Dear Hockey of Tomorrow reader,

Summer is upon us! May the ice melt and mat you rest your hockey minds.

Just kidding, hockey never stops, eh? Let’s see what’s going on.

FEATURED PIECE

Our featured piece this week covers a goaltender from the Alberta Junior Hockey League who is advocating for Mental Health in the hockey world.

Connor MacKenzie launched the campaign “Lift the Mask for Mental Health” last September in partnership with the Canadian Mental Health Association. The original goal of the campaign was to raise 25,000$.

To this day, the fondation has raised close to 40,000$. Wowza.

Growing up in a classic hockey world, the 21-year-old is well aware of the stereotypes surrounding hockey players. In an Interview with Hockey Tomorrow, Connor MacKenzie shared the importance -even as a young player- of valuing mental health.

This kind of story should give you all the Vitamin D you need on a gloomy day.

MUST READS

....+ two stories that haven't been covered yet on our platform

• A Canadian brings exposure to Women’s Paralympic hockey

• Is touching the Conference Trophy an actual jinx or not?

W for Women In Sports!

Raphaelle Tousignant’s dream has always been to play Paralympic hockey.

But that also meant she wouldn’t play with the Women’s team because…

…there is no Paralympic hockey Women’s team.

Well, last monday, the para-star made history by becoming the first Canadian Woman to play at the Men’s World Para-Ice Hockey Championship.

How cool is that?

Our very own Clayton Theriault wrote all about it in a recent piece on our platform ( go check it out if you haven’t yet!)

Para-Ice Hockey is slowly but surely starting to get some recognition. Having a woman play on the men’s team is a huge step in the right direction. For everyone.

Go Raphaelle Go!

To touch or not to touch the Conference Trophy?

Hear me out, this has been going on for a pretty long time now.

The Florida Panthers will face the Las Vegas Golden Knights with Lord Stanley as the prize. Like everyone predicted…

When the Panthers eliminated the Hurricanes about a week ago, the Prince of Whales Trophy was covered in fingerprints. Panthers players didn’t really seems to care about the famous jinx.

But what’s the jinx about ?

Here goes: teams are afraid to touch the conference Trophy, thinking it might hinder their chances of winning the only trophy that matters… the Stanley Cup.

The Panthers are not of one of these teams, but the Golden Knights are.

However, funny thing is, when Vegas won its first conference championship in their first year in 2018, they grabbed the Trophy. The Golden Knights lost in the finals that year to…

So clearly, the math says otherwise .

Six of the last seven Cup-winning teams have touched the conference championship trophy. The Tampa Bay Lightning touched it each time they won the East conference over the last three years. They won two Stanley Cup in that span.

If the Panthers win, does it mean the jinx is confirmed untrue once and for all and it will be the end of it?

Knowing hockey people, probably not!

That’s it for this edition of the Hockey of Tomorrow newsletter. As we continue to highlight the best, most diverse, and most interesting, off-ice hockey stories, we would appreciate any feedback you might have.

Thanks again for reading this edition of Hockey of Tomorrow.

Tom Sychterz, Founder

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