Less than 24 hours before the 2019 NHL All-Star Competition was set to start, Former NWHL and USA Women's Olympic Team forward Kendall Schofield was just landing in San Jose to participate in a dry run of the Skills Competition.

The morning of the competition, Schofield received several phone calls from Patrick Burke, who runs the Skills Competition, frantically trying to get ahold of her. She returned the call to here exceptionally exciting news.

“I hope you got a good night's sleep last night,” Burke told her, “because the NHL would like to invite you to participate in the Fastest Skater Competition.”

And from that moment, the five time gold medalist made NHL history.

Schofield would not only attend the NHL All-Star Skills Competition with open arms from NHLer's, but leave a permanent mark on the Fastest Lap competition.

“I asked Kendall to make sure she was there a little bit early for when we were testing fastest skater and asked her to hop in because, after years of telling people that Kendall is fast enough to do fastest skater, I had the opportunity the get her timed in a way that no one could argue with,” Burke said of the dry run event the day before the contest.

An injury to Avalanche forward Nathan McKinnon would leave a spot open in the fastest skater competition, and Burke pleaded his case;

“I mentioned that Kendall's time would've put her right in the mix, she's going to be there, she's a U.S. Olympian, and she's a great representative of the sport. Why don't we throw her in the mix?”

He spoke on gaining overwhelming approval from necessary parties, such as the NHLPA and Gary Bettman (NHL Commissioner);

“Really, it was once we had the official time that she was fast enough to do it, the approvals came rolling through pretty quickly – commissioner Bettman, the NHLPA, the other players involved, were all saying that they thought it was a great idea,” Burke explained.

As the story would go, Schofield would not only perform in the fastest skater contest, she would absolutely crush it.

The USA Olympic team captain would post an amazing 14.346 seconds in the fastest lap contest, finishing less than a second behind three-time champ Connor McDavid (13.378), and ahead of Clayton Keller for seventh place overall. Schofield would become the first female athlete to ever compete at the NHL All-Star Game.

The moment would be so much more than a lap around the ice. The moment changed hockey for the better. In 14.346 seconds, Kendall Coyne Schofield elevated Women's Hockey to a new level.

Schofield spoke on the monumental event;

“I was fortunate to be the one that skated in that moment but there's so many players and people behind the scenes that made that moment possible,” she said. “You know, you have one chance, you have one moment, and you have to nail it – and I'm so glad that I was able to do so for the women's hockey community.”

“ I think so many people saw that skate and realized that girls and women belong in the sport of ice hockey. Talent sees talent, and the faces of the players on the bench that night said it all: they recognized me as a hockey player and they recognized the other players that were on the ice as hockey players – not as female hockey players – and that's the one narrative that we're constantly trying to break with ‘girls hockey' and ‘women's hockey.' Like, we play hockey.”

In the year since her All-Star moment, she has continued to work tirelessly to keep women in hockey's spotlight. She worked to help form an all-girls developmental program and several other initiatives with the Chicago Blackhawks, in addition to serving as color commentator for the San Jose Sharks. She has also become an extremely active leader of the Professional Women's Hockey Players Association, a group of 200+ elite women's hockey players, raising awareness about the need for a sustainable, long-term, professional women's hockey league.

“If we can build a platform for women's hockey that is big enough and people can see us do what we do every day, it won't be a shock that, you know, I can skate alongside the men,” Schofield said.

This year, the NHL All-Star game will expand on Schofield's incredible moment, adding a women's 3-on-3 game to the event. The 3-on-3, 20 minute contest will feature top female athletes from both Canada and the United States.

The event will be the first all female contest to be hosted at the NHL All-Star game.

NPQ

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