SUNRISE, Fla. (AP) — Christine Bumstead’s path toward being an assistant coach in a preseason game for the reigning Stanley Cup champion Florida Panthers started in a most unusual way.
She went deer hunting.
Her journey took off when hockey — and the rest of the world — had stopped in 2020 because of the COVID-19 pandemic. Paul Maurice, then the coach of the Winnipeg Jets, knew Bumstead’s father and decided to join him on a hunting trip. On the way there, she and Maurice talked hockey, talked philosophy, talked systems. The drive took 25 minutes. Maurice was blown away.
“We got out of the car and I went, ‘Oh, that’s a coach,’” Maurice said.
Fast forward about four years. Bumstead was invited to be part of a development camp with the Panthers this summer, then invited back for training camp that started last week and on Sunday — to her surprise — she was behind the bench with the Cup champs for a preseason game against Nashville.
“It’s probably the best seats you can get,” Bumstead said after Florida's win. “It’s super special to me.”
Bumstead is part of the NHL Coaches Association Female Coaches Program, which is working with about 100 women this year on their development in the game — including Melissa Samoskevich, the sister of Panthers prospect Mackie Samoskevich. Bumstead leaves Florida this week to get back to her primary jobs, those being an assistant coach for the women’s team at the University of Saskatchewan and performance coach for the Saskatoon Blades of the Western Hockey League. She also serves as head coach of Canada's national deaf women's hockey team.
When Bumstead — who also has experience as a teacher — started to focus on coaching, she thought it might be short-term. It didn’t take her long to change her thinking. She’s now hoping it’s her calling. Maurice helped get her into the NHLCA program and has spoken highly of her ever since.
“I played competitively, and I thought I was driven, but now as a coach I’m realizing that I had no drive as a player at all in comparison,” Bumstead said. “I am way more competitive as a coach than I ever was as a player. So, I just think that’s obviously I’m on the right side of the bench. I didn’t know that until I started coaching at a higher level. And I realized I had the juice for this way more than I ever did as a player.”
There is some real momentum for women in the NHL. This season, Jessica Campbell will make some history as the first on-the-bench assistant coach in league history. She was hired by the Seattle Kraken this summer after two years as an assistant for the team’s AHL affiliate. That came after Emily Engel-Natzke was hired by the Washington Capitals in 2022 as video coach, making her the first woman with a full-time assistant role in the league.
Other women have gotten preseason opportunities as assistants in recent years and the numbers of women in the NHL in front-office or some sort of coaching roles is soaring. There will be a female head coach in the NHL, Maurice said. It’s not if. It’s when.
“That day is coming,” Maurice said. “Certainly, there’s some experience and expertise that you have to acquire before you get to be an NHL head coach. And now there are women that are getting that experience and getting that expertise.”
Bumstead is certain she’ll leave Florida as a better coach. She thought she was detail-oriented before getting to this training camp. But seeing how Maurice and the Panthers prepare with precise detail every day, combined with getting an up-close view of Matthew Tkachuk, Aleksander Barkov, Sam Reinhart and the rest of the Cup champs, quickly gave her a very different perspective.
“I’m definitely bringing back so much more than I thought,” Bumstead said.
Training camp is like a dream for coaches who love nothing more than sitting around with others and talking hockey all day. Bumstead has gotten that experience over the last few days with Florida, plus time being part of the on-ice instruction. Maurice didn’t tell her until Saturday that she would be behind the bench on Sunday.
A half-hour after the game ended, she was still excited. “It means I got the full experience, for sure,” Bumstead said.
Having Bumstead next to him wasn’t a throwaway move for Maurice on Sunday. He wanted Bumstead to see the NHL game from that perspective. He also wanted people in hockey to see Bumstead behind the bench of the Cup champs.
“Coaches will view the game a lot of times better from the bench than they will from up top,” Maurice said. “It’s not what we’re used to seeing. So, she gets it. She’s a good coach. And I think, when you talk about opportunity and maybe exposure as well, she’s going to get an opportunity to be a head coach somewhere down the line. … She’ll get there.”
AP NHL: https://apnews.com/hub/nhl
Christine Bumstead, a performance coach for the Saskatoon Blades in Canada's Western Hockey League, watches as Florida Panthers players do drills during NHL hockey training camp, Thursday, Sept. 19, 2024, in Fort Lauderdale, Fla. Bumstead is working as part of the Panthers coaching staff during training camp. (AP Photo/Lynne Sladky)
BIRMINGHAM, Ala. (AP) — Authorities have reported no arrests after a weekend mass shooting killed four people and left 17 others injured in what police described as a targeted “hit” by multiple shooters who opened fire outside a popular Alabama nightspot.
The shooting late Saturday in the popular Five Points South entertainment district of Birmingham rocked an area of restaurants and bars that is often bustling on weekend nights. The mass shooting, one of several this year in the city, unnerved residents and left officials at home and beyond pleading for help to both solve the crime and address the broader problem of gun violence.
“The priority is to find these shooters and get them off our streets,” Birmingham Mayor Randall Woodfin said a day after the shooting.
The mayor planned a morning news conference Monday to provide updates on the case.
The shooting occurred on the sidewalk and street outside Hush, a lounge in the entertainment district, where blood stains were still visible on the sidewalk outside the venue on Sunday morning.
Birmingham Police Chief Scott Thurmond said authorities believe the shooting targeted one of the people who was killed, possibly in a murder-for-hire. A vehicle pulled up and “multiple shooters” got out and began firing, then fled the scene, he said.
“We believe that there was a ‘hit,’ if you will, on that particular person,” Thurmond said.
Police said about 100 shell casings were recovered. Thurmond said law enforcement was working to determine what weapons were used, but they believe some of the gunfire was “fully automatic.” Investigators also were trying to determine whether anyone fired back, creating a crossfire.
In a statement late Sunday, police said the shooters are believed to have used “machine gun conversion devices” that make semiautomatic weapons fire more rapidly.
Officers found two men and a woman on a sidewalk with gunshot wounds and they were pronounced dead there. An additional male gunshot victim was pronounced dead at a hospital, according to police.
Police identified the three victims found on the sidewalk as Anitra Holloman, 21, of the Birmingham suburb of Bessemer, Tahj Booker, 27, of Birmingham, and Carlos McCain, 27, of Birmingham. The fourth victim pronounced dead at the hospital was pending identification.
By the early hours of Sunday, victims began showing up at hospitals and police subsequently identified 17 people with injuries, some of them life-threatening. Four of the surviving victims, in conditions ranging from good to critical, were being treated at the University of Alabama at Birmingham Hospital on Sunday afternoon, according to Alicia Rohan, a hospital spokeswoman.
The area of Birmingham where the gunfire erupted is popular with young adults because of its proximity to the University of Alabama at Birmingham and the plethora of nearby restaurants and bars.
The shooting was the 31st mass killing of 2024, of which 23 were shootings, according to James Alan Fox, a criminologist and professor at Northeastern University, who oversees a mass killings database maintained by The Associated Press and USA Today in partnership with the university.
Three of the nation’s 23 mass shootings this year were in Birmingham, including two earlier quadruple homicides.
Woodfin expressed frustration at what he described as an epidemic of gun violence in America and the city.
“We find ourselves in 2024, where gun violence is at an epidemic level, an epidemic crisis in our country. And the city of Birmingham, unfortunately, finds itself at the tip of that spear,” he said.
Associated Press writer Jonathan Mattise in Nashville, Tennessee, contributed to this report.
CORRECTS DATE hat appears to be a bullet hole is visible in the window of Hush, a hookah and cigar lounge, in Birmingham, Ala. on Sunday, Sept. 22, 2024, the day after a mass shooting took place. (AP Photo/Kim Chandler)
Blood stains were visible on the sidewalk outside of a nightclub in Birmingham, Ala. on Sunday, Sept. 22, 2024, after a mass shooting took place. (AP Photo/Kim Chandler)
A firefighter cleans blood stains off the sidewalk outside a nightclub in Birmingham, Ala. on Sunday, Sept. 22, 2024, after a mass shooting took place. (AP Photo/Kim Chandler)
This image provided by WBMA shows police tape near the scene of a shooting in Birmingham, Ala., Sunday, Sept. 22, 2024. (Bill Castle/WBMA via AP)
This image provided by WBMA shows police working on the scene of a shooting in Birmingham, Ala., Sunday, Sept. 22, 2024. (Bill Castle/WBMA via AP)
Drops of blood remain at the scene of a fatal Saturday night shooting in the Five Points neighborhood of Birmingham, Ala., Sunday, Sept. 22, 2024. (AP Photo/Vasha Hunt)
This image provided by WBMA shows police and emergency vehicles in the entertainment district after a shooting in Birmingham, Ala., Sunday, Sept. 22, 2024. (Bill Castle/WBMA via AP)
The scene of a fatal Saturday night shooting outside Hush, a hookah lounge, in the Five Points neighborhood of Birmingham, Ala., Sunday, Sept. 22, 2024. (AP Photo/Vasha Hunt)
Search underway for suspects in Alabama mass shooting that killed 4 and injured 17
Search underway for suspects in Alabama mass shooting that killed 4 and injured 17
This image provided by WBMA shows bystanders near the scene of a shooting in Birmingham, Ala., Sunday, Sept. 22, 2024. (Bill Castle/WBMA via AP)
