Growing the game for good means making all parts of hockey more accessible to everyone. That’s why we were thrilled when our comms lead Denise Withers had the chance to sit down with broadcaster Kenzie Lalonde to chat about her journey to become the first female play-by-play announcer in both the NHL and PWHL.
DENISE: Kenzie, getting to call NHL games regularly for a living is a dream come true for many kids across Canada but you’re the first woman to get there. What's your hockey story?
KENZIE: I'm a product of “See her, be her”. I grew up in a very sport-centric family playing hockey. And every morning, I’d watch Holly Horton on SportsCenter and think to myself, “That looks like a really cool job. I can't believe she gets to talk about sports for a living”. And so I saw it, right? And for me, that ingrained this idea of wanting to work in sports media. Then when I was in my final year of high school, I was playing for the Ottawa Lady Senators in the U22 elite league. And I didn't know if I wanted to keep playing after that. Because when you’re in grade 12, social life becomes a significant part of your lifestyle and I didn't want to keep getting on a bus and driving five and a half hours to play in another hockey tournament every Friday night. I also knew at that age, my hockey career was going to end soon. There were no professional opportunities available to me and I was not in any national programs. Plus I thought I’d have to start to prioritize my work life–I didn’t expect there to be a crossover. Then my student teacher recommended I go check out Mount Allison University in New Brunswick. She said, “I think you'll find that balance of a social life, hockey, and education.” And she was right. I'm really grateful for my time there because I got to play for 5 more years, becoming captain by the end of my time there. I earned a business degree. I got my feet wet in the sports media world and I found that balance of sports and life I really wanted.
DENISE: That’s a fabulous story because so many women who face that reality as they “age out” of hockey end up dropping out of the sport altogether. Can you tell us more about the power of “See her, be her”?
KENZIE: We're lucky to see more women in new spaces today, though play-by-play remains male-dominated.
I hope young women watching now see themselves in me because being different isn’t bad—it’s important. Hockey has such a diverse fan base from all across the world and so many different markets and demographics, that when you see yourself in the experts, broadcasters, and reporters–in something you love–it just makes you gravitate toward it even more, makes the game even more engaging. So I think the importance of exposure is critical.
KENZIE: And it's up to leaders to open those doors for others, to see that we need to have diverse voices, to make sure that individuals who have the skill set, who are ready, who are qualified, are in the conversation for an opportunity or a promotion.
DENISE: When you think about your career in hockey and all the different levels of the game, what else do you think we need to do to grow the game and open it up to others?
KENZIE: I think the accessibility piece to it is so critical. Yes, gear is expensive, but we need to learn more about the intricacies of ice time availability. As a kid, you don't think much about that. You don't understand why you have to drive 45 minutes away to go to your 6 p.m. ice time. Why your parents barely get home from work before you’re pulling on your boots to go back to the rink.
Lately, I’ve been learning a lot about ice time accessibility—who gets access, which associations are involved, and all the fine details at the minor hockey level that I never thought about as a kid. So for me, it’s about finding ways to make sure all associations get fair ice time.
KENZIE: For example, where I grew up in the Ottawa area, the growth of hockey is huge, especially among girls. But with no new rinks being built, I’m curious how the city is managing ice time for all these associations. It's stories like that that I'm always keeping tabs on to see how players are getting access and make sure that they get the ice time they need.
DENISE: The growth of the game for women and girls has been phenomenal and the PWHL continues to soar in popularity. But we know that bringing the dream to life and making the league a reality was only possible because of the blood, sweat, and tears of its founders. Relying on passion to grow the league just isn’t sustainable. What's it going to take to ensure the PWHL thrives and continues to bring more people into the game?
KENZIE: More money, more resources, more people, more time. Time is everything. You look at how quickly that league came together. Six months. It is quite remarkable. It's going, but there's still so much to figure out. Looking beyond expansion, I think one of the big conversations now is certainly the development league. The NHL has the AHL. It has the ECHL. The PWHL does not have a development system right now. That's critical for them to spend time on because it's challenging for pro players. It's hard to get a PWHL hockey contract right now. And if you don't earn a spot on a team, you either accept a reserve spot or you have to go find a team somewhere else to stay in the game. So I think that's critical.
DENISE: And of course, the challenges aren’t just for players. Even with the launch of the PWHL, we know that pathways to careers in hockey are still limited for women. What do you think was the biggest challenge that you had to overcome to get to where you are now?
KENZIE: I think it was really learning that, in this job, you only learn by doing. You have to have the confidence to put yourself out there, to understand that what you do in the early days is probably going to suck. But that's how you learn how to conduct an interview, what works, what doesn't work. You learn so much from failing. Plus, when you work in live TV, when you fail, people are watching. So you have to be comfortable with people having an opinion on watching you learn. I'm lucky enough that I started on a YouTube athletic channel where I don't even know who was watching. And I'm grateful that I had the courage to stick with it and be comfortable with failing.
DENISE: That’s such a great insight - the idea of learning by doing is core to the work we do here in the lab. Hearing your stories, it sounds like there’s actually a lot of crossover between working in live TV and playing hockey–the pressure of performing in the moment. Can you connect any of those skills or your mindset back to what you may have learned during your hockey career?
KENZIE: Absolutely. I reflect on that a lot, thinking about what hockey has taught me. It certainly taught me how to trust my teammates. Television is so much of a team-based environment. And that’s how I operate best–in a team setting. Knowing how to be a good teammate, how to step aside, let someone else have the spotlight. And when the odds are stacked up against you, how to keep your head down and keep pushing. When it gets really, really hard, you just have to keep going. So I think little skills like that have really helped me get to where I'm at now.
DENISE: You’re under a lot of pressure, doing what you do, live on TV, as a woman. As you say, the whole world is watching and sees when you fail. Yet we also see you and Cheryl Pounder and other women in broadcasting really changing the energy of the broadcast world, changing the way we engage with fans. Being yourself, not taking things too seriously, and having fun. How are you able to be authentic and really bring yourself to your work when you’re under the microscope?
KENZIE: It's funny you say that. I think I always receive the most compliments on the dynamic of Cheryl and me, of how fun we are, and how we're fun to listen to. But we're also insightful. The viewers are getting the best balance of knowledge and fun. So I think I don't know any other way to go about the job, especially when I'm with her.
Cheryl brings out this more authentic self in me. And so I tip my hat to her because she is certainly someone who wears her heart on her sleeve and what you see is what you get. I just can't help but do the same as well.
