“Grow the game” is something you’ll hear everywhere in and around women’s hockey. Sometimes it’s a nod to the phrase’s origin within youth sports; sometimes it’s a euphemism for marketing. Grow the players. Grow the crowd. Grow the interest. Sell the game.
On the third weekend in January, the Boston Blades stepped onto home ice for the final time in the 2015-2016 Canadian Women’s Hockey League season. Two-thirds of the way through the league’s 24-game season, the defending champions of the Clarkson Cup were 1-17-0 and pitted against Montreal’s Les Canadiennes, one of the league’s strongest and most decorated teams.