goal to make it 3-1, the first power-play score Edmonton allowed in its last 34 times being down a man.

Connor McDavid had a chance to get Edmonton within one on a breakaway with about 6 minutes left. He got stopped by Bobrovsky, and then he and Matthew Tkachuk tussled a bit along the boards after the play — the Panthers still steaming over the hit on Barkov.

“I have no response or comment on that,” Tkachuk said when asked what he thought of Draisaitl’s hit on Barkov, and if he had a level of concern that Florida’s captain could miss time.

Said McDavid of the hit: “I thought it was part of the game.”

And added Ekblad: “We’re hoping he’ll be fine.”

Emotions were high all night. Edmonton’s Warren Foegele was ejected in the first period for a knee-on-knee hit that knocked Florida’s Eetu Luostarinen from the game briefly; that ejection, plus an injury to Oilers defenseman Darnell Nurse left them with only 11 forwards and five defensemen for much of the game.

Rodrigues scored early in the third off a turnover for a 2-1 lead, setting the tone for yet another Florida comeback. The Panthers — who trailed 1-0 after 20 minutes — are now an NHL-best 5-2 when trailing after one period in these playoffs.

Ekblad sealed it with an empty-netter with 2:28 left.

“It’s supposed to be hard. It’s supposed to be difficult,” McDavid said. “I’m excited to see what our group’s made of.”

Just like Game 1, one team cashed in on its first shot. It was Florida on Saturday, and Edmonton this time.

There wasn’t much to it: Ekholm skated nearly the full length of the ice with the teams playing 4-on-4, taking a harmless-looking shot that got between Bobrovsky’s leg pads and squirted into the back of the net. McDavid — playing in the building where he got drafted in 2015 — got one of the assists on the goal, his 27th assist of this postseason.

Midway through the second, the Panthers knotted it up. Mikkola had two shots on a shift; one was at the wrong net, and the other more than atoned for that near-blunder.

Moments after he inadvertently wheeled a backhand toward Bobrovsky — who was alert enough to save his teammate from the embarrassment of an own goal — Mikkola handled a delivery from Anton Lundell and blasted it past Skinner to pull Florida into a 1-1 tie.

“Bob was awake,” Mikkola said.

Shots were 22-7 Florida after 40 minutes, the Oilers — who led the league in shots on goal this season — being held to a season-low entering the third. Bobrovsky was tested a ton more in the third than he was in the first two periods, but was up to the task again and yielded two goals or fewer for the 12th time in his last 13 games.

And Florida, for the first time, is two wins from the Cup.

“It’s special,” Rodrigues said. “Trying to embrace it. Trying to stay in the moment. That’s two big wins for our team, but I think we’ve already turned the page and are getting ready for Game 3.”

For now, the 17-year-old center — he turns 18 on Thursday — coming off a celebrated freshman season at Boston University isn’t in a rush to get there, yet.

“There’s never really shame or there’s nothing wrong with just taking your time and just improving a little bit more,” Celebrini said at the NHL pre-draft scouting combine on Friday, in reiterating he’s not yet determined whether he’ll return to BU for a second season. “So I feel like in those ways, another year would benefit me just to get more physically ready, and just make sure I’m very fit and strong when I try to make that jump.”

Other than who gets chosen second overall, with the consensus split between Michigan State defenseman Artyom Levshunov and Medicine Hat center Cayden Lindstrom, Celebrini’s plans for next season represent the biggest question mark entering the two-day draft, which opens on June 28 at The Sphere in Las Vegas.

Not only is Celebrini the projected No. 1 pick by NHL Central Scouting, San Jose general manager Mike Grier expressed his intention to select the Terriers player immediately after the Sharks won the NHL draft lottery last month.

“It’s a big hockey moment for the organization and the fans here to have the opportunity to draft someone like Macklin,” Grier said at the time. And the second-year GM hasn’t cooled on his beliefs in praising the player when asked about Celebrini earlier in the week at the combine.

As college hockey’s youngest player last season, the 6-foot, 190-pound Celebrini won the Hobey Baker as the nation’s top player, as well as Hockey East player and rookie of the year honors. He finished second in the nation with 32 goals and third with 64 points in 38 games.

Another bonus for Grier’s rebuilding plans for a team that finished last in the overall standings is Celebrini’s ties to the Bay Area. Though from North Vancouver, British Columbia, Celebrini’s father, Rick, is vice president of player health and performance for the NBA’s Golden State Warriors, and the youngster spent a year playing for the Sharks’ junior team.

Celebrini enjoyed his interview with the Sharks, as well as dinner with Grier, who also played at Boston University.

Despite the ties and the talk, Celebrini isn’t taking anything for granted.

“At the end of the day, you never know what’s going to happen, and I don’t think I’m getting too ahead of myself,” he said. “So, for right now, I’m just going to enjoy the last couple days of the combine and enjoy this experience.”

The Chicago Blackhawks are scheduled to pick second, followed by Anaheim, Columbus and Montreal.

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In a switch from last year’s top-heavy forward draft class headed by Connor Bedard going No. 1 to the Hawks, this year’s crop of prospects features four defensemen among the top seven-ranked North American skaters on Central Scouting’s list. The group is headed by Levshunov, who is from Belarus, and includes Zeev Buium, who is from San Diego.

Buium had the distinction of helping the U.S. win gold at the world junior championships this year, and then helping Denver win an NCAA title in April.

“I was obviously very fortunate to be on two really good teams and meet a lot of great guys,” said the 6-foot, 183-pound Buium. “It was two awesome experiences.”

At 6-foot-2 and 203 pounds, Levshunov was the Big Ten rookie and defensive player of the year, and finished eighth in the nation among blue liners with 35 points (nine goals, 26 assists) in 38 games.

Central Scouting’s top-ranked international player is also a defenseman in Russian Anton Silayev. Listed at 6-foot-7 and 211 pounds, the 18-year-old had three goals and 11 points in 63 games during his rookie season with the Novgorod Torpedo of the Kontinental Hockey League.

Celebrini spent last season playing with his older brother, Aiden, who is also a defenseman and was selected by Vancouver in the sixth round of the draft last year. At BU, he’s coached by former NHL forward Jay Pandolfo.

Celebrini drew a laugh when discussing playing against Boston College’s Will Smith last season — “Every time we went up against him, he lit us up,” he said. The two will likely be teammates after the Sharks selected Smith with the No. 4 pick in the draft last year.

As for the best advice he’s ever received, Celebrini didn’t hesitate.

“Probably, stay present. I’ve been told that time flies by,” Celebrini said. “Before you know it, like, it’s five years later.”

Darren Pang will return for his second season as the Hawks color analyst.

The change in the booth comes three days after the Hawks joined the Bulls and White Sox in announcing the formation of a new broadcast partnership, the Chicago Sports Network, which will carry all three teams’ games and pregame and postgame shows after their contract with NBC Sports Chicago expires Oct. 1.

The 57-year-old Ball spent 10 seasons as the play-by-play voice for the Calgary Flames on Sportsnet. He also served since 2011 as a play-by-play announcer for “Hockey Night in Canada” national broadcasts.

“We are delighted to have Rick join the Blackhawks broadcast booth alongside Darren Pang as we begin this exciting new chapter in Blackhawks television with our new broadcast venture, Chicago Sports Network,” Hawks president of business operations Jaime Faulkner said in a statement.

“An established voice in the hockey world, Rick brings a wealth of experience and knowledge to our broadcasts. Coupled with Darren’s exceptional energy and expertise, we believe we are providing Blackhawks fans with the best in-home watching experience in the NHL.”

She also bid goodbye to Vosters, who received mixed reactions from fans in his two seasons since replacing Pat Foley, who retired after the 2021-22 season.

“We would also like to thank Chris Vosters for his time as play-by-play announcer, and we look forward to continuing discussions surrounding opportunities with our new network,” Faulkner said. “Chris is a phenomenal broadcaster with a big career ahead of him, and we are excited for him to continue to showcase his immense talent through his content with Stadium as well as his broadcasting work with other national, multisport entities.”

Ball, who has experience calling Stanley Cup playoff games for Sportsnet and TNT, said in a team statement: “I am thrilled to join the Chicago Blackhawks broadcast booth at such a monumental time in the organization’s history. My family and I are extremely grateful to the Wirtz family for giving me the opportunity to join such a storied franchise. It will truly be an honor to call games for an Original Six team and to work with someone as incredibly talented and respected as Darren Pang.”

Two years later, it is difficult for him not to get emotional as the league takes another big step.

The Stanley Cup Final will mark the first time a major sports league airs games in ASL, with each game of the series between Edmonton and Florida featuring Deaf broadcasters doing play by play and color analysis. Game 1 is Saturday.

“This is a great first step of having representation, having deaf people on screen, having the Deaf community connect to people like them,” said Christianson, the founder and CEO of P-X-P, which is doing the telecasts that will be available on ESPN+ and Sportsnet+. “For the NHL to sign off on this and to believe in this, it’s groundbreaking. It’s truly historic and also they’ve doubled down and said that they want to continue to do this.”

This next step in the NHL’s partnership with P-X-P, a company that works to make sports more inclusive through interpretation comes on the heels of another history-making moment: TNT doing an ASL broadcast of the U.S. Women’s Deaf National Soccer Team’s match against Australia last weekend. Reporter Melissa Ortiz was on screen describing the action in ASL.

That will be the case in the Cup Final for Jason Altmann, who is third generation Deaf and P-X-P’s chief operating officer, and Noah Blankenship from Denver’s Office of Deaf and Hard of Hearing Services. Having that representation is more significant than closed captioning because it serves the Deaf community directly rather than making members read words about the games.

“For us to be able to have this real-time coverage of play by play and color commentary in American Sign Language being called directly as opposed to a re-interpretation is really what the Deaf and hard-of-hearing community want,” said Kim Davis, the NHL’s senior executive VP of social impact, growth initiatives and legislative affairs. “It’s what they deserve. That makes the game truly meaningful for them. It is not like you’re re-interpreting for them basically from another language. They are hearing the game live in their own language and the way in which they understand it best.”

Reaching this point is another accomplishment for Christianson, an ASL interpreter who was born to deaf parents and has tried for years to persuade teams and leagues to try things like this. The connection with the NHL began at a 2021 meeting with VP of youth strategy and hockey culture Paul LaCaruba that ended with Christianson pleading for one person to buy into his ideas to serve the Deaf community.

Christianson said LaCaruba became that person, paving the way for him to interpret for Commissioner Gary Bettman and Deputy Commissioner Bill Daly two years ago. That was a news conference, but this is a chance to bring the most important games of the season to an underserved segment of the population.

“We know there are millions of deaf and hard of hearing hockey fans — and many more who have yet to fall in love with the sport,” LaCaruba said. “We are building access for the Deaf community, by the Deaf community, and there is no better platform to gauge a reaction than during the Stanley Cup Final.”

Gauge a reaction, not do a victory lap. Christianson said there is a plan to continue doing this for the NHL beyond just this series, and that path forward allows this to be a test of sorts with possible changes and improvements coming for the next time.

“I think it’s very brave for the NHL to say, ‘Hey we want to do this,’” Christianson said. “We’re all going to go in with our best and we’re going to try our best, and then we’re going to come back and we’re going to debrief and we’re going to try to get better with every process.”

It may wind up being a blueprint for others. Davis, who has learned a lot about ASL and communicating with the Deaf community, would be thrilled to if the NHL is the first but not the last to experiment with something like this.

“We’re doing something no other major league has ever tried before, and that is a broadcast and experience for the Deaf by the Deaf,” Davis said. “We’re proud of that. We just want to continue to support those communities that we want to be authentic with, and if another league wants to model it, we think that imitation is the best form of flattery, so let’s do it.”

The network said in a news release that all three teams’ games will be available through “traditional cable providers, streaming services and free, over-the-air broadcast” and “will reach a widely expanded Midwest footprint, including most of Illinois and parts of Indiana, Iowa, Michigan, and Wisconsin, pending league approvals.”

The network offered limited details in the wake of the announcement, and its ownership now faces a short runway to get a new media company off the ground in time for the Bulls and Hawks seasons in the fall.

There are plenty of questions to answer before then. What type of auxiliary programming will be offered? What purchases — such as satellite antenna or cable subscription — would fans need to make in order to watch their teams? And who will be on the air as game commentators, pregame and postgame hosts and sideline talent?

Bulls broadcasters Adam Amin and Stacey King are expected to retain their roles for the 2024-25 season, while a source said on-air talent for the Hawks “is not yet confirmed.”

The Chicago Sports Network (CHSN) said it has begun the hiring process for staff and will announce distribution and media agreements as they are finalized throughout the summer.

The network will be produced in partnership with Nashville, Tenn.-based Standard Media. Jason Coyle, formerly president of the Stadium network, was named CHSN president.

“As we set out to design the network, we began and ended every discussion with the simple question: What is best for our fans?” Coyle said in a statement. “What is the best approach to distribution? How can we push the limits of both in-game and studio production? We plan to serve our fans on as many platforms and in as many markets as our rights allow.”

The teams’ contract with NBC Sports Chicago, which has held the rights for all three teams since 2004, is set to expire in October. NBCSCH will continue to air the remainder of the 2024 Sox season.

Launching a regional network is a common trend in professional sports, with more than 30 teams from the New York Yankees to the Portland Trail Blazers starting their own standalone broadcast companies over the past two decades. Some attempts have been more successful than others: The then-Charlotte Bobcats gave up after a year, the Kansas City Royals never debuted their proposed network and the Houston Rockets have floundered through several rocky trials.

The success of a franchise-affiliated regional network fluctuates depending upon market, accessibility and team success. The concept isn’t new in Chicago, where the Cubs serve as the cornerstone of Marquee Sports Network with additional broadcast offerings for the Sky, Red Stars and regional programming such as the Chicago Hounds rugby team and local college and high school games.

CHSN would differ from Marquee in one key feature: over-the-air (OTA) accessibility.

Viewers can access OTA broadcasts via a satellite antenna, eliminating the need for a cable or streaming subscription. A Bulls source confirmed to the Tribune that all games on CHSN, including Hawks and Sox games, would be available for free OTA.

Tribune reporter Phil Thompson contributed.

Connor McDavid had a goal and an assist in the opening period to get Edmonton going, Stuart Skinner stopped 34 shots for his hometown team and the Oilers capped an improbable run to the Stanley Cup Final by beating the Dallas Stars 2-1 on Sunday night.

Zach Hyman also scored — like McDavid, on a first-period power play — and Evan Bouchard had two assists for the Oilers, who won the Western Conference final in six games and will play for the Cup for the first time since 2006.

They’ll be heading to Florida for Game 1 of the Stanley Cup Final, that series set to open on Saturday night. The Panthers are playing in the title series for the third time, after getting swept by Colorado in 1996 and losing to Vegas in five games last year.

“When the horn went off, that’s the loudest I ever heard it,” McDavid told Sportsnet amid the on-ice postgame celebration as Edmonton fans chanted “We want the Cup” over and over. “Special place to play, honestly. So much history. And these fans, it was great to hear their support.”

Mason Marchment scored midway through the third period and Jake Oettinger stopped eight shots for the Stars, who finished the regular season with the second-best record in the NHL — 113 points, just one behind the New York Rangers in the race for the Presidents’ Trophy.

But the Stars, just like the Rangers, let a 2-1 lead in the conference finals get away. Dallas scored five goals in Game 3 to take the series lead; the Stars managed four goals, total, in the next three games.

Oettinger went to the bench with about 2:20 to go, but the Stars got only two shots the rest of the way, their desperate tries to tie the game and extend the series coming up short.

“Proud of our group, proud of our fight, proud of our battle,” Stars coach Peter DeBoer said. You’re just gutted. They did leave everything out there. We should be going to play a Game 7, we’re not. You have to give Edmonton credit. Their power play particularly over the last two games was good, their goaltender was good. It’s fine lines when you get to this point of the year, and they were on the right side of it. … It’s tough to swallow.”

Just by getting to the Cup final, Edmonton has done something truly extraordinary — making the title series after finding itself 10 points out of a playoff spot during the regular season. Entering games on Nov. 24, the Oilers were 5-12-1, 10 points back of Seattle and St. Louis for the final wild-card spot in the West and 19 points behind Vegas for the top spot in the conference.

Those days are long forgotten now.

That’s when the Oilers — a couple weeks after Kris Knoblauch took over as coach for Jay Woodcroft, who was dismissed following a 3-9-1 start — went on an eight-game winning streak and began the long climb out of the NHL’s basement.

Starting with that eight-game win streak, the Oilers — who had a 16-game winning streak not long after the eight-game run ended — were the best team in the NHL for the remainder of the regular season. They were 44-15-5 the rest of the way, leading the league in goals (239) and goal differential (plus-76) in that span.

And now, the final awaits. Much like the Panthers on Saturday night, the Oilers didn’t touch the conference championship trophy in the postgame celebration. It’s the bigger trophy that they’re seeking.

“We’re not done here. This is just one step in the right direction for us,” Edmonton’s Mattias Ekholm said.

Edmonton is just the third team in NHL history to make the final after being 10 points or more out of a playoff spot; the others were Toronto in 1958-59 and St. Louis in 2018-19. The Blues won the Cup that season.

The Oilers had only three shots in the first period of Game 6. They were enough.

McDavid opened the scoring with a spectacular goal, weaving through traffic before beating Oettinger up high for a 1-0 lead.

“Connor McDavid, doing Connor McDavid things,” Skinner said.

Added Oilers forward Leon Draisaitl: “There’s one player in the world that can make things like that happen.”

McDavid then found Hyman in the slot for another power-play score late in the first; the shots at that point were 6-3 Dallas, but the score was 2-0 Edmonton and the Oilers were on their way. The Oilers finished with only 10 shots on goal, the fewest by a team in a playoff win since 1990.

“We hung in there. We got it done,” McDavid said. “Everyone deserves it.”

After sunning himself on a family vacation in the Caribbean, he’s in Buffalo for work: the NHL scouting combine, which runs Sunday through Saturday.

“You’re doing draft prep, lots of video, lots of discussions and meetings planning out how we want to attack potential roster changes,” Davidson told the Tribune. “All along the way, you’re meeting with the players you’re able to.”

The draft takes place June 28-29 at Sphere in Las Vegas. In 2025, the NHL plans to have teams run their drafts from their home markets instead of gathering in one place.

“It’s exciting,” Davidson said. “It’s the last in-person draft from what we know at this point. So we’ll enjoy the experience down in Las Vegas, but we’re excited to extend this run through the process, get down there and see how we can improve the organization.”

In an interview with the Tribune, Davidson weighed in on several topics, including top wing prospect Ivan Demidov, Connor Bedard’s performance at the IIHF World Championship and the reasoning behind the recent draft-pick trade with the New York Islanders.

1. On the draft trade

When it comes to the draft, the Hawks are developing a reputation for swinging eye-catching trades.

So they created some buzz last week when they upgraded a first-round pick (from 20th to 18th) and a second-rounder (from 54th to 50th) by dealing an additional second-round selection (61st) to the Islanders.

Davidson has to be up to something, right? Maybe a precursor to another move up the board?

“It’s actually been kind of funny to watch all the discourse around that trade,” he said. “It’s been hilarious, actually.

“To us it was just our internal information indicated that it was an improvement in value, and so we did it. You’re correct, a second(-rounder), no matter how late a pick, is not nothing. Having said that, we do have a lot of picks. … We just felt that the picks we’re receiving have a better asset value package than the ones we were sending out.

“Honestly, it was that simple. It’s not a precursor or anything. It’s not a first domino to fall. It was interesting reading all the theories on what the next move was going to be.”

It’s a short list of candidates for the Hawks to pick at No. 2 — Demidov? Artyom Levshunov? — so their second first-round pick carries a lot more intrigue.

Chicago Blackhawks move up in 1st 2 rounds of NHL draft in a trade with the New York Islanders

A few buzzy prospects, such as Bennett Sennecke or Michael Hage, could be at risk of getting snapped up before No. 20.

The conventional wisdom is you don’t make a trade like this unless you have a specific target. But Davidson said: “It wasn’t really done with players in mind. It was just strictly, in our opinion, we were more likely to improve our chances of finding legit NHL players at 18 and 50 than (at) 20, 54 and 61.

“You never know how the drafts are going to go. Whether you’re three minutes from someone making a pick or we’re 30 days from someone making a pick, I don’t know who anyone’s going to pick. I don’t know how it’s going to fall. … I’d be lying if I said that I knew what was going to be there at 18 versus 20.”

2. On interviewing Ivan Demidov

The Hawks will jet down to Ft. Lauderdale, Fla., in late June for an independent interview session with several of the top Russian draft prospects, including Demidov.

Pundits see Demidov and Levshunov as the strongest contenders to be selected at No. 2 by the Hawks.

“One of the agents is hosting almost like a combine of his own for some of his clients, many of them Russian-based clients that are draft-eligible,” Davidson said. “So it’ll be an opportunity to meet with them that we haven’t necessarily gotten the opportunity to do previously.”

Because of their overseas contracts and visa hurdles, Russian prospects can be difficult to scout, so Davidson said he relishes this chance to get to know Demidov.

“You want to understand what’s motivating a player, whether they’re playing in Vancouver, Toronto, Stockholm or St. Petersburg,” Davidson said. “You want to get to know them and what their motivations are, what their ambitions are, no matter where they’re playing.

“It’s not like he’s different from — or any other Russian-based player is different from — the other 100 players that you’re going to talk with. It’s just everyone’s unique. … But we’re excited to meet him as well as the other players that are going to be down there and then dig into the rest of the group in Buffalo. So it’ll be an interesting process.”

3. On Connor Bedard at the worlds

Bedard started the IIHF World Championship in Czechia with back-to-back goals in the second period of Canada’s 4-2 win against Great Britain, and he finished the tournament with five goals and three assists.

It was a particularly fruitful opportunity for Bedard.

“I believe this year it seemed like you had a few more NHL players willing to go than previous years, and perhaps that’s because of upcoming international play,” Davidson said. “For Connor to be able to experience that, to go play with and against those (NHL) players and get experience playing with Canada … at the world championship level, it can only benefit him, so I’m excited for him to be able to get that opportunity to play in those moments.”

In a shootout loss to Switzerland in the semifinals, Bedard made the primary assist on John Tavares’ tying goal with a little more than two minutes left in regulation.

“He’s out there on the ice and trying to tie up the game late or (win) in overtime of a semifinal game like that,” Davidson said. “That’s all really beneficial experience for him to be on the ice for.”.

4. On signing Martin Misiak and Zach Sanford

Misiak might not be the household name that Bedard is, but he’s a fairly essential piece of the Hawks’ long-term plan.

After the 2023 draft, Hawks director of amateur scouting Mike Doneghey called Misiak “almost like a Brandon Saad-type player, that big-bodied wall player.”

On Tuesday the 6-foot-1, 201-pound Slovakian winger signed a three-year contract with the Hawks that carries an annual salary-cap hit of $878,333, according to CapFriendly.com.

After posting six goals and 11 assists in 27 games for the USHL’s Youngstown Phantoms in 2022-23, Misiak racked up 23 goals and 24 assists in 60 games for the OHL’s Erie Otters this past season.

“We just thought his two-way game was strong all year,” Davidson said. “He’s a mature player, he plays a mature game.”

Davidson said Misiak followed a similar development plan to Nick Lardis, another winger from the 2023 draft class, whom the Hawks signed to a three-year entry-level contract in April.

“We’ll figure out what’s best for his development and where he’s best suited to play,” Davidson said. “The options are pro hockey (in the AHL) or back in the OHL. There’s always the European option, but we’ll figure that out over the summer.”

Davidson doesn’t see Misiak as a candidate to make the Hawks roster this fall.

“You never want to say never, but it would be hard,” he said. “It would be a very big jump. I think that’s unlikely. He needs some development time.”

The Hawks also brought back 29-year-old depth forward Zach Sanford on a one-year, two-way contract with a $775,000 cap hit. Sanford put up four assists in 18 games last season.

“We just love the mentality and the experience and what he brings to the room every day,” Davidson said. “Whether he’s here (in Chicago) or in Rockford, we know he’s an absolute pro.”

Davidson said Sanford will have an opportunity to make the Hawks roster out of camp, but “if he does end up with the IceHogs, we know he’s a capable recall to come up and play some bottom-six minutes for us and fill a role should we need it.”

On Wednesday night, she sprinted into women’s hockey history.

The three-time Olympian chased down a rolling puck and slapped it into an empty net to seal Minnesota’s 3-0 victory over Boston in the winner-take-all Game 5 to claim the inaugural championship of the Professional Women’s Hockey League.

Liz Schepers scored to break a scoreless second-period tie, Michela Cava made it 2-0 midway through the third and Nicole Hensley stopped 17 shots for Minnesota. Coyne Schofield added the empty netter with two minutes left, and then the captain and oldest member of the roster took the first-ever lap on the ice with the Walter Cup.

“It makes me want to tear up thinking about it. She’s done so much for this sport,” said forward Taylor Heise. “She’s definitely one of the people that’s helped this sport grow and one of the reasons why this arena is sold out here tonight.”

Coyne Schofield, 32, was fresh off of winning the 2018 Olympic gold medal when she was invited to take part in a timed lap around the ice at the 2019 NHL All-Star Game. She finished seventh out of eight, but was a crowd favorite in an arena filled with chants of “U-S-A!”

“What was so important about that moment wasn’t the skate itself. It’s what happened after,” she said on the ice while her teammates posed for pictures with the trophy and and her husband stood nearby holding the son she gave birth to less than a year ago.

“It was the attention that that skate drew to so many people,” said Coyne Schofield, who was active in helping the PWHL come to fruition. “That moment brought a lot of eyes and helped catapult the reality we’re living today.”

Three nights after Minnesota prematurely celebrated a would-be game-winner in double overtime that was waved off for goaltender interference, Hensley earned her second shutout of the playoffs. Minnesota limped into the playoffs on a five-game losing streak and then got shut out in the first two games of best-of-five semifinal against Toronto.

Heise, whose eight points in the postseason was tied for the most in the league, was named the inaugural Ilana Kloss Playoff MVP. The former Minnesota Gopher was the league’s first No. 1 draft pick.

How Kendall Coyne Schofield and the PWHL aim to ‘change the landscape of women’s hockey forever’

“ We’re ‘the State of Hockey,’” she said. “And I think this proves it.”

Boston goalie Aerin Frankel, dubbed the “Green Monster” in her forest green home sweater, made 41 saves for the runners-up. The sold-out crowd at the Tsongas Center, about an hour north of Boston, chanted her name and “Thank you, Boston!” after the final buzzer, even as the Minnesota players celebrated on the ice and league officials set up the podium for the trophy presentation.

Boston forced a decisive fifth game only after Sophie Jaques’ apparent goal in double overtime in Game 4 was taken off the board because of goaltender interference. The Minnesota players, who had already streamed onto the ice to celebrate, throwing their equipment in the air, gathered up their gloves and sticks, and the game resumed.

One minute later, Alina Muller scored to send the series back to Boston.

The crowd was eager for the home team to claim the new trophy, named for league benefactor and Los Angeles Dodgers owner Mark Walter, chanting “We want the Cup!” just like Bruins fans do down in Boston. A Fenway-style “Sweet Caroline” singalong kept them busy during the second break.

But with the game scoreless early in the second, Minnesota forward Sydney Brodt skated through the slot toward the goal. She whiffed on a wrist shot, drawing Frankel out of position, then slid around to the right side and centered the puck behind her, where Schepers tipped it in.

It was still 1-0 when Cava circled behind the net and stuffed the puck between Frankel’s pads; it trickled toward the net before the goalie knocked it over the line when she reached back to save it with her stick hand.

The game was a crowd-pleasing conclusion to the six-team league’s first season, when it blew through some benchmarks but left others unmet.

A game in Montreal against Toronto drew more than 21,000 fans to the Bell Centre. Average attendance in the regular season was 5,448, giving the league confidence to expand the schedule from 24 games to 30 next year. Toronto is looking for a bigger home than the 2,500-seat arena where it played most of its games.

One negative was below-average attendance for the New York team, which split its home between Connecticut, Long Island and New Jersey. Games were broadcast nationally in English and French in Canada, but U.S. fans were left with regional networks and YouTube.

And the teams don’t have nicknames yet — a result of the rush to get on the ice in six months after the two competing pro women’s hockey leagues in North America declared a truce, with help from Walter and tennis great Billie Jean King, last summer. The league said on Wednesday that names and logos will be announced in August.

“This year was a historic year,” Boston captain Hilary Knight said. “We built it. We’re extremely ecstatic about where it is Year 1. If anything, that reflection point is something we can take away from tonight and celebrate.”