For Kinsey and her friends, all ladies of coloration, the chance to spend just a few hours round James, former United States Olympic star Meghan Duggan, who’s now the director of participant growth with the New Jersey Devils, and former NHL gamers Anthony Stewart and Anson Carter, was a dream come true, an idea that many thought is perhaps unrealistic years in the past.
“To be on the market with (James), it was actually, actually thrilling,” stated Kinsey, now 14 years outdated. “And it is wonderful simply seeing all the ladies come out, totally different races, totally different ages, and everybody simply hanging out and popping out and enjoying collectively.”
Yet one more instance of how far the game has come.
Simply ask James.
The occasion was held in collaboration with the NHL Participant Inclusion Coalition to rejoice James’ continued efforts to develop the sport. As soon as the clinic was over, the ladies boarded a bus to the Hockey Corridor of Fame, the place James-related artifacts have been on show. In addition they will likely be at Scotiabank Space to observe the sport between the Chicago Blackhawks and Toronto Maple Leafs on Tuesday (7 p.m. ET; TSN4, CHSN).
The 60-year-old James is taken into account one of many first superstars of contemporary ladies’s hockey. She helped Canada win the gold medal 4 occasions on the IIHF World Ladies’s Championship (1990, 1992, 1994, 1997), and the Toronto native was inducted into the Worldwide Ice Hockey Federation (IIHF) Corridor of Fame in 2008 and was one of many first two ladies inducted into the Hockey Corridor of Fame in 2010.
Now all these years later, James finds herself in disbelief at how inclusive the sport is.
“When Anson and Stewart allowed me to speak to the ladies and I am taking a look at them, I am pondering to myself, ‘By no means in my life would I’ve imagined that each one of those ladies with various backgrounds could be standing in entrance of me on the ice like that,’” James stated. “And so they’re all so proficient.”
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