Michelle Jay / NWHL
For 41 winters, Lake Placid, New York, has been synonymous with the United States most treasured hockey triumph: the Miracle on Ice defeat of the Soviet Union at the 1980 Olympics.
This weekend at Herb Brooks Arena - of which the late namesake coached the underdog Americans to gold at that tournament - the National Women s Hockey League will make its own sort of history. The NWHL is gearing up to play for two weeks in a sealed bubble environment, its means of salvaging a 2021 season amid the COVID-19 pandemic.
Women s hockey wasn t contested at Lake Placid in 1980, nor at any Olympics until Nagano 1998. U.S.-Canada clashes have since been must-see, but the pro version of the sport is still trying to establish a foothold in both countries. The continent s 250 top players are split down the middle into two camps that have different visions for the future of the game, and each side has separately had to deal with the limitations on travel and crowding that the