Just over five years ago, Amanda Provan was introduced to blind hockey.
Though born with congenital nystagmus and dealing with the obvious challenges of 20/200 vision, the lifelong fan of the fastest sport on ice has persevered, suiting up initially with the Sudbury Playground Hockey League and more recently with the Sudbury Women’s Hockey League.
That, it would seem, would be the pinnacle of her playing days.
“Ever since I started playing hockey, I loved it and wanted to play at a high level – but I knew that it wasn’t really a possibility,” said Provan. “Discovering blind hockey opened some doors and renewed that hope of playing meaningful hockey at a high level.”
Just a year after completion of the Canadian National Blind Hockey Tournament in 2017 came the news of the creation of a Team Canada entry, one which could look to grow the sport on a more international basis. This went way beyond the wildest dreams of the now 28-year-old Sudbury native.
“When the team was named (established), I set a goal to at least be invited to a selection camp to try and make the team,” said Provan.
In early August, she was informed that she had made history, set to become the first ever female to suit up with the national team, the only woman who will take part in the upcoming showdown with the United States being hosted in Fort Wayne (Indiana) in late October.
With the nearest blind hockey team based out of Toronto, Provan had no choice but to continue to try and develop her skills locally, in a setting that was sure to challenge her. “The first game, I don’t like to say anything because people will be strange about it,” she explained of her background in standard hockey.
“I like to go out and show them that I can play before saying anything (about the vision impairment).”
With her vision now at about three per cent, Provan has had to abandon the five-on-five game with recreational women in recent years in favour of some three-on-three hockey with friends, typically on smaller ice surfaces.
“I’ve lost some more vision and my peripheral is now worse,” she said. “If you send me a pass, unless you tell me or it’s off the boards, I won’t see it coming.
“I won’t notice it coming until it’s past my stick. The puck is just too small, in general.”
Just to be clear, blind hockey is played with a metal puck that features ball-bearings on the inside, allowing the athletes to play almost exclusively based on sound. Given that she has adapted nicely to the varying nuances of the blind hockey format, Provan allows herself the freedom to joke about in-game comparisons that would never ever cross the mind of a sighted skater.
“When I was younger, I did a lot of screening of the goalies,” she recalled. “It was something I could do effectively and it really didn’t bother me if the goalie slashed me or didn’t like me. In blind hockey, there really is no sense in screening the goalie (who is either blind or blindfolded), so I had to adapt my game.”
After taking part in the 2022 nationals as a member of the Toronto Ice Owls, Provan was one of just 13 players selected to take part in a July camp at St Mary’s University in Halifax – also the only woman on hand.
“I had to focus on being more aggressive,” she said. “They were concerned about my size, being about 5-4 and playing against grown men.”
Still, the efforts she had made to continue to develop her shooting, her stick-handling and her ability to carry the puck were all duly noted. With the coaching staff of the St. Mary’s Huskies assisting with running of on-ice workouts, Provan and her new teammates would be put to the test.
“It took us a little while to catch on because they were giving us sighted people drills,” she said with a smile. “We did adapt and we did get through all of them. They were just more complex drills than we have typically done.”
While the Canada-USA battle is still a tad tilted — “we’ve had blind hockey programs quite a bit longer” — Provan can’t help but to be excited with any opportunity to push her sport forward.
“We know that Finland now has programs going on and I think Sweden as well,” she said. “And we have a player who comes over from England every year.”
The game might be a little different – but the love of the game is the same.
Randy Pascal is a sportswriter in Greater Sudbury. Pursuit is made possible by our Community Leaders Program.
