Kendall Coyne Schofield: Women's Hockey Championship Cancelation Is 'Devastating'

The provincial government of Nova Scotia has canceled the 2021 IIHF Ice Hockey Women's World Championship, which was scheduled to begin May 6 in the Canadian province, because of COVID-19 concerns following a recent spike of cases in the province. 

United States women's hockey captain Kendall Coyne Schofield expressed her disappointment in the decision in an interview with ESPN's Emily Kaplan.

"This is our Stanley Cup. Can you imagine getting to the Stanley Cup Final, and before getting on the plane, [someone] saying, 'You know what, it's canceled, and we don't know when or if it can even happen'? It's devastating. ... I almost hope young girls aren't seeing this because I don't want them to feel this. It's extremely challenging to keep going, to keep fighting, to keep pushing, but the reason we do is so they don't have to experience this one day. It's exhausting, it really is. It's difficult in this situation knowing the outcome could have been different if decisions were made earlier."

The decision was made just two weeks before the tournament was set to start and one day before teams were scheduled to arrive in Nova Scotia. Per Kaplan, Japan and Russia were already on their way to Nova Scotia. Kaplan also noted that Team USA and Team Canada heard about the cancelation while participating in pre-tournament camps.

Coyne Schofield, who won a gold medal with Team USA at the 2018 Winter Olympics and silver during the 2014 Games, added more remarks when speaking with Kaplan:

"When you see tears streaming down your teammates' eyes, your coaches' eyes, your general managers' eyes, you know how much work everyone put into getting into this moment," Coyne Schofield said. "And we got to that moment successfully; there were no positive cases. We held up our end of the bargain; we did everything that was asked of us."

The tournament would have been held under strict COVID-19 protocols, including an eight-day quarantine prior to the start.

Nova Scotia reported 25 new COVID-19 cases Wednesday, bringing the province's total to 79, per Vernon Ramesar of CBC. The 25 new cases are the highest daily count in Nova Scotia since November.

"I sincerely regret the short notice, but the rapidly changing environment dictates this decision in the interest of the safety of Nova Scotians and participants," Premier Iain Rankin said Wednesday, per Haley Ryan of CBC News.

IIHF President Rene Fasel released a statement after Nova Scotia announced its decision:

"This is very disappointing news to receive with just a few weeks until the tournament was to begin. We strongly believe that we had the adequate safety measures in place to protect players, officials, spectators, and all residents in Halifax and Truro, based on the IIHF and Hockey Canada's experiences from hosting the IIHF World Junior Championship in Edmonton."

IIHF and Hockey Canada said they are now looking to host the tournament sometime in the summer, issuing a joint statement on the matter:

"In the end, we must accept the decision of the government. This does not mean that we will not have a Women's World Championship in 2021. We owe it to every single player that was looking forward to getting back on the ice after such a difficult year that we do everything possible to ensure this tournament can be moved to new dates and played this year."

Ten national teams in all were set to participate in the tournament: Czech Republic, Denmark, Finland, Germany, Hungary, Japan, Russia, Switzerland and the United States.

The tournament was initially scheduled to be held from March 31, 2020, to April 10, 2020, but was canceled because of COVID-19. It was initially rescheduled to April 7-17, 2021 before another delay pushed it back one month.