"It's a man's game," Gordie Howe once said of hockey. Think again, Gordie. Between 1983 and 1991, the number of women playing organized amateur hockey in Canada grew from 5,400 to 14,200. Women's hockey will become an Olympic sport in 1998. And in one highly publicized breakthrough, Quebec native Manon Rheaume played a preseason game for the NHL's Tampa Bay Lightning. Does that mean the pro game is going unisex? Not likely, say the experts, who agree that elite women athletes play a different‹ and in some ways superior‹ game than their brothers.
The gender gap is mainly one of sheer brawn. Average NHLers come in a 6-foot, 200-pound package, and even the shrimp of the league (Calgary Flames right winger Theoren Fleury at 5 foot-6-inches, 160 pounds) is bigger than anyone on Canada's Women's National Team. Moreover, the men play a heavy-contact game of power, strength and intimidation, while women's hockey is non-contact, downplaying physical size and strength and bringing other skills to the fore. "I have never aspired to play in the NHL," says Sue Scherer, a former member of that team and now coach of the University of Guelph's women's team. "I'm 5 foot 4, 135 pounds and I don't believe in suicide." What she does believe in is the compensating strengths that women display in their less physical game. "When you take the contact out, stickhandling, agility and moving to open ice become important," she says. "It's quicker game in a number of ways."
Many observers argue that women athletes face more a social than a biological barrier to developing many of the same basic skating, stickhandling and shooting skills that men typically master. After all, most boys are raised on road hockey; girls on figure eights. "If a woman was taught to skate like a hockey player, she could give a man good competition," says Sonya Shewchuk, skating coach for the Toronto Maple Leafs. "It's all in the training."
Indeed, Les Lawton, coach of the Women's National Team, says, "In a practice, you wouldn't be able to pick out a women playing with men." But, he adds, "In a game it would be noticeable because of the physical nature of the man's game."
The insurmountable barrier that prevents women from playing integrated hockey at the men's elite level is rooted ultimately in hormones. Thanks to testosterone and estrogen, respectively, men tend to develop proportionally more muscle mass and women more fatty deposits in their bodies; on average 80% of a man's weight is muscles mass, compared with 60% for women. "Fat tissue is dead weight, so women have less strength to carry more weight," says Elaine Tanguay, associate professor of physical education at the University of Sherbrooke.
Unfortunately for women, the bone-crunching check in the corner, the 100 m.p.h. slapshot from the blueline or the elbow-thrusting melee in the goal crease are essential parts of the NHL game. "Hockey is predominantly a power sport," says Therese Brisson, a candidate for the women's team who's doing a Ph.D in motor control and learning at the University of Montreal. "Take something as simple as a slapshot. It's a single burst of high-powered activity." And at that, women generally can't match men, as Sue Scherer admits: "If there's weakness in the women's game, it's in shooting, and that's based on upper-body strength." Elite women's slapshots are as accurate as men's, but weaker, admit coaches of the game. Their passes also suffer in quickness because of their relatively weaker wrist strength.
With less muscle mass, women do have one physical advantage over men: greater flexibility. Considering that, it's no surprise that the first woman to flirt with NHL status plays in goal, where agility counts for more than strength.
Les Lawton, coach of the National Women's Team, concludes that women also bring mental advantages to their game, which tends to emphasize positional play and puck control over individual heroics. He finds that women, for instance, will immediately grasp the logic of a breakout pattern (the combination of positions and passing options that a team employs to move the puck of its own end), while men tend to need it explained several times. "Their listening skills are much better than men's," he says. "Their whole approach is different; they don't have stars in their eyes. It's a real treat to coach them."
How do elite men and women finally stack up? Lawton figures that his Women's National Team plays at a level similar to midget AAA, the top tier of amateur hockey for boys aged 16 and 17. Others figure that asking the question is a useless exercise. "The two games shouldn't be compared," says Melody Davidson, who works with Lawton as assistant coach. "They are parallel but different."
From "How Hockey Works" (Equinox, January/February,1994).
Copyright 1994 by Tim Falconer (tf@interlog.com). Not to be republished or retransmitted for profit without the consent of the author. All Rights Reserved.