Campbell exudes confidence

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This article was published 17/01/2025 (301 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

You can and you will.

When Seattle Kraken assistant coach Jessica Campbell pens this powerful message on various examples of memorabilia she’s been asked to sign during her first season in the NHL, it’s meant to provide inspiration in its simplest form.

Campbell, who became the first woman to be hired to a full-time role on an NHL bench last summer, never doubted that she’d achieve her goals and is optimistic that many will follow in her footsteps.

“For me, I’ve always had this love for the game, this passion for the game and I’ve never seen myself not in this game,” Campbell said prior to the Kraken facing the Winnipeg Jets earlier this week. “A lot of the people have asked me the questions about barriers and breaking barriers and it’s never really been about that for me. It’s more about giving myself permission that this is possible.

“I always believed that I could work at the highest level of hockey and I was aspiring to do that. So now, my message to younger kids is you can do it and you will do it. Have the belief that you can and you will. Anything is possible. With that attitude, regardless of what that journey looks like, it keeps your mind on the right goals and the right aspirations and that message is something that I try to pass along to others as I’m living it out.”

Campbell, 32, grew up in rural Saskatchewan and it didn’t take her long to get the hockey bug.

Her passion for the sport is evident as she moves around the ice during the morning skate and during a conversation that lasts nearly 10 minutes.

“I was a small-town Saskatchewan kid and just fell in love with being on the ice and skating. I was a rink rat,” said Campbell, noting her mother played for the University of Saskatchewan Huskies women’s team. “Like many Prairie kids, my journey was very similar. Hockey was part of my DNA. I was the youngest of four kids and followed in my siblings footsteps.

“I never really knew what my life would have been like without hockey.”

“I always believed that I could work at the highest level of hockey and I was aspiring to do that. So now, my message to younger kids is you can do it and you will do it.”–Jessica Campbell

Campbell started playing boys hockey before moving over to the women’s game, where she eventually played for the Canadian national team and for the Cornell Big Red of the NCAA.

After retiring from the national team in 2017, Campbell shifted her focus to coaching and opened her own business, with an emphasis on power skating.

In 2021, Campbell was an assistant coach for the Nürnberg Ice Tigers in the DEL and also served as an assistant coach for the German national team at the men’s world championship.

Campbell spent the prior two seasons as an assistant coach with the primary affiliate of the Kraken, the Coachella Valley Firebirds, working on a staff with Dan Bylsma and for a team that made consecutive trips to the Calder Cup final in the American Hockey League.

Shortly after Bylsma was hired to replace Dave Hakstol last summer, Campbell was promoted to the parent club.

The familiarity of working with Bylsma and forging relationships with several players in the AHL before they made the jump to the NHL helped with Campbell’s transition to a staff that includes ample experience with fellow assistant coaches Dave Lowry and Bob Woods.

“For me, it’s been a really enjoyable process,” said Campbell. “It’s all positive from my end. I’m surrounded by a lot of great people who I can learn from every day. Very smart people, very experienced people in the organization.”

Campbell values the importance of communication and says the Kraken players have been very receptive to her coaching.

“For me, it’s all hockey talk at the end of the day,” said Campbell. “It’s more of a change for them. It doesn’t matter about gender at the end of the day. We’re talking the language of hockey and they’ve been nothing but respectful and open.”

“It doesn’t matter about gender at the end of the day. We’re talking the language of hockey and they’ve been nothing but respectful and open.”–Jessica Campbell

The opportunity to be a trailblazer wasn’t something Campbell thought much about before, but she understands the responsibility that comes with it.

“It’s been a journey for me as a coach, of getting to this moment and always keeping my focus on the work and the job and trying to have the best impact I can. It’s about that,” said Campbell. “But then there’s moments where you see it with fans and young kids, girls and boys, it’s a spectacle and there’s moments where the magnitude for me is definitely real. It’s something I don’t take lightly, the privilege and the responsibility that I have within my role to make a statement for others.”

The TV cameras for Thursday’s broadcast captured a pair of homemade signs that paid homage to Campbell: with both young girls writing that it was their first NHL game and that she was the main reason they were in attendance.

“That visibility is really key, so to shine light on the visibility and not pass by the opportunities to connect with fans, to share messages with younger kids and especially aspiring female coaches as well, with the same goals and aspirations,” said Campbell. “I feel great pride and responsibility that I’m able to embody that image for them and hope to see more dreams unlocked as a result.”

Campbell conceded there were a few pinch-me moments during the Kraken home-opener this season, especially since so many of the people who helped her on this odyssey made it to Seattle to share in the monumental moment.

“I really tried to take in every moment. There was never going to be another first opener for me,” said Campbell. “To have key people in my life that were part of my journey, from my parents, my family to my minor (hockey) coach, my best friends and former teammates from the national team, they all flew in from across Canada and the U.S. to be there. It was a very special moment for me.

“Taking in the crowd and the response as I was welcomed to Seattle, it really hit me, with what it means to others. Though I’m focused on coaching and shortly after, the puck was dropped and I was in the game, it definitely empowered me more to know that as I embark on my coaching journey, that I’m part of a bigger change and I’m part of growth for the game.”

That growth is still in the early stages, but this is an important step in the process.

“Women are in every sport. It was only a matter of time before there was one in (NHL) hockey coaching,” said Kraken forward Jaden Schwartz. “It’s awesome for the younger generation to see, to keep their goals high and keep dreaming. Anything is possible, really.”

Around the glass

OVI WATCH: Washington Capitals captain Alex Ovechkin is up to 874 NHL goals after delivering the overtime winner in a 1-0 victory over the Ottawa Senators on Thursday night.

The latest marker moved him within 20 goals of Wayne Gretzky’s all-time record.

Ovechkin is up to 21 goals and 33 points in 29 games this season for the Capitals, who are tied with the Winnipeg Jets for first overall in the NHL in points (65) — though Washington holds two games in hand.

The Jets and Capitals meet for the first of two times this season Feb. 1 in Washington, with the return match set for Mar. 25 at Canada Life Centre.

Might Ovechkin be within striking distance of the record by the time the rematch rolls around?

Only time will tell.

Leevi Meralainen became the 179th different goalie that Ovechkin has scored on during his NHL career.

Meralinen was chosen by the Senators in the third round of the 2020 NHL Draft with the pick acquired in the deal with the Winnipeg Jets for defenceman Dylan DeMelo.

HITTING NEW HEIGHTS: Manitoban Keegan Kolesar established a career-high for goals with nearly half a season left to go.

The Vegas Golden Knights right-winger is up to 10 goals and 19 points in 44 games while averaging 13:33 of ice time per game — which is up nearly two minutes on his career average.

Kolesar, who was acquired by the Golden Knights in a trade with the Columbus Blue Jackets for a second round pick in 2017, has grown into an important bottom-six player.

Chosen in the third round of the 2015 NHL Draft by the Blue Jackets, Kolesar had 56 goals and 121 points in 118 games with the Seattle Thunderbirds during his final two seasons in the Western Hockey League, so enhancing the offensive element of his game to go along with his physical presence should not come as a surprise.

During a trip to Winnipeg last month, Golden Knights head coach Bruce Cassidy singled out Kolesar and Brett Howden as two players who showed up for training camp in excellent shape and ready to take on a more significant role.

Kolesar, 27, is well on his way to eclipsing his career-high for points (22), which he established during the 2021-22 season.

ken.wiebe@freepress.mb.ca

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mike.mcyintyre@freepress.mb.ca

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