Sarah Nurse has accomplished all sorts of significant firsts in her hockey career.<\/p>\n
Nurse was the first black woman to win Olympic gold in hockey in 2022. She became the first woman to appear on the cover of an NHL video game when she shared the cover of NHL 23 with Trevor Zegras.\u00a0<\/p>\n
When she takes the ice for PWHL Vancouver in November with new teammate Sophie Jaques, she\u2019ll experience a different type of first.<\/p>\n
\u201cI think that it\u2019s really special,\u201d said Nurse. \u201cPeople always ask us questions about playing with other black hockey players. Growing up, throughout my minor career, throughout my college career, throughout my professional career, I\u2019ve never really been able to play with another Black player.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n
“It’s going to be pretty impactful”<\/p>\n
Last year, Nurse and Jaques did an interview with TSN for Black History Month<\/a>, where Nurse said to Jaques, \u201cI hope we get to play together one day.\u201d They got their first opportunity to play together for Team Canada at the 2025 World Championship, but now they\u2019ll be teammates on a daily basis in Vancouver.<\/p>\n Hockey has long been a predominantly white sport, particularly at the professional level. As of 2020, less than five per cent of the players in the NHL<\/a> were Black or people of colour; when the PWHL played its first season in 2024, just four players in the league were Black<\/a>: Nurse, Jaques, Mikayla Grant-Menthis, and Nikki Nightengale.<\/p>\n Now, two of those players are on PWHL Vancouver.<\/p>\n \u201cTo be able to play with Sophie, I think it\u2019s going to be amazing,\u201d said Nurse. \u201cThere\u2019s obviously that huge representation piece, so it\u2019s really exciting. I think it\u2019s going to be pretty impactful.\u201d<\/p>\n It’s not just that Nurse and Jaques are going to be on the same roster; they could also be the team’s two biggest stars. When Nurse won gold, she set\u00a0an Olympic record with 18 points in 7 games in the process, while Jaques led all PWHL defencemen in scoring last season.<\/p>\n Nurse has spoken before about experiencing both sexism and racism in hockey<\/a>, something that was made all the more challenging because she saw so few people who looked like her in hockey. It\u2019s something she and Jaques are hoping will change.<\/p>\n \u201cIt\u2019s very cool to have someone that even looks like you on your team,\u201d said Jaques. \u201cI think it just goes to emphasize the fact that representation does matter. It might be something as small as giving you a little bit more comfort, or having a second opinion to bounce ideas off of, or, when things maybe potentially happen, you know you have someone else who’s for sure on your side.\u201d<\/p>\n “It’s all about the representation, right?”<\/p>\n Jaques noted that her experience wasn\u2019t a mirror to that of Nurse, as she did get an opportunity to play with another Black player in college.<\/p>\n \u201cI was very fortunate,\u201d said Jaques. \u201cI didn\u2019t have anyone in all of minor hockey, but when I got to Ohio State, there was actually one other Black female on the team, and she really helped me and mentored me. I think that was a really great transition for me, having her there.\u201d<\/p>\n That teammate was Olivia Soares, who was in her third year at Ohio State when Jaques joined the team. Soares was an alternate captain in Jaques\u2019s\u00a0first year, then was named captain the following year. After graduating, she went into coaching and is currently an assistant coach with the University of Minnesota-Duluth.<\/p>\n When Jaques became the first black woman to win the Patty Kazmaier Award as the top player in the NCAA, Soares said she cried<\/a>. \u00a0<\/p>\n “As a younger player, I wish I could have turned this on and seen something like this,” said Soares at the time. “To see her doing that now, and I know there are younger players watching who idolize her and see this and think that they want to do that someday and imagine themselves in that space and winning that award.”<\/p>\n That\u2019s something both Nurse and Jaques emphasized: how much representation matters for the next generation of hockey players.<\/p>\n