OTTAWA — Almost 6,000 miles away from her hometown in Hokkaido, Japan, Akane Shiga was being requested concerning the climate.
Mike Hirshfeld, common supervisor of Ottawa’s PWHL workforce, was sitting with Shiga and coach Carla MacLeod within the workforce workplace at TD Place Enviornment, chatting with the 22-year-old ahead and Japanese nationwide workforce member via her interpreter.
“She’s taking a look at me like, ‘What’s he speaking about?’” Hirshfeld mentioned concerning the playful preamble to an vital bit of stories forward of the PWHL’s closing roster deadline.
As a result of what Hirshfeld actually needed to know was how Shiga felt about spending the winter in Ottawa, as a member of the most recent professional workforce in Canada’s capital.
When he instructed Shiga that she’d made the workforce, “her face simply lit up,” Hirshfeld mentioned.
“I really feel very honored to be given this chance,” Shiga instructed The Athletic via her interpreter, Madoka Suzuki.
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The second was the fruits of a hockey journey that noticed Shiga journey the world over for her likelihood to play skilled hockey in North America. Regardless of her credentials — an Olympian and four-time member of Japan’s World Championship workforce — she was not chosen within the 15-round PWHL Draft in September. Unswayed, Shiga flew to Ottawa alone in November, with no assure of a contract, to check out for the workforce.
Her skating skill, fast launch and hockey IQ impressed Ottawa’s braintrust and earned Shiga a one-year contract.
Now, she is a historic participant in a historic league embarking on a singular path: Shiga is the youngest participant within the PWHL and the one Japanese-born participant.
This season Shiga is adjusting to her first 12 months as knowledgeable hockey participant, and concurrently adapting to life in a brand new nation and studying a brand new language.
“To know the braveness it took for her to fly over right here on her personal and stroll into an setting the place she didn’t communicate the language and she or he didn’t know anybody,” MacLeod mentioned. “To know at that second that she had gambled on herself and she or he earned her alternative — that’s what sport is all about.”
The place Shiga grew up in Hokkaido — the northernmost and second-largest island in Japan — hockey is, on the very least, an choice. Some would possibly name it Japan’s hockey hotbed, with a lot of the nationwide workforce gamers coming from the northern area.
“If you wish to play hockey, it’s accessible,” Shiga mentioned via her interpreter. “However it’s not a sport that everybody picks to play like it’s in Canada.”
In Tokyo, however, the place Suzuki — who was employed to function Shiga’s interpreter in November and performs hockey at Carleton College in Ottawa — is from, “you’re sort of a weirdo in the event you’re taking part in hockey,” he mentioned with amusing.
In accordance with the IIHF, there are only one,281 registered feminine hockey gamers in Japan, with a nationwide inhabitants of about 124 million. There are extra indoor rinks in Canada (2,860) and registered feminine gamers within the state of Florida (1,517).
Shiga is the star of the Japanese ladies’s nationwide workforce, and in 2021 she turned the primary Japanese participant to attain towards Workforce USA. (Dennis Pajot / Getty Photographs)
Shiga, although, discovered hockey skating on an outside rink together with her sister, Aoi, when she was six years outdated and she or he “by no means seemed again.” When she was 13, in 2014, Shiga watched a Japanese ladies’s hockey workforce play on the Olympics for the primary time in her life — and for the primary time since Japan was the host nation in 1998. “It had a big effect on my profession,” she mentioned.
MacLeod, now Shiga’s coach in Ottawa, was an assistant coach for Japan on the time.
“I do know what ’98 meant to me as a younger Canadian child once I noticed these ladies on TV and I knew that that dream might then be mine,” mentioned MacLeod, who went on to win two Olympic gold medals with Workforce Canada. “To know {that a} piece of that second is inside her and serving to her to encourage that subsequent group and serving to her to attain her desires is fairly particular.”
Shiga’s dream was realized just one 12 months later when she made the Japanese under-18 workforce for the 2015-16 Division 1 world championships. She was one of many youngest gamers on the event and scored two targets and 4 factors to guide Japan to a gold medal, and promotion to the highest tier U18 world championships in 2016-17.
“I didn’t suppose I used to be able to make the bounce that quickly,” Shiga mentioned. “However I used to be very excited to get the information.”
She’s been a member of the Japanese nationwide program ever since, taking part in on 4 under-18 groups, 4 senior world championships and qualifying for the 2022 Olympics. In 2019, Shiga made the change from protection to ahead as a result of her coach, Yuji Iizuka thought she might assist present extra offense for the workforce.
And he was proper.
In 2021, Shiga was one of many breakout stars of the ladies’s world championships in Calgary, Alta. She scored the opening objective towards Hungary in a crucial 4-1 win for Japan to make it to the quarterfinals. She turned the primary Japanese participant ever to attain towards Workforce USA — and she or he did it twice. Then, she scored the game-winning objective towards Czechia to safe Japan’s finest end (sixth) at ladies’s worlds. Her 4 targets tied for fifth amongst North American stars like Natalie Spooner and Hilary Knight. It was yet another than Canada’s Captain Marie-Philip Poulin had within the event.
“She’s a vital a part of the workforce’s success,” Iizuka instructed IIHF.com “Our groups have at all times had bother scoring, so to search out somebody who can put the puck within the web is essential.”
After years of including to her popularity as one of the proficient gamers exterior North America — together with a visit to the 2022 Beijing Olympics — it was solely pure that Shiga’s identify popped up when the PWHL Ottawa entrance workplace determined to prioritize bringing in worldwide expertise.
“Clearly there’s a pure tether for me to the worldwide sport, and I’ve been fortunate to see how proficient these gamers are all over the world. So for us it was a simple choice to say, Let’s usher in some worldwide gamers and see how they do,” MacLeod mentioned. “If they’ll make it, nice. And in the event that they don’t, no less than we all know that too. However we didn’t wish to depart that uncertainty.”
In accordance with Shiga, Ottawa was the one workforce to name when PWHL free company opened in September.
At coaching camp, Shiga shortly impressed.
“I might say two days in, we knew we had one thing,” Hirshfeld mentioned. “Her skating is off the charts. So is her hockey IQ. I bear in mind Claude Julien (the previous NHL coach) was right here in the future and he was like, ‘Who’s that?’”
“Her talent with the puck catches everybody’s consideration as a result of she will maneuver issues in a small area that lots of people can’t,” MacLeod defined. “The puck comes off her stick quicker than you anticipate and with a velocity that you simply’re unsure the place that’s all coming from as a result of she’s such a petite participant. And she will do it in a telephone sales space.”
There was chatter amongst the Ottawa gamers forward of camp a couple of participant from Japan making an attempt out for the workforce. Some nationwide workforce gamers would have been conversant in Shiga’s sport from world championships or the Olympics. However others, like defender Zoe Boyd, had been being launched to her for the primary time.
She recollects a second early into coaching camp the place Shiga danced round within the offensive zone and despatched a slapshot zinging previous her face, bardown and in.
“Holy crap, this lady is legit,” Boyd thought on the time. “She’s the actual deal.”
“Stunned isn’t the appropriate phrase to explain it,” she defined. “We’re simply amazed by Akane, her play, and what an incredible particular person she is — regardless of not with the ability to fluently communicate English.”
When Madoka Suzuki answered the telephone on a Thursday afternoon, he was within the automotive taking Shiga residence from one among their errands.
“Needed to do some banking,” he mentioned. “Making use of for bank cards and stuff.”
Bringing Shiga to Ottawa launched the difficulty of the language barrier. The PWHL has 14 gamers from abroad — hailing from international locations reminiscent of France, Hungary, and Czechia — however most of these gamers communicate no less than some English. Shiga didn’t, so Ottawa knew they’d want an interpreter to make her really feel extra comfy and assured at tryouts.
The workforce began with a name to the Japanese Embassy, who offered an inventory of names, however these interpreters would price round $300 per hour. “Nobody can afford that,” Hirshfeld mentioned, laughing.
The workforce tried calling the colleges within the metropolis and linked with Stacey Colarossi, the coach of Carleton’s ladies’s hockey workforce, who referred Hirshfeld to Suzuki, a 24-year-old from Japan and a ahead on the boys’s hockey workforce.
Madoka Suzuki, left, along with his sister, Chihiro, and Akane Shiga. Suzuki is employed by the PWHL’s Ottawa workforce as Shiga’s interpreter, although he has additionally been serving to her modify to life in Canada. (Picture courtesy of Madoka Suzuki)
Because it turned out, Suzuki’s sister, Chihiro, performed on the nationwide workforce with Shiga final 12 months and had already alerted her brother that Shiga had made the transfer to Ottawa and would possibly want a pal on the town. So, when Hirshfeld made the decision with a job provide, Suzuki shortly accepted.
The day Shiga arrived in Ottawa, Suzuki was on the airport to choose her up and produce her to the workforce lodge. When the workforce skates, Suzuki is on the ice translating directions for drills, or messages from the teaching employees. He attends workforce conferences and video games, too, as his schedule permits. If Suzuki has class — he’s a psychology main at Carleton — or is on the street along with his hockey workforce, he’ll be part of conferences or interviews over the telephone.
“He understands the teachings from the teaching facet and clearly as he’s translating, is giving her info that’s serving to her develop and match throughout the workforce facet of issues,” MacLeod mentioned. “He’s actually invaluable relating to Akane and Akane feeling included.”
“We love having Madoka round,” mentioned defender Jincy Roese (née Dunne). “I really feel like he’s simply one of many ladies — as a lot a part of this workforce as any one among us.”
Suzuki’s work with Shiga goes past the rink. After Shiga made the Ottawa workforce, she needed to fly to Hungary to play within the 4 Nations event for Workforce Japan. Whereas she was there, Suzuki discovered a realtor to start out on the lookout for residences for Shiga and bought all of the paperwork finished in order that when she returned they might discover her a spot to dwell as shortly as attainable. He’ll take her to the financial institution to get an account or bank card arrange, or to Ikea to purchase furnishings, or to get meals at a restaurant or grocery retailer.
“Quite a lot of the ‘work’ I’m doing is extra as a pal than something,” he mentioned. “She’s made it tremendous simple on me too. She’s very pleasing to work with.”
Suzuki moved to Canada from Japan along with his mother and sister in 2014, when he was 14 years outdated. He spoke English and had household with him, however he nonetheless remembers the troublesome adjustment to a brand new place and new tradition.
Akane Shiga and Madoka Suzuki, pictured with Suzuki’s former billet household. (Picture courtesy of Madoka Suzuki)
“I’m glad I might assist her out this manner, as a result of in any other case it’s fairly the journey to get your toes going up right here,” he mentioned.
Shiga has been utilizing the Duolingo app to study English. Her teammates have been serving to her study, too. Suzuki will typically step again and simply let Shiga attempt to speak without having the interpretation. If he’s not round, teammates will use Google Translate if Shiga wants assist.
“She’s actually quiet proper now, however that’s to be anticipated,” mentioned Roese. “However you see it there, she’ll communicate slightly extra, she’ll get slightly extra concerned in dialog. You possibly can inform she’s beginning to observe alongside extra.”
Roese has realized some Japanese to assist break the language barrier the place she will. And MacLeod nonetheless is aware of a couple of phrases from her time as an assistant coach with Workforce Japan.
“I do know the phrase ‘koko’ (which suggests right here in Japanese), or I do know the phrase hurry or no hesitation,” she mentioned. “There’s actually one thing small, small nuggets that clearly I used to be lucky sufficient to choose up once I labored with them for 2 years. Not sufficient to truly be good, however sufficient to perhaps assist in moments.”
Shiga’s teammates “love her,” Hirshfeld mentioned. And a number of other have taken her below their wing to make her really feel comfy and included on the workforce.
Boyd and her roommate Kristin Della Rovere will drive Shiga residence from the rink, or take her to a teammate’s home if there’s a get-together. They’ve gone for bubble tea and have promised to have Shiga over as soon as she’s settled in so she will see Boyd’s cat, Sam.
Shiga loves cats and has two again residence in Japan named Pickle and Churro. “I miss the cats greater than anybody,” she mentioned with amusing.
“I can’t think about what it have to be like to come back to a rustic the place no one speaks your language,” Boyd mentioned. “So naturally I simply needed to guarantee that she understands issues — like everyone did.
“However Akane is hilarious. Although she will’t communicate English very nicely, she nonetheless makes the funniest jokes and will get her level throughout. It’s been a pleasure to hang around together with her and be a teammate together with her.”
On the ice, Shiga remains to be adjusting to her first skilled season. By means of six video games, Shiga hasn’t registered a degree but, however no one in Ottawa is wanting on the scoresheet.
“We’re not even worrying about that,” mentioned Hirshfeld. “She’s getting used to the pace and physicality of this league, however I do know she’s bought the hockey IQ to work via it. She’s an amazing skater, which I believe is a good benefit on this league. We’re very optimistic.”
Shiga has impressed in video games together with her skating and arms in tight with the puck. MacLeod says she works arduous in observe and has already seen Shiga’s sport develop in Ottawa. It looks as if solely a matter of time earlier than she scores her first PWHL objective.
“I’ve by no means seen someone that may rip the puck like she will,” Roese mentioned. “Simply bardown from anyplace.”
Shiga can be one of the standard gamers in Ottawa. “I believe she bought the second loudest cheer after (Brianne) Jenner,” MacLeod mentioned concerning the home-opener intros.
The Ambassador of Japan to Canada attended Ottawa’s residence opener. There have been a number of Shiga indicators noticed within the stands, and loads of fan mail despatched to her residence — one thing Shiga says began after she performed within the Olympics.
“She’s 22 years outdated,” MacLeod mentioned. “Consider all of the variables: youngest within the league, taking part in in a rustic, in a league that’s not native tongue to her, and she or he simply retains rising. What an unbelievable human being.”
Shiga hopes her sister, a 24-year-old defender taking part in in Switzerland, can be part of the league subsequent season. The 2 had been signed to play along with the Buffalo Beauts within the PHF earlier than the league folded final season. Greater than something, she hopes extra gamers from Japan can observe in her footsteps.
“To have the ability to pave the trail for youthful gamers and provides them somebody to look as much as — to say, you may be from Japan and play hockey — is a big honor,” she mentioned. “And I’m simply very excited for what the longer term holds.”
(Illustration: John Bradford / The Athletic; Photographs: Courtesy of Madoka Suzuki; Minas Panagiotakis / Getty Photographs)