Blake Bolden On Being A Hockey Pioneer And What’s Next

NEW YORK, NY – Blake Bolden has been a pioneer along every step of her hockey journey. The sport has taken her from Ohio to Boston, Switzerland, and California, just to name a few stops. Last month, Bolden spoke on a panel at the 2023 espnW Summit in the DUMBO area of Brooklyn, New York, where she outlined what she hopes will be next.

“I want to be an analyst,” Bolden said as part of her final remarks on a panel with fellow ‘Women of ESPN’ Cristina Alexander, Kelsey Riggs, and moderator by Molly Qerim.

After the event, I caught up with Bolden to get a better sense of what her next moves might be.

“I think my experiences in the game will help. And I just know there are some things I have to go through to get there. But that’s my goal in the TV space,” Bolden told the 1 Hotel Brooklyn Bridge audience.

As someone who has watched Bolden play since the inception of the Premier Hockey Federation – the National Women’s Hockey League when Bolden played – I am energized to hear she wants to get repetitions on-camera. Other than myself, I have never met another Black woman calling hockey games as a color commentator or as the play-by-play voice.

Hockey is heavily lacking, as I like to say, melanin. Further, as hockey looks to expand its audience, they need to look for organic and authentic voices to usher the sport into a new era. Blake Bolden fits the bill.

Shipping Off to Boston

Don’t let her crossover appeal fool you, Bolden knows hockey.

Originally from Cleveland, many associate Bolden with Beantown. She spent eight years in Boston, captioned the Boston College Women’s Hockey team, won the Clarkson Cup with the Boston Blades (in the defunct CWHL), and the inaugural Isobel Cup in the NWHL.

From Boston, Bolden took her talents to Switzerland for one season before returning to the United States to play first with the Buffalo Beauts in the NWHL and then in the PWHPA before retiring.

Building up Black girls and women has always been a passion of Bolden’s, though it was not always a role she openly spoke about. Over the years of interviewing Bolden, I get the sense this is two-fold.

Like many other “first”, Bolden was often only asked about being a Black hockey player. Keeping up with Olympians in college and at the pro level only appeared to be of interest in February or March, the 58 days dedicated to stories to Black History and Women’s History.

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The second reason is part and parcel with the first. When one isn’t asked to tell their story, it can take time to develop an authentic voice. Or should I say, a public voice.

You see, Bolden has always found ways to empower the next generation. From working at a Boston-based non-profit to eventually starting her own mentorship program (while making time for a rising women’s hockey journalists, yours truly), Bolden has always given her time.

The Right Place at the Right Time

Her dedication to Black women in hockey led her to attend a Black Girl Hockey Club meetup at an NHL game in November 2019. At that game, she met Luc Robitaille, the retired NHL player serving as president of the Los Angeles Kings.

“That’s where I basically started getting vetted for the position as a scout,” Bolden told me in February 2020 at a coffee shop steps away from Staples Center (now Crypto.com Arena).

Bolden guided me to the coffee shop around the corner where she hoped we could speak without interruption, but less than five minutes into our conversation, Bolden was flagged down and given the white jacket she would later wear for puck drop, along with a gentle reminder to make her way to the arena shortly.

The NHL Black Hockey History Museum was in town, and despite only being in her role for a few months, Bolden and NHL pioneer Willie O’Ree were the toast of the town. The Kings were playing the Pittsburgh Penguins, so Bolden and O’Ree met captains Anze Kopitar (Kings) and Sidney Crosby (Penguins).

The next few years made Bolden perhaps the most visible NHL scout in history, as she became an ambassador of sorts for the NHL, including dinner parties with musician Wyclef Jean, photo ops with comedian and known hockey fan Tiffany Haddish, and all while starting a new role with the Kings and playing professionally with the PWHPA.

By 2022, ESPN tapped Bolden as part of their broadcast team as the NHL returned to the worldwide leader of sports for the first time in nearly two decades. After 16 years, EPSN and the NHL partnered up for a seven-year broadcast deal, and Bolden was tapped as an analyst. Flash forward, and now Bolden is dropping gloves, not pucks, in front of Crosby.

Finding Her Voice

Just like being a role model for Black and brown people in hockey, it took Bolden a bit of time to find her role in sports media. After all, her path is different than ESPN colleagues Emily Kaplan or the legendary Linda Cohn. While Bolden and Cohn both played college hockey, Bolden is far from the 30+ years of broadcast and sports radio Cohn brings to the NHL on ESPN.

“I was going into these interviews at NHL finals or for Media Day or any sort of like big gathering where all the players come together, and I was doing the sit-down interviews, and it was Emily Kaplan and Linda Cohn who have vast experience in these interviews,” Bolden said. Media Days, sit-down interviews are part of the job but didn’t fit Bolden, a self-described hockey personality.

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So Bolden and her supervisor Andy Tennant, ESPN Vice President Executive Producer Original Content, began discussing ways to bring a different energy to her hockey coverage.

Bolden tapped into her relationship with the Kings, who offered up their practice facility and goaltender Jonathan Quick. From there, Bolden was given more opportunities to interact with NHL players and talk the game, as athletes do. That’s how Breaking the Ice with Blake Bolden was born.

“I’m honored to have that, but I want more,” Bolden told me in Brooklyn.

How could Bolden make the most of her opportunity with ESPN and remain authentic to her instead of a version of someone else? Additionally, she’d been given a great platform with the Kings. Did she want to give that up?

“I was like, I’m not leaving my little nest at the at the LA Kings because they respect me. They’re that safe there. I’m growing there, and I didn’t feel right leaving my home base a place that gave me a really big platform to be the first another first in my career,” Bolden said.

In time, things came together, and Bolden found herself on the ice again with Penguins captain Sidney Crosby dropping shoulders instead of pucks. The reaction from Crosby, Quick, Cale Makar, and others added to Bolden’s confidence; she found her niche in hockey media.

“It’s like, okay, well, maybe I could do this. Let’s show some personality. Let’s be authentic. Let’s have that. That glow comes through the camera so people can connect, I think that’s what people want to tune into. That’s what makes people stay and I just want to be that for ESPN.”

We have yet to see a Black woman talking hockey on ESPN on anywhere else on a regular basis. Canadian Olympian Sarah Nurse has appeared on SportsNet and TNT to talk men’s pro hockey, but we are still waiting for our “Blake Bolden-looking person on a panel talking hockey,” on a regular basis as Blake herself told me.

It’s time.

“My entire career, I wanted to push the needle and push myself, and it seems like it would be scary. And you know me, if something scary, then that’s what I want to do.

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Bolden dislikes using the term “male-dominated” to describe the hockey landscape. This author believes male-occupied might be more apropos. Whatever you call it, Bolden is ready to change hockey media.

“I think that would be another groundbreaking achievement that you know, I can look back and be like, ‘Dang girl, you are doing it. You are 32. You are planting seeds. You are building a legacy.’ That’s really important to me.”

Once Bolden breaks this barrier, what could possibly be next?