William Douglas has been writing The Color of Hockey blog since 2012. Douglas joined NHL.com in 2019 and writes about people of color in the sport. Today, he profiles Sarah Nurse, a forward for Toronto of the Professional Women’s Hockey League and two-time Olympic medalist. She hosts “Nursey Night” at Toronto home games, an initiative to help attract more girls to hockey and make the sport more inclusive.
Sarah Nurse jokes that it started with two tickets and a dream.
The 30-year-old forward for Toronto of the Professional Women’s Hockey League receives four complimentary tickets for each home game at Coca-Cola Coliseum this season and wondered aloud last season what to do with the extras if her family didn’t use them.
“I was speaking to my team, my agent, my manager last year and we thought, ‘So if my parents take two, or if they’re not coming to a game, I should give my tickets away to maybe a family, whether through the Black Girl Hockey Club or Hockey 4 Youth or one of the many incredible organizations throughout Toronto,” she said. “They were, like, ‘Let’s really think about this and see how we can make an even bigger impact.’”
“Nursey Nights presented by Rogers” was born.
Nurse has partnered with Rogers for the second season to give girls from three community groups the opportunity to attend PWHL games and visit with the two-time Canadian Olympic hockey medalist (gold at the 2022 Beijing Olympics and silver at the 2018 PyeongChang Olympics) afterward. Rogers provides tickets and swag -- hoodies, tote bags, lanyards, posters -- for the kids. Nurse supplies the inspiration.
“I just wanted to open up the opportunity lines and make professional women’s hockey as accessible as possible,” she said. “And so being able to connect with families and youth from different backgrounds, marginalized communities, newcomers to Canada, people who may not normally have the access to hockey, I thought was super-important, and something that I was just very excited to do.”
Members from Hockey 4 Youth, Black Girl Hockey Club and Hockey Equality got to hang out and chat with Nurse after five games so far this season. The final “Nursey Night” this season is set for April 29, when Toronto hosts the New York at the Coliseum.
Nurse will have connected with more than 220 kids between this season’s “Nursey Nights” and the five nights she hosted last season.
“It's beautifully impactful,” said Hockey 4 Youth founder and executive director Moezine Hasham, whose organization helps introduce hockey to girls, especially those whose families are new Canadians. “And the reason why I say that is because the girls in our program, they have so many barriers in front of them, particularly when they're learning how to play hockey.
“So I think it's so special when they get a chance to meet a professional female hockey player, particularly Sarah, being a player of color,” Hasham said. “She really puts her heart and soul into these things that she's doing off the ice, and it makes it incredibly genuine, authentic and super, super special for our girls. They really, really gravitate towards her.”
Siyani Tadesse said she was awestruck when she and other Hockey 4 Youth members met Nurse after the “Battle On Bay Street” game, a 4-2 win against New York at Scotiabank Arena on Jan. 25, that celebrated Toronto women’s sports.
“It was electric to see a woman hockey player,” said Tadesse, a 14-year-old Toronto resident of Sri Lankan and Ethiopian heritage. “I asked her what was an obstacle that she went through, and then she answered, ‘Being a woman playing in hockey, being-bi-racial-Black.
“Honestly, it inspired me. A lot of people get discouraged, give up. But Sarah Nurse, she kept going. That inspires me to keep going. No matter if people discourage me, I’ll just keep going.”
For Axel Jazz Mojados, a 15-year-old who moved to Toronto from the Philippines in August, meeting Nurse eased any doubts about whether she belongs in hockey.
“Sometimes I doubted about skating and, at first, I didn’t want to join hockey because it’s hard because you have to learn to control the puck and skate at the same time, and we don’t play hockey in the Philippines,” Mojados said. “I was scared, but when I met someone who told the story of her first experience in sport, hockey, it really gave me the courage to try to keep going learning how to skate and doing sports.”
Nurse is a living “first.” A cousin of Edmonton Oilers defenseman Darnell Nurse, she's the first Black woman to win an Olympic gold medal in hockey and the first woman to appear on the cover of an EA Sports hockey video game, NHL 23 along with Anaheim Ducks forward Trevor Zegras. She participated in the 2023 NHL All-Star Weekend and in February became Revlon’s first Canada brand ambassador. Tim Hortons and Mattel collaborated and produced a Barbie doll in her likeness and Canadian teammate Marie-Philip Poulin’s in 2020.
She set records for assists (13) and points (18) at the 2022 Beijing Olympics, helping power Canada to the gold medal. Nurse has represented Canada at five IIHF Women’s World Championships, winning three gold medals (2021, 2022, 2024), one silver (2023) and one bronze (2019).
Nurse played at the University of Wisconsin, where she had 137 points (76 goals, 61 assists) in 150 games from 2013-18. Signed by Toronto in September 2023, she has 35 points (16 goals, 19 assists) in 39 games, including 12 points (five goals, seven assists) in 15 games this season.
She was placed on Toronto’s long-term injury list after she sustained a lower-body injury during a Rivalry Series game against the United States on Feb. 6 in Halifax, Nova Scotia. But the injury hasn’t prevented her from hosting “Nursey Night.”
“I think that it's so special because I learn something new from them every single time I go meet them,” she said. “I hope that I can impact like one of these girls, whatever field they want to do one day, whether it’s hockey or another sport, I just hope that I can continue to empower them.”
