As you know, my blogging assignments have followed the National Women’s Hockey League. I stand by that decision, though right now, it’s a little rough to find material. The article I’m using for this post comes from the Women in Sport Week issue of Sports Pro Magazine that I, of course, found online. It was posted August 14, 2019. The journalist, Sam Carp, covered Hilary Knight’s fight for getting the ladies of the NWHL better pay, and thus better futures. Although Knight was initially interviewed in May, I can assure you, #ForTheGame is still going strong with the season quickly approaching in October.
When I was reading through the article, I noticed that though Sam Carp only had quotes from Hilary Knight, there were links to other stories sprinkled throughout. When I clicked on them, I was taken to other articles that corroborated what was being said. For example, one link spoke about 200 of the leagues best refusing to play in the upcoming season, holding out for a viable league. It was written by the same journalist for the same publication, but earlier in the year (May 2019) right after the CWHL had folded. He also had a photo of a tweet that Knight had tweeted right after the boycott began, calling her fellow players to arms it seems, along with the hashtag ForTheGame, that has since become the mantra of the 200.
Carp, it seems to me, did a good job on the article. He didn’t interject his own bias at all. He just got Knight’s point of view, her side of the story, and proceeded to tell it. I feel that he did a good job asking the correct questions to get Hilary to explain why she felt that she needed to do what she did. There didn’t seem to be any pressure. He gave facts, like how after the inaugural season of the NWHL the salary cap was cut from 250,000 to 100,000 per team, then compared that to one single player in the NHL who made 15 MILLION for the 2018/2019 season (again, thanks to capfriendly.com for me to be able to double check that).
The only think that I wasn’t sold on, what that he only spoke to one person. Hilary Knight. And while she is a force to be reckoned with, I don’t believe that there wasn’t another woman out of the 200 that are currently upset with, and boycotting, the NWHL that would not speak to him. Amanda Kessel has been fairly vocal as well. It’s my opinion that if he would have gotten at least one other player to weigh in on what she thought, or even an NHL player (which, let’s be honest, would have been really interesting) it would have given the article another level of credibility.
Seeing as how I’ve been tasked with grading the article, I would give it a steady ‘B’. It was well written and seemed to be factual based on other things that I have read about the issue and the other articles that this one linked to. He seemed to have done his research. Other than only speaking to Hilary Knight, I really enjoyed reading and analyzing it.
