#Lee Stecklein | Explore Tumblr Posts and Blogs

chirpingfromthebox · 4 months

Text

PWHL Minnesota's Post Game 5 Press Session

You can watch the whole thing here! Be sure to give their video some likes/views/nice comments/all the things that help them out for making these sessions so accessible.

At the table were Lee Stecklein and Kendall Coyne Schofield.

(and featuring special drop-in guest Kelly Pannek)

This is one with a lot of moments you really need to see or hear to fully appreciate. I've done my best to point out when something special is happening that isn't fully captured by the words, but you can only do so much. I've included all the questions.

Transcription (and minimal interruptions from me) under the break.

----------------------

REPORTER: Every championship, I’m sure, is special. But when you think about maybe 50 years from now people are talking about this one, what does it all mean to you in that sense?

KENDALL COYNE SCHOFIELD: There’s something very special about being the first to do something in life. And for us to be the first Walter Cup champions is something that is extremely special, that will be a part of this league’s legacy forever. You know, I’ve been a part of a lot of teams that have won and that haven’t won, and for whatever reason you remember the teams that win. And our coach had a talk to us about that this morning, coach Klee, when he said, “I won the Calder Cup-

[whispers to Stecklein] was it 30 years ago?

LEE STECKLEIN: [whispering back] 30 years.

KENDALL COYNE SCHOFIELD: 30 years ago today.” And one of his teammates reached out to him saying good luck and just the connection he has with that team that won it all.

I think when you end on top you never forget it. It’s a feeling that you chase every day. Whether you’re in the weight room, you’re on the ice; we’ve been chasing it all season. But the legacy of this trophy is only going to keep growing, growing, growing. But to be the first is an honor, it's a privilege, it’s extremely special. And it took an entire team effort to be champions. From start to finish.

If you look at the way that we won, you know, we were almost out. As soon as we knew we weren’t out- There were times that we got down but we never got out. And that group in there believed that we could be champions and we never lost sight of that. We believe in each other. It didn’t matter who was on the ice, we knew that that person on the ice, that line on the ice, that goalie in the net, was going to get the job done. And we did that.

LEE STECKLEIN: Yeah, I would just add, it’s always special to win any championship, any trophy, but [Lee starts to get choked up] to get to do it here and to get to do it with this person next to me is incredible, because we wouldn’t be here without her. She hates when I say it, but it’s so true. And she’s just a really special player, a really special person. And I am so grateful to have had this experience with her.

----------------------

REPORTER: Lee, out of curiosity after game 4, obviously a devastating loss for the team, you guys saluted your fans, you were all at center ice, you addressed your teammates, do you mind sharing what was said?

STECKLEIN: [laughing] I honestly don’t entirely remember.

R: [to Kendall] Do you remember?

COYNE SCHOFIELD: [smiling and putting her hand on Lee’s shoulder] I’m on the outside of the pile so I cannot hear over Lee.

STECKLEIN: I think, again, I mean, it sucks to think you’ve won and, you know, obviously that’s hockey. Call’s off and you have to figure it out. But we had a chance to figure it out. We had another game. It wasn’t over. Umm, so I hope I said something like that. [laughing] But I’m not positive.

----------------------

REPORTER: And for yourself Lee, you chose to step away from the National team and you’ve come back to play in this professional league, so where does this rank in things you’ve won and big games you’ve played in?

STECKLEIN: [Laughing] It’s impossible to rank things. When you get to win the last game of the year and hoist the trophy, you're just so grateful, because it’s always a special group. And it has to be to do something like this. It takes a team. A team that’s committed to each other, that believes in each other and the process. And like Kendall said, there were moments this year, unfortunately especially at the end, where we were pretty down and we were able to pull it together. I’m just really proud of this group and again it wouldn’t be possible without Kendall Coyne and her leadership.

R: And is it as heavy as they all say?

STECKLEIN: Oh yes.

COYNE SCHOFILED: It is heavy.

But just to echo on Lee a little bit too, is I always believe that winners win. They find ways to win. And when you look at Lee Stecklein’s career she’s literally won everything that there is to win in women’s hockey. You look at the minutes she’s played, you look at the leadership she shows on and off the ice. She doesn’t want me to talk about it, but she’s an unsung hero. And if you ask anyone in that room they would tell you that exactly. And I just think there’s a lot of winners in that room that have won big moments, but Lee’s done it all.

----------------------

REPORTER: Congrats you two.

STECKLEIN: Thank you.

KELLY PANNEK: [from off camera] You ladies done?

[Kendall and Lee start laughing]

We gotta go celebrate!

R: [to the other reporters] We ready to wrap it up?

Okay, time for two more.

STECKLEIN: [laughing] Dude, you're supposed to be here too!

[Kendall and Lee laugh]

PANNEK: I- I got- They don't want to talk to me!

----------------------

REPORTER: Visualization is so important in sports. And I have to imagine that a moment came last night before you fell asleep where you imagined what this would be like if you won. Can you compare what you imagined to the actual experience that you’re feeling right now?

COYNE SCHOFIELD: I don’t want to say I don’t remember what I- I just went to bed. I was tired. [Lee and Kendall laugh]

I had a 10-month old baby on the plane, I was exhausted.

No, I think we all went to bed knowing that this is it. This was game 5. I think that gave us, honestly, peace. Because we’ve gone the distance in each series. You know, we had a reverse sweep on Toronto. I think a lot of people counted us out in that moment.

[Kelly walks into frame wearing all the championship regalia and carrying a bottle of champagne in one hand and drops beers she had in her other down on the table for her teammates. Then disappears back out of frame.]

And then we move onto to this moment. We come from Toronto right to Boston and I think there was a lot of peace knowing that this was it. Like, it emptied the tank, not that we didn’t empty the tank every game that we played, including the double overtime game. We were exhausted after that.

Knowing that this was the last game, this was the last day of the season, this is the last day that this group will be together was something that I think we took peace in, pride in. And we went out and played like it.

----------------------

REPORTER: One more. A moment came at the end of June of last year when someone on the other side of the bargaining table said, "Okay, we have a deal. We have a CBA [Collective Bargaining Agreement]. We have a league." Tell me what you’ve imagined this season needed to be and how close it came.

[CFtB: I feel compelled to butt in here, to point out that you'd swear these last two question askers were auditioning for a play, because they ask these like they're presenting a work of art or something. By their questions and the way they ask them you'd swear they were authors hired to write the novelization of the season.]

COYNE SCHOFIELD: It’s hard to put into words when you start with a blank sheet of paper. And you’re envisioning all the things that women’s hockey has deserved for so long. And you build out that sheet of paper over time, over time, collaboration, conversation.

You know Stan [Kasten] will tell you that it was the most collaborative bargaining table he’s ever been a part of and I know he’s part of the Major League Baseball, so they’ve had their fair of negotiations. But what I think was so special about the conversation was, we want the same goal. We want this to be successful.

And them, you know, and I hate saying "them," because we were all on the same- yes, there’s two sides to a bargaining table, but we all wanted the same thing. And them asking, "What is it that you need? What is it that you want?" And listening to them too, to their experience in pro sport. You look at the other side of the table, Stan Kasten, Royce Cohen, you know, Billie Jean [King], Ilana [Kloss], the list goes on and on and on. We’re asking them, "What do you think?" And it’s not because they want something less or more, we want what’s right.

We got that piece of paper signed, but then to see it, to live it, and to experience in real time has been something that’s been very special. I can’t say thank you enough to all the people who are behind the scenes who’ve made this possible. I don’t think people realize the tireless days. It’s 24-7 in this first year. There were so many positives. There were so many things that we've learned that are only going to get better in year 2 and year 3 and beyond. But this league and all of their staff have worked around the clock for us to make this league as successful as it was in year one.

And you mentioned June, we signed that document in July 1 and we dropped our first puck January 1. Can you name another professional sport league that starts in 6 months? And in the capacity and the magnitude and the professional standard in which we’ve done every thing this year. I mean, it’s remarkable. And credit goes to the league, Mark and Kimbra Walter, and obviously the players who have battled their butts off all year long. All six teams.

So, yeah, I dunno if that answers your question.

[Kelly pops back into the table]

PANNEK: Wait, I’m gonna jump right in there, because she won’t say this-

COYNE SCHOFIELD: [with a look on her face like someone who knows their sibling is about to do something embarrassing:]

Kelly.

PANNEK: [pointing towards Kendall]

This. The only reason this happened? From players’ side? Is because of Kendall. Like, legit? The only reason. And she hates it. But it could not be a more fitting end for her to lift the trophy, for her to score the empty netter. It’s that woman right there. And to do it with a growing family and amongst all these other things, she still shows up and does her job every single day. Not just a hockey player. She has like seven other jobs on top of that. The biggest one is creating this league for all of us other players to play in.

COYNE SCHOFIELD: Thank you, Kelly.

PANNEK: We gotta go party, guys!

----------------------

[the reporter group starts to clap, but the one of the dudes who I'd swear are taking a creative writing class butts in quickly.]

REPORTER: Last- Last quick, last question, I promise. There’s no doubt in my mind that your lap at the all-star game led to all of this. Could you have imagined [long pause] that night [another long pause for the drama of it all] that it would lead you here? [ANOTHER PAUSE] To this moment?

COYNE SCHOFIELD: Yeah, that was a big moment for the sport. And while it was a 14 second lap, that was essentially heard around the world. It was a moment that catapulted the conversation that was so long over due. And that was: What is the reality of women’s professional hockey? And what does that look like? And how do we change it and how do we get there? And I believe that moment really catapulted the conversation and the efforts to get us where we are today.

----------------------

end of interview

----------------------

For anyone unaware, the all-star game lap the novelist/reporter was referring to was from the 2019 NHL All-Star Weekend when she became the first woman to compete in an NHL skills competition. And you can watch a video of that here.

#pwhl minnesota #kendall coyne schofield #lee stecklein #pwhl transcriptions

11 notes · View notes

chirpingfromthebox · 4 months

Text

If you thought that the Jocks In Jills podcast could give my MVP Lee Stecklein a shout-out without me making record of it, then you thought wrong, my friends!

from the Jock In Jills Podcast, SE01-EP19, starting at 32:34

talking about what happened after the end of Game 4 of the Finals

TESSA BONHOMME:

I do have to point this out too though. After the game we usually quickly turn our chairs around to get ready for our post-game stuff to close out the show and everything and send viewers onto whatever it is they have to watch after us, after our broadcast.

Minnesota stood there at center ice, tapped their sticks, saluted their fans, and thanked them for coming. Because after all this is the last game of the season that they’re doing here. They all went in the middle to hug—Cassie Campbell-Pascall actually pointed this out to me after—and I had noticed, who’s gonna be the one talking if anyone’s talking?

And Lee Stecklein addressed the team at center ice.

And for those who don’t understand or appreciate or know who Lee Stecklein is: that girl, let me tell you, her voice carries some serious weight. I have mad respect for her and I am long gone retired—not only as a person but as a player—and I can only tell you that whatever was said out on the ice there will be carried over in three days when they are in Boston. And I don’t know what was said, but I’m very thankful and glad that she did. Because that team was torn apart and beaten down and battered and, like, distraught after that game. And I feel like she did her due diligence there in making sure that that team was picked right back up.

CHERYL POUNDER:

You know, Kenzie [LaLonde] and I and you Tessa, have been fortunate to be in the game for a long time, and it’s interesting, you talk to different coaches, different coaches come in and out of programs, different players come in and out of programs, but anytime you ask anyone, any coach, anyone about Lee Stecklein, the word that they use is “Natural-born Leader.”

And it’s interesting because we’ve watched her be placed on the National team where they tried to get her out of retirement with someone like a Caroline Harvey. Right? And then you all of a sudden see Caroline Harvey’s game elevate. In this situation you see her aligned at the beginning when Sophie Jaques comes over. And that is a strategic coaching decision, because coaches know that she plays for others. That she plays the right way, she plays hard, she loves the game, she’s passionate, but also she’s just that leader that knows how to elevate and lifts you up.

And so a perfect voice, I would think, leading into a game 5 after a situation like that.

KENZIE LALONDE:

I've asked Ken Klee before, I did say, in the room if there needs something to be said, if a word is said, if it’s a quiet locker room and someone’s saying something, who is it?

And he just kinda said, It’s Lee. Without a doubt. Like she will always be the one to vocalize something. The room listens when Lee speaks.

And we’ll never know what was said, it’ll probably stay amongst them, but what better person to lead them through what will be one of the most challenging moments in their hockey careers.

#pwhl minnesota #lee stecklein

8 notes · View notes