Sticking to It

Taping your stick as a hockey player is nearly as essential as lacing up your skates. While NHL fans likely recall the cool purple-tweaked jerseys their favorite teams and player have donned for warmups to mark "Hockey Fights Cancer" month in past Novembers during the regular season, the 2020 COVID-19 pandemic has steered cancer research awareness in other directions.
In the Seattle area, one sign of solidarity with cancer patients and their families showed up in the form on purple tape on the hockey sticks of youth players in Kent, Shoreline, Snoqualmie and Lynnwood during this month. Hockey players can be particular about how they wrap the woven-cotton cloth tape that provides some traction for stickhandling the puck, whether making a more accurate pass or putting spin on a shot on goal. They tend to prefer black as a color because helps camouflage the puck from the goalie.

But during November, any number players go purple on the stick blade to raise awareness and funds for cancer research and support of families with a loved one undergoing cancer treatment. Here's a spin around local rinks to spot some of those players, teams and youth hockey associations.
Note: All photos we taken before Gov. Inslee's most recent health and safety restrictions, which has closed rinks until mid-December at the earliest.

KENT: The Kent Valley 10U boys squad taped up their blades for a recent practice-you have to love those goaltenders going all-in, heel to toe, on the purple!

SHORELINE: Highland Ice Arena is home to the Western Washington Female Hockey Association and its affiliated Washington Wild teams. During a recent break, Ana Beard (left) shows purple on her lower stick blade as a sign of support and a way to protect your stick from other player's knocking it in pursuit of the puck. Ahana Saraf (center), Abby Matta (right) and Gigi Charette (far right and, nice job on social distancing!) clearly prefer the full blade of the purple shade.

SNOQAULMIE: During the Sno-King Amateur Hockey Association "Hockey Fights Cancer" night Nov. 12, players show the grip-taping technique (colorful and adhesive helps keep control of the stick) along with variations on the blade coverage and smiles.

LYNNWOOD: Home of the Seattle Junior Hockey Association, aka Seattle Juniors, the Lynnwood Ice Center's rink went purple across a number of practice squads with the sticks and snowy ice residue to prove it.