All-star game showcases best female hockey players in Canada

When Canada's top female hockey players hit the ice on Saturday at the Air Canada Centre, Toronto Furies' player Carlee Campbell will be among them.

Campbell, who plays defence for the Furies, says she is "so excited" to play in the Canadian Women's Hockey League All-Star Game this weekend.

The game will include the best professional female hockey players from each of the CWHL's five teams — Boston Blades, Brampton Thunder, Calgary Inferno, Les Canadiennes de Montreal and the Toronto Furies. Admission is only $10 and the puck drops at 1:30 p.m.

"It's amazing. Women's hockey has been part of my life since I was 5 or 6 years old. For me personally, the opportunity to play in front of that many fans at the Air Canada Centre, it's out of control in my own mind," Campbell told Metro Morning this week.

"For it to be in my hometown at this point is even that much sweeter."

It's also sweet because Campbell has been off the ice competitively for six years.

In that time, Campbell established a career outside the realm of hockey — a world in which the top female players in the league don't actually get paid.

The CWHL is to women what the NHL is to men, but while male players get paid big bucks, women at the same level don't collect a paycheque, unless they're on the Canadian women's national ice hockey team and receive a government stipend.

"I'll be honest, it is frustrating," Campbell told CBC Toronto in a later interview.

"In terms of women's hockey developing as a professional career, I know it's on its way. I just wasn't born at the time where I'd be fortunate enough to reap off those benefits.

"For me right now, of course, it's frustrating because you spend your entire life dedicating yourself to one sport and then all of a sudden when you're 21, 22, you're kind of expected to give up a part of you," she added.

"The unfortunate fact is that, once you're done with that, you really can't spend any more of your time on that sport, unless you're fortunate enough to make the national team or the Olympic team, which is great for those girls.

"But for the rest of us, we have to give up a part of us in terms of being a player. For us to give that up because unfortunately we can't make a living off the sport is really unfortunate."

Campbell said an estimated 40,000 girls in Ontario play hockey. Women's hockey, she said, is growing in popularity.

She said fans will see a different kind of hockey on Saturday.

"Give it a chance, come out and watch the game, and come and appreciate the different things the women's game has over the men's game. There might not be fighting, there might not be open ice hits, but there's another level of aggressiveness and another level of athleticism," she said. 

"Don't compare it to the men's game because, frankly, it's not the same game."

Brenda Andress, commissioner for the CWHL, said the league hopes to change the fact that women who play professionally don't get paid.

She said the league is professional but it's simply not as well known as the NHL. Because there is not the exposure, there are not the sponsors. But she said sponsors will go where the fans are.

"It's run professionally, they're treated professionally, but they're not paid and we just haven't been able to get there yet. It's our plan. But right now it's about engaging our sponsors, our fans to support women," she said.

"For us, it's about getting the fans to stand up and say, I'm going to pay dollars for a ticket to watch the game."

Funds from ticket sales for the game will go back to the CWHL to support the growth of the game of women's professional hockey.