About damn time

I am taking a quick break from my end-of-semester insanity to write this post because of a story I just read from TSN. The Hockey Hall of Fame has amended its bylaws in a move that essentially opens the door to deserving women candidates - finally.

Until now the Hall has allowed a maximum of four inductees, of either sex, each season. Given the dominance in HHOF voting of the NHL over international leagues and competitions, the fact that there is no solid women's league, and the relative newness of the women's game (the first World Championship was held in 1994 and the first Olympics in 1998) this has meant that the odds of a female player or builer gaining entry were slim to none.

As of next year the Hall will consider a maximum of four male and two female candidates. In the last decade we have witnessed some legends in the women's game, so it is great to hear that the likes of Cammi Granato, Hayley Wickenheiser and Cassie Campbell* will likely be enshrined in the near future.

* In case you're wondering, Cassie Campbell will get in for her accomplishments on the ice rather than for her job as part of the Hockey Night in Canada broadcast crew. Although she sure did a bang-up job with Kraft Hockeyville this year, right? Right?

There are still a lot of organizational problems with women's hockey. Domestically, there is no sound North American league. And internationally, the US and Canada remain lightyears ahead of other countries in their development. But hopefully this will change in the near future - the 2010 Olympics will provide an interesting barometer to gauge the development of second-tier nations such as Sweden, Finland and - yes - China.

But despite these problems there are still some great players who have shone in the World Championship and Olympic spotlight. And this is made all the more impressive by the fact that these women are amateur athletes who must juggle their personal and professional lives with the rigours of competing in hockey at an international level.

As for the lack of competition between Canada/US and the rest, Sweden's historic upset of the United States in the 2006 Olympic semi-finals gives hope that this balance of power is slowly shifting.

So, as the women's game evolves, it is only appropriate that the Hockey Hall of Fame also shows that it can - gasp! - change with the times. The Hall has been criticized in the past for its unwillingness to adjust to new realities and to shed its NHL bias. But at least it is now showing that it is flexible, and hopefully this will soon be demonstrated by the induction of the deserving female candidates that it has thus far ignored.