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.”

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 lawsuit, which was filed Friday and made available on the Duval County Circuit Court’s public records database Tuesday, names McManus and the team as defendants and seeks in excess of $1 million in damages. The women, identified as Jane Doe I and Jane Doe II, allege in court documents that McManus tried to kiss one of them and grinded and rubbed up against both of them while they were trying to perform their work responsibilities during the Sept. 28 flight.

Tony Buzbee, the lawyer who represented two dozen women who accused Deshaun Watson of sexual assault or harassment, said he is the lead counsel representing the women. Buzbee wrote on social media that he and his clients attempted to resolve the matter without litigation.

“Our efforts at resolution were met with arrogance, ignorance and stupidity, strikingly similar to how Deshaun Watson’s team responded when we tried to resolve those cases pre-filing,” Buzbee wrote on Instagram. “The allegations made in this lawsuit are very serious. We made sure to fully vet them and speak with witnesses before even taking the cases.”

Jaguars coach Doug Pederson said he was not aware of the allegations until the lawsuit became public Monday.

“Obviously disappointing to hear the news that took place,” Pederson said. “A typical flight is not that way. It’s a business trip. It’s a business trip, and that’s how we approach it from an organizational standpoint, from the league standpoint. So when I read that, that part of it is disappointing.”

McManus’ lawyer on Monday called the allegations “absolutely fictitious and demonstrably false.”

“We intend to aggressively defend Brandon’s rights and integrity and clear his name by showing what these claims truly are — an extortion attempt,” Brett R. Gallaway of McLaughlin & Stern said in a statement sent to the AP on Monday evening.

McManus, who turns 33 in July, signed with the Washington Commanders in March. The Philadelphia native has been in the league for a decade, the first nine seasons with the Denver Broncos, after playing at Temple.

A Commanders spokesperson said the team is looking into the situation and has spoken with McManus’ agent and the NFL office, adding, “We take allegations of this nature very seriously.”

The Jaguars said they were aware of the complaint and acknowledged the significance of the claims being made.

“As we continue to look into the matter, it bears emphasizing that we insist on an organization built by people who represent our community and game with the highest character and class,” the Jaguars said in a statement.

AP’s Mark Long in Jacksonville, Fla., contributed.

“I think they’re trying to get rid of me,” Lukas said. “They probably want me to retire. I don’t think that’ll happen.”

Not when the 88-year-old Hall of Fame trainer keeps winning big-time races.

Seize the Grey ended Kentucky Derby winner Mystik Dan’s Triple Crown bid Saturday by going wire to wire to win the Preakness, giving Lukas his seventh victory in the race, one short of the record held by good friend Bob Baffert.

“I’m only one behind him — I warned him already,” Lukas said. “It never gets old at this level, and I love the competition. I love to get in here with the rest of them.”

The strapping grey colt took advantage of the muddy track just as Lukas hoped he would, pulling off the upset in a second consecutive impressive start two weeks after romping in a race on the Derby undercard at Churchill Downs. Going off at 9-1 as one of the longest shots on the board, Seize the Grey moved to the lead immediately out of the starting gate and never looked back, finishing in 1:56.82.

“I thought his action down the backside was beautiful, and I knew that he was handling the track,” Lukas said. “I said, ‘Watch out, he’s not going to quit.'”

Mystik Dan finished second in the field of eight horses running in the $2 million, 1 3/16-mile race. After falling short of going back to back following his win by a nose in the Kentucky Derby, it would be a surprise if he runs in the Belmont Stakes on June 8 at Saratoga Race Course.

“My colt’s a fantastic colt and proud of him,” trainer Kenny McPeek said. “It just wasn’t his day, but he’ll live to race again.”

Seize the Grey was a surprise Preakness winner facing tougher competition than in the Pat Day Mile on May 4. Though given the Lukas connection, it should never be a surprise when one of his horses is covered in a blanket of Black-Eyed Susans.

No one in the race’s 149-year history has saddled more horses in the Preakness than Lukas with 48 since debuting in 1980 and winning that one with Codex. He had two in this time, with Just Steel finishing fifth, but Seize the Grey — owned by 2,570 people involved in the MyRacehorse group — delivered the victory.

“I just couldn’t be happier for every single one of them,” MyRacehorse founder and CEO Michael Behrens said. “We had some big expectations, but this exceeds all those expectations.”

Seize the Grey paid $21.60 to win, $8.40 to place and $4.40 to show. Mystik Dan paid $4.20 and $2.80, while third-place Catching Freedom paid $3.20 to show.

Baffert, who was looking for a record-extending ninth Preakness victory, was supposed to have two horses in the field, but morning-line favorite Muth was scratched earlier in the week because of a fever. Baffert’s Imagination finished seventh.

“He is still learning,” Baffert said. “I think we are learning his style. I saw a lot today that I can change going forward. I don’t think he wants to run like that. We didn’t really have a plan. We thought it would be Wayne or us.”

Muth’s absence made Mystik Dan the 2-1 favorite, but he and jockey Brian Hernandez Jr. could not replicate their perfect Derby trip to win that race’s first three-way photo finish since 1947. Instead, Jaime Torres rode Seize the Grey to a win in Torres’ first Triple Crown race of any kind, just two years after starting to ride.

“I have no words,” said Torres, a native of Puerto Rico who did not begin racing until seeing it on TV in late 2019. “I’m very excited and very thankful to all the people that have been behind me, helping me.”

This was the last Preakness held at Pimlico Race Course as it stands before demolition begins on the historic but deteriorating track, which will hold the 150th running next year mid-construction.

That process is already well underway at Belmont Park, which is why the final leg of the Triple Crown is happening at Saratoga for the first time and is being shortened to 1 1/4 miles because of the shape of the course. Kentucky Derby second-place finisher Sierra Leone, a half-step from winning, is expected to headline that field, though Lukas said he’d wait to see about Seize the Grey also running.

He made a decision to leave the Avalanche and enter the NHL/NHLPA player assistance program earlier this season. Girard returned to practice a month later, resumed playing and declared: “It changed my life.”

Girard was the first of five players to step away this season to receive care from the program jointly run by the league and union — the same number of players who sought help over the previous three years combined. The participation increase is credited in part to a growing belief in the venture that has been around since 1996, as well as a reflection of the general population seeking more help since the pandemic.

“I think what has happened is the players have developed a real comfort level that the counselors, the people that run the program, can be trusted because there’s a fair amount of confidentiality involved,” NHL Commissioner Gary Bettman said.

Valeri Nichushkin (Colorado), Patrik Laine (Columbus), Evgeny Kuznetsov (then Washington now Carolina) and Ethan Bear (Washington) followed Girard into the program this season. Like Girard, Nichushkin and Kuznetsov returned to play; Bear was cleared just after the Capitals were eliminated from the playoffs.

The program was in the headlines this week after Nichushkin was suspended for six months on Monday for violating terms of the program. The news caught the Avalanche by surprise, including coach Jared Bednar, who paused during a news conference to note the importance of Nichushkin getting the support he needs.

“I’ve gotten to know Val as a person and I’ve gotten to know him as one of our teammates and I want what’s best for him,” Bednar said. “I want him to be happy and I want him to be content in his life, whether that is with our team or not with our team. I want the best for him and his family. I think all of our guys are the same. We hope that he can find some peace and get help.”

The program

Confidentiality is guaranteed for players and their family members, at least when it comes to details. An announcement is only made when a player reaches a second phase and is then unavailable to his team.

“We don’t get much information on it,” Capitals general manager Brian MacLellan said. “The parameters of the program are confidential, how they go in are confidential and how they come out are confidential.”

Help is offered for anything from alcohol or drug abuse to mental health issues, sleeping problems or a gambling addiction. Bettman, who has been commissioner since 1993, said a goal when launching the program was to educate and counsel players and families, as well as providing treatment when necessary. It now includes access to confidential counseling, a phone number available any time and annual meetings for every team with program administrators.

“Having that support system for our players is imperative in life,” said Nashville coach Andrew Brunette, who played 16 NHL seasons. “Some of those things are bigger than a hockey puck, and that help and the job they do … players are very fortunate to use it.”

Bettman said the venture, formerly known as the Substance Abuse and Behavioral Health Program, covers a broader spectrum of things than it used to. NHLPA executive director Marty Walsh agreed.

“You saw this big shift in the United States from addiction programs to substance use programs to mental health to kind of all-encompassing, so it’s a lot more than alcoholism or drug addiction,” Walsh said. “It’s everything that goes with it that it’s really important to get help for.”

Nashville’s Michael McCarron went into the program in late 2022 and was reinstated in early 2023.

“Everybody has different circumstances,” he said. “In my circumstance, I definitely reached out and asked for help. I know some guys, they’re told that, ‘You know, it’s probably be a good idea for you to go in.’ Other guys ask for help.”

Goaltender Connor Ingram recalls waking up in a Dallas hotel room in January 2021 and saying to himself, “I don’t want to do this anymore.” An undiagnosed obsessive-compulsive disorder led him to drink to cope with anxiety — sometimes all 12 beers in his fridge when he intended to have one — and to worry incessantly during the pandemic about germs.

“You hear the things about OCD, like, I don’t know, have a clean apartment or care what ways the labels are looking — I didn’t know that OCD had other forms,” said Ingram, who was on the taxi squad for Nashville at the time and is now with the franchise in Utah. “I went to the rink quickly, I had a coach talk to me about the program and say, ’Let’s get you some help and then you can decide what you want to do.’ It was a whirlwind when it happened, and it’s scary and intimidating. But once you get there, it’s just time to put your work boots on and get better.”

Quiet participation

The number of players who choose to voluntarily enter the program is not made public, nor are the reasons why. It is possible the five players announced publicly by the league were joined by many others.

“You don’t necessarily hear of the successes of the program because people don’t generally go out there and beat their chest, ‘I’m sober six years,’ or ‘I’m sober X amount of years,’” said Walsh, who has spoken openly about going into treatment himself in 1995. “Their life gets better, and we try to provide the tools to the player. They have to do the work, but we try to provide the tools.”

Walsh, a former Boston mayor and U.S. labor secretary, said he would not be in his current job if not for his treatment and wants to do more work to remove the stigma of seeking help. McCarron, the Nashville forward, said he felt it was important to be something of a role model to other men, inside and outside sports.

“Early on in my life, guys always tended to keep things in and not seek out help,” McCarron said. “Whether it be sports, movies in Hollywood, the more people see that it’s OK for guys and men to ask for help, it’s huge.”

For Girard, the ice has always been the place where he felt at home. Going through the program reaffirmed his passion for the game.

“Before I went into recovery, I always loved the game,” Girard said before the playoffs began. “I still love the game the same way.”

Each player in the program could help others in silent ways, too. Girard, 26, recommended it to anyone around the league who feels the need to seek help.

“I learned a lot about myself over there,” Girard said. “If you’re at the point where you need help, that’s a great program.”

___

AP Sports Writer Teresa M. Walker in Nashville, Tennessee, contributed.

The Maryland Jockey Club announced Muth’s status change Wednesday morning, roughly 12 hours after the horse arrived at Pimlico Race Course in Baltimore. Baffert said Muth’s temperature reached 103 degrees Fahrenheit (40 degrees Celsius) and the camp had no choice but to scratch him.

“We are sick about this. The horse had been doing really well,” Baffert said. “But we have to do what’s right by the horse.”
Muth was one of two horses entered for Baffert, a Hall of Famer and two-time winner of the Triple Crown who is still expected to saddle Imagination as part of what’s now a field of eight. Baffert has won the Preakness a record eight times, including last year with National Treasure.

Baffert was not expected to fly in until Thursday, though assistant trainer Jimmy Barnes accompanied the horses on their flight to Newark, New Jersey, and the drive down to Maryland. Barnes said little outside their stalls earlier Wednesday other than that Muth and Imagination had not been out to the track yet and just walked around the barn since being unloaded.

At the post-position draw Monday, Muth opened as the 8-5 favorite, with Mystik Dan second at 5-2 and Imagination and Brad Cox-trained Catching Freedom tied for third at 6-1. Catching Freedom has stood out on the track for his feistiness, but Muth was widely considered the horse to beat, with his front-running speed making it a bigger challenge for Mystik Dan and jockey Brian Hernandez Jr.

“It takes a lot out of the equation,” said Ray Bryner, the assistant trainer for Mystik Dan. “We don’t have to worry about him, so there’s eight horses now and we can kind of run our race and not worry about chasing the horse they call the favorite.”

Muth had beaten a field that included Mystik Dan, who finished third, in the Arkansas Derby on March 30. Bryner said he was “confident we were going to get revenge” after a rough trip that day.

That was Muth’s last race because of Baffert’s ban at Churchill Downs prohibiting him from entering anyone in the Kentucky Derby, won by Mystik Dan by a nose in the closest finish since 1947. Mystik Dan, with experience winning on a sloppy track that the Preakness could be run on with rain in the forecast, now figures to become the favorite.

Word of Muth being scratched spread quickly through Pimlico, and Bryner had to let Kenny McPeek know as Mystik Dan’s trainer was traveling.

“I’m sure there’s a lot of disappointed people on that end of it,” Bryner said. “I’m not disappointed, I have to be honest. With him out of the race, it makes us pretty strong. Especially if we get the off (muddy) track like he’s shown he can already handle, I think we’re in pretty good shape.”

The last horse to win the Derby and Preakness was Baffert’s Justify in 2018 on the way to the Triple Crown, the 13th in the sport’s history. A victory by Mystik Dan on Saturday would set up a first-of-its-kind opportunity with a Triple Crown on the line at the Belmont Stakes taking place at historic Saratoga Race Course in upstate New York in each of the next two years while the race’s traditional home on Long Island undergoes reconstruction.

Owner Ryan Smith has told The Associated Press the team will have a name starting with Utah. The inaugural season will feature jerseys with the name of the state on them, with a name, logo and colors to debut for 2025-26 after work done by the branding company Doubleday & Cartwright.

“Utah’s NHL team is a community asset, and we want to make sure that the community has a say in what the name is,” said Smith, whose group also owns the NBA’s Utah Jazz. “Utah has shown up for this team from the moment the NHL awarded us the franchise less than three weeks ago, and it is only fitting that our fans get the rare opportunity to help name the team they’ll be cheering for.”

The options provided to choose from are:

• Frost
• Ice
• Powder
• Mountaineers
• Freeze
• Mammoth
• Black Diamonds
• Blast
• Caribou
• Blizzard
• Swarm
• Hive
• Outlaws
• Yeti
• Squall
• Fury
• Glaciers
• Canyons
• Venom
• HC, which stands for Hockey Club

SEG bought the Arizona Coyotes from former owner Alex Meruelo for $1.2 billion and relocated the team to Salt Lake City. Utah will start play in the Jazz’s downtown arena, Delta Center. It has the sixth pick in the NHL draft after not moving up in the lottery won Tuesday night by San Jose.

It could not be happening at a better time.

The PWHL’s launch finally brings together the best players in the world on a regular basis and beyond the annual world championships or Olympics every four years. And it has placed the game firmly on the map at a time of heightened interest in women’s sports, led by the Caitlin Clark effect in basketball and a quarter-century since Brandi Chastain and the U.S. soccer team rose to international prominence.

While it will still take time to catch up in a crowded landscape, the PWHL is off to a blazing beginning after decades of frustration, featuring fitful starts and stops, by putting it all together on the ice with a chance to capitalize on a growing appetite for elite women’s sports.

“We all wanted things to happen faster, and it felt really difficult and challenging at times,” Hall of Famer and PWHL senior VP of hockey operations Jayna Hefford told The Associated Press. “But now when you look back on it, you have to wonder if everything happened like it should have been and at the right time to allow us to see the success that we’ve seen to date.”

That success is still in its infancy, though the first four-plus months of the PWHL has raised expectations of how fast and how much it can grow beyond the current six-team structure based in Boston, New York, Minnesota, Toronto, Montreal and Ottawa. A total of 392,259 fans attended games during the regular season at venues that included various NHL rinks and highlighted by a women’s hockey record crowd of 21,105 turning out at the Canadiens’ Bell Centre for a Montreal-Toronto showdown last month.

Television broadcasts nationally in Canada and regionally in the U.S. markets have also attracted even more viewers to women’s hockey in following the same path of progress the WNBA and the various pro women’s soccer league incarnations previously enjoyed since the late 1990s and early 2000s.

“This has been in the works for quite a long time,” said Amy Scheer, the PWHL’s senior VP of business operations, who has also worked in the WNBA and NBA and for the NFL. “This has not happened overnight, and it continues to be a movement and it will have to continue to be a movement. There’s no time where we can take our foot off the pedal and feel complacent or feel comfortable. This is hard work every single day.”

As the puck drops on the playoffs this week, with an innovative format that allowed league-leading Toronto to pick its first-round opponent, there’s still plenty of work to be done.

Internally, advisory board member Stan Kasten acknowledged, “We still have a long way to go till we are an economic success,” and an expert in women’s sports is skeptical of the long term based on hockey’s place behind football and other sports in the U.S., and until there are more teams and big-name stars to capture mainstream attention.

“You’ve got the kind of barrier of overcoming just the sort of marginalization of hockey in American culture and then on top of that added in this additional layer of the marginalization of women’s sports in American culture,” said Cheryl Cooky, professor of women’s gender and sexuality studies at Purdue University. “Adding those together, it creates this sort of double jeopardy for women’s hockey.”

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

Cooky pointed to Chastain, Clark and others becoming the face of her sport to people beyond the fanbase as something women’s hockey needs. American Hilary Knight and Canadian Marie-Philip Poulin are the biggest stars at the moment, including Knight making an appearance on “Saturday Night Live” in 2018. But there’s also the inherent challenge of playing in helmets with cages that basketball and soccer do not have to overcome in building a pop culture following off the ice, court or field.

But that process is ongoing, placing the emphasis on the next generation, led by Sarah Nurse, Caroline Harvey, Laila Edwards and others, of building a loyal following around the continent.

“These kinds of role models that show women that they can be fierce, serious athletes, I can’t think of anything better,” Canadian Ambassador to the U.S. Kirsten Hillman said. “The strength of the fan support speaks to the fact that there was something missing, that there was something that was needed.”

Speaking steps away from Hillman at a PWHL watch party at the Canadian Embassy in Washington last month, Bauer VP of marketing Mary-Kay Messier called the inaugural season “a watershed moment” for hockey in general because of the growth opportunity of getting more girls and women involved.

“It’s a reflection of the passion of the people, and they’re demanding to see the games and they’re turning out in droves and breaking records is no longer a milestone — it’s a track record,” Messier said. “For brands that want to stay relevant, want to develop new audiences, you’ve got to get involved with girls and women’s sports because that’s a difference-maker.”

The PWHL has deals with companies running the gamut from equipment manufacturers like Bauer and CCM to Canadian Tire, Molson, Tim Hortons and Barbie. More agreements are coming soon, as is eventual expansion, though that will have to wait, as will increased salaries for players and other modifications.

“We tried to be careful and conservative so that when we finally got going, we had a chance to succeed and that’s the place we’re at now,” said Kasten, one of the people running the PWHL show for Los Angeles Dodgers owner Mark Walter and women’s tennis icon Billie Jean King.

Kasten said the league’s “manifest destiny” is competitions in Europe, and an influx of talent outside the U.S. and Canada is one reason to think, as Scheer does, that “there’s no limits” on what the PWHL can do.

“It’s great that you have different pathways,” said Lara Stalder, captain of Switzerland’s national team who credited countrywoman Alina Muller for carving a path for Europeans in the PWHL. “In the end, you need good pathways and good structures that we have more depth, that more and more girls play hockey.”

The defending Stanley Cup champion Vegas Golden Knights will open against the top-seeded Dallas Stars. Connor McDavid’s Edmonton Oilers will face the Los Angeles Kings, a team they defeated in the first round each of the last two years.

In the Eastern Conference, the Presidents’ Trophy-winning New York Rangers begin their championship pursuit against the Washington Capitals. The Stanley Cup favorite Carolina Hurricanes face the New York Islanders in the first round, but any of nearly a dozen teams could win it all.

Here’s a glance at the first-round series.

Rangers vs. Capitals

Game 1: Sunday at New York, 2 p.m. CDT, ESPN

The Rangers were the best team in the league. The Capitals needed to win their regular-season finale to get into the playoffs, doing so with an unusual empty-net goal.

The Rangers are heavily favored, according to BetMGM Sportsbook. But Capitals center Dylan Strome pointed out the teams not only split four games but each scored and allowed nine goals in the season series.

“Anything can happen in playoffs,” Strome said. “You saw what happened last year: The best team in regular-season history (the Boston Bruins) loses to Florida because they had a good end of the season and they kind of carried it toward playoffs. We’ve won three in a row, we’re feeling good. The momentum’s kind of with us, and obviously we feel good.”

Hurricanes vs. Islanders

Game 1: Saturday at Carolina, 4 p.m., TBS

This is a rematch from last year, when the Hurricanes beat the Islanders in six games. It’s also another series pitting Carolina’s Sebastian Aho (a Finnish forward) against New York’s Sebastian Aho (a Swedish defenseman), no relation.

What has changed: The Islanders upgraded at coach, hiring Hall of Fame goaltender Patrick Roy midseason, and won seven of eight games down the stretch to make a surprise run to the playoffs. Speaking of goaltending, Hurricanes starter Frederik Andersen is 9-1-0 with a 1.30 goals-against average and .951 save percentage since returning from blood-clotting issues.

Panthers vs. Lightning

Game 1: Sunday at Florida, 11:30 a.m., ESPN

The defending Eastern Conference champion Panthers looked on track to play the Toronto Maple Leafs in the first round until they came back to beat the Maple Leafs on Tuesday while the Bruins lost to the Ottawa Senators. So now the Panthers will face cross-state rival Tampa Bay.

The Lightning have 2019 Vezina Trophy winner and 2021 playoff MVP Andrei Vasilevskiy in net, while Florida has two-time Vezina winner Sergei Bobrovsky. The play of the Russian goalies could decide the series.

Bruins vs. Maple Leafs

Game 1: Saturday at Boston, 7 p.m., TBS

A year removed from setting NHL records for most wins and points in a season and then losing in the first round, coach Jim Montgomery hopes the Bruins learned “how to handle adversity when it smacks you in the face.” That could come in the form of 69-goal scorer Auston Matthews or any of the Leafs’ other elite offensive players.

Facing Boston is a chance for Toronto, which has one playoff series victory with its current core, to slay a dragon that has tormented the team. The Bruins eliminated the Leafs in 2018 and ’19.

Stars vs. Golden Knights

Game 1: Monday at Dallas, 8:30 p.m., ESPN

Congratulations on clinching the top seed in the West, Dallas. Your reward is the reigning champs getting captain Mark Stone back from a lacerated spleen just in time to make another run.

The Stars, who lost to the Knights in the West finals last year, have been “a wagon” down the stretch, in the words of Colorado Avalanche coach Jared Bednar, looking like the class of the conference with a deep roster and a mountainous goalie in Jake Oettinger. Starting with Vegas is a steep test.

Jets vs. Avalanche

Game 1: Sunday at Winnipeg, 6 p.m., ESPN2

The first matchup to get locked in was Winnipeg vs. Colorado, a classic clash in styles. The high-octane Avalanche tend to overwhelm opponents but went 0-3 against the Jets this season, getting outscored 17-4, never putting up more than two goals in any game and looking absolutely smothered by the best defensive team in the league in terms of goals allowed.

The most recent game was a 7-0 Jets rout in Denver, but the Avalanche, with their core mostly intact from their 2022 Stanley Cup run, know how to flip a switch when the playoffs arrive. That starts with MVP candidate Nathan MacKinnon, who finished second to Tampa Bay’s Nikita Kucherov in the scoring race and is motivated to win another championship.

Colorado’s biggest question is in goal, where Alexandar Georgiev has been up, down and inconsistent. The same cannot be said of his standout counterpart, the Jets’ Connor Hellebuyck.

Canucks vs. Predators

Game 1: Sunday at Vancouver, 9 p.m., ESPN

The Rick Tocchet-coached Canucks were one of the biggest surprises of the season. In October, making the playoffs would have made it a good year for the Canucks, but now they’re Pacific Division champions and have their sights set on making it through the West.

The Predators stand in the way after a late-season 16-0-2 surge propelled them into a wild-card spot in their first year under coach Andrew Brunette and with Barry Trotz in charge as general manager.

Oilers vs. Kings

Game 1: Monday at Edmonton, 9 p.m., ESPN2

Here we go again. This is the third consecutive year Edmonton and Los Angeles have played in the first round. The Oilers won both previous series and are favored to advance to face the Canucks or Predators after winning 46 of 69 games since the coaching change from Jay Woodcroft to Kris Knoblauch.

This could be three-time MVP Connor McDavid’s chance to carry the Oilers to their first title since 1990. McDavid and Leon Draisaitl talk and look a lot like MacKinnon, Mikko Rantanen and Gabriel Landeskog did before the Avalanche won it all two years ago.