Hard Hat Reflects Blue-Collar Attitude

After a weekend of hockey, reporters might encounter a construction worker, duck, and boa-draped rock star emerging from the Crimson’s locker room—but the most astute among them will know that the members of this colorful cast actually play for the No. 4 Harvard women’s hockey team.

With an 11-2 overall record, the Crimson may be on the heels of one of its best seasons in recent memory, but the team stays focused by keeping it light off the ice.

Three awards are given out after every game or every two games—a hard-hat, a duck, and a boa. While these awards might not come in the form of a shiny Oscar, they are just as prestigious to these Crimson skaters.

Take the hard-hat award, for instance. This plastic, yellow head-bubble is what really sets the Crimson apart from the rest of the competition and what junior defenseman Caitlin Cahow deems the most coveted of the three awards.

Cycling has le maillot jaune and apparently Harvard women’s hockey has an equivalent—le chapeau jaune.

Started two years ago by head coach Katey Stone, the construction hat is meant to encourage a strong work ethic and get-the-job-done attitude on the ice.

“We have a hard hat award that is given out after every game,” Stone said “The kids define it in a given way for someone who works in the trenches.”

Added Cahow: “The award really represents Coach Stone’s mantra for us: We’re a blue-collar team that needs to bring a lunch pail and hard hat to every game.”

While it may evoke images of Boston’s Big Dig rather than the rink at Bright Arena, this mantra has yielded its results on the ice.

The Crimson has won all but two of its thirteen games with a loss coming early to No. 7 Saint Lawrence and a second Tuesday to UConn.

Last weekend, though, the team took it to the No. 8 Minnesota-Duluth Bulldogs and their pair of top goalies—twice—winning by impressive 3-1 and 4-0 counts. On the season, the Crimson leads the league in both offense and defensive and has outscored opponents 67-16.

Individual performances, too, have been stellar. Harvard skaters are at or near the top in almost every category in the ECAC standings. Sophomore Jenny Brine sits in first for both goals and power-play goals scored, captain Julie Chu is the league’s scoring and assists leader, and sophomore goalie Brittany Martin is third for save percentage.

While painting the leader boards crimson is certainly important to the team it is the “blue” in the matter that counts for the hat. The team likes to use it to reward those blue collar, nitty-gritty performances that might not appear in the sports page the next day but are equally important in securing a win.

“The hard hat definitely does not always go to the player who has scored the most goals,” Cahow said. “It usually goes to the player who has made the effort—maybe she’ll make the first pass and then three passes later a goal is scored or she’ll make a great backchecking effort, take the puck away, and give it to someone else to score.”

Just look at this weekend’s recipients—sophomore Sarah Vaillancourt and Cahow.

In Friday’s matchup, Vaillancourt may have wristed a terrific score against star UMD netminder, Kim Martin, but her greatest contribution came in the setup role, as she assisted both the game-winning and insurance goals.

On Saturday night, Cahow inherited the award from her teammate after putting away two Crimson rebounds to record a pair of important “garbage” goals for the team.

This highlights another important aspect of the hat—it is the previous winner who selects the next recipient.

“It’s an honor because it is given out by your teammates,” senior Lindsay Weaver said. “It’s also fun to wear around.”

“And it looks great,” Cahow noted about the school-bus yellow fashion statement.

Moreover, the girls adorn the hat with the numbers of all the winners during the season to remind the team of these critical performances.

Numbers are not repeated, as the team likes to mix it up and reward as many skaters as possible.

“We have so many great players and everyone works so hard that is can really go to anyone on any given day,” Cahow said. “Sometimes people like to say that there are conspiracies if, say, defenders have gotten it a couple times in a row.”

In the duck and the boa, the team has two more fun awards that make for quite a scene at any post-game celebration but that encourage great play nonetheless. The duck usually goes to the top defender of the game while the boa tends to find itself draped around the neck of the girl who has had the best performance over a weekend of games.

In short, with grand performances both on and off the ice, the Harvard women’s hockey team never ceases to have fun, even while on the job.