If we’re being totally honest — and really, there isn’t another way to be — I had never heard of Saroya Tinker before this week. My days of covering college hockey are long behind me, the Friday and Saturday nights shivering in the tiny press box at Providence College’s Schneider Arena or drinking hot chocolate at Brown University’s Meehan Auditorium, and the 2004 women’s Frozen Four in Providence now memories.
A rookie defenseman for the Metropolitan Riveters of the NWHL, Tinker found herself in the headlines this week after a controversial sports media outlet tried to push its way into the conversation surrounding NWHL’s ongoing bubble tournament, and Tinker pushed back, noting the company’s history of seemingly racist and sexist behavior.