Sens Sign Lodin, Tkachuk on Cam and Strick, and Indigenous Hockey History
It’s the Thursday edition of Links, News and Notes!
Let’s take a look at some of the storylines from around the NHL and the hockey world!
- On Tuesday, the Sens signed Viktor Lodin to a two-year entry-level contract. He was fourth round draft pick in 2019, and has been playing in Sweden up until now. This also means that the Sens have now signed all the players they drafted in 2019! You can check out his EliteProspects page here and watch this highlight video for an idea of the type of player he is:/
- Former Senator Mark Borowiecki recently spoke out about his struggles with mental health issues on his Instagram account:/
- Over in Latvia, the IIHF Men’s World Championships are still going on. Canada is set to face Russia for the quarterfinals today at 8:15pm local time, which is 1:15pm Eastern time. The Sens have players on both sides of this matchup: Connor Brown, Nick Paul and Jacob Bernard-Docker are all suiting up for Canada, and Artem Zub is representing Russia. Russia is the favourite in this matchup, as Canada had a pretty rough go of it in the round robin, but you never know what will happen! Either way, Sens fans win. (I’m cheering for Zub).
- Speaking of the IIHF World Championships, we finally have a new date and location for the Women’s tournament! The tournament was, of course, abruptly cancelled earlier this year when Nova Scotia experienced a spike in cases, and now it’s going to be held in Calgary in August. It would have been nice if things had worked out in Halifax, but I’m just glad it’s happening.
- The Canadian leg of the PWHPA’s Dream Gap tour also wrapped up this week in Calgary, and it was a lot of fun! You can read a recap of the tournament here, and Marisa Ingemi’s key takeaways here.
- Our very own Brady Tkachuk appeared on the Cam and Strick Podcast this week! He shows up around an hour and 25 minutes in. It a very fun interview, and he talks a lot about the team dynamic off the ice, as well as his contract negotiations.
- Unsurprisingly, Jake Sanderson has been named rookie of the year at UND:/
2020-21 UND HOCKEY AWARDS:
— North Dakota MHockey (@UNDmhockey) June 2, 2021
Rookie of the Year - Presented annually to the top rookie player.
WINNER - Jake Sanderson! #UNDproud | #LGH pic.twitter.com/dCLrI7BN31
- And Shane Pinto is the MVP:/
2020-21 UND HOCKEY AWARDS:
— North Dakota MHockey (@UNDmhockey) June 2, 2021
Jeff Anderson Hockey Scholarship - Awarded annually to a UND varsity hockey player who is voted MVP by his teammates.
WINNER - Shane Pinto (@shane_pinto)!#UNDproud | #LGH pic.twitter.com/TKb0bsKC8X
- Finally, I think it would be irresponsible of me not to include a few links pertaining to the recent discovery of the remains of 215 Indigenous children at a residential school in Kamloops, BC. Shireen Ahmed had a great write-up of the situation and the hockey world’s response to it over at TSN. I’d also like to recommend two other articles about the role that hockey played in the residential school system, which may help to explain why so many people are calling on the sport to take action: this one from Hockey in Society and this one from the University of Toronto. The National Centre For Truth and Reconciliation website is also a fantastic resource for anyone looking to learn more about residential schools - the calls to action are especially pertinent. And lastly, because it’s Pride month as well as Indigenous history month, I thought I would also throw in this piece on two-spirit identity and the role of residential schools in introducing homophobia and transphobia to Indigenous communities. This particular article is a really good introduction to the topic, and it also includes an interview with dal scholar Margaret Robinson, whom I greatly admire and have cited many times in my university papers. Give it a read!/
