Laughter Saves: Connie Craig Finds Joy In The Game By Bringing It To Others

In 2022, after the global pandemic ended, Connie Craig, former Quinnipiac goaltender, decided to order new hockey pads for her upcoming beer league season. She had just begun creating videos of herself in the net for her couple-of-hundred followers. She was starting to fall back in love with ice hockey after a long journey. Then her mom was taken to the hospital with a life-threatening illness. Craig was unsure what to do or how to proceed. Then the pads got delivered, and her perspective changed.

“I realized I don't want to be a negative person. I don't want to be grumpy. There's all this bad stuff that's happened to me. There's bad stuff that happens to everybody; let's be honest, bad things happen. I thought, ‘I want to start making videos again’."

Craig played just one season as the goaltender on the Quinnipiac University’s women’s hockey team. She started in net her freshman year, recording a .911 save percentage over 32 games. That season was the winningest season up till then for the team. Now, 20 years after she played collegiate hockey, she is going viral with videos of her mic’d up in net in her ‘beer league games’. It has been a crazy journey for Craig to get to where she is today.

It was clear collegiate hockey wasn’t the path Craig wanted for herself, but 20 years later she figured out what was.

“I was looking at my future and where I wanted to end up. It was a hard decision, but I made these decisions for my life.” Craig said upon reflection of her decision to step away from collegiate ice hockey.

She also made this decision based on injuries she had dealt with during her time at Quinnipiac.

“I actually tore my MCL very early in the season, and I played on it the whole year. I decided that my body and my health were more important. I kept thinking, ‘where is this going in the future?’” she said.

After one year in college, Craig decided to move back to Canada to pursue a degree in science.

Craig continued to love hockey, and said that if she had to make the decision today, her path may have differed.

“This is a long time ago,” Craig said. “There wasn't really anywhere after NCAA for a woman to go playing hockey. If the PWHL, existed like it does today, then it might have changed my mind and played longer at Quinnipiac.”

She didn’t stop playing hockey however, she continued to play with the Strathmore Rockies, a Western Women’s Hockey League team.

Craig enjoyed her time with the team, however she did recognize the flaws.

“You weren't paid to play, you were paying to play. They tried to get sponsors to cover some travel, but for the most part we were paying for all that pretty much out of our own pockets,” she said.

Eventually Craig decided to focus on her career, and began a full time job after graduating from the University of Calgary with a geology degree.

During this time she continued to play hockey in “pretty high level beer leagues," but never lost her passion for playing.

Unfortunately her career took a turn in 2019 when she had to step away from the sport due to concussions. Craig thought her hockey career was over, and took a five year break from playing.

“I was reffing because I didn't want to leave the game. To be honest, I thought I was never going to play again because of the concussions.”

Then she began playing pickup ball hockey. She slowly found her love of the game again, and decided to get back onto the ice.

Craig was struck over the next few years with tragedy. Her father passed away suddenly one Christmas. Then less than a year later her mother was rushed to the hospital and was being treated for a severe illness.

Earlier in 2021 she had begun to post videos on her Instagram of herself in the net. Craig would mic herself up, and talk while in net playing games. At the time, Craig had around 800 followers, who were mostly her close friends and family.

While her mom was in the hospital, Craig changed her mindset on life, and decided she should begin making videos again.

The videos allowed for Craig to show the world a different side of her life. She describes herself as an “extroverted introvert” to which to her means “I'm kind of almost a hermit outside of the rink”. This allowed her to share a new part of her personality and bring joy to other people’s lives.

Today, Craig has 21,000 Instagram followers, with some of her videos reaching over one million views.

“There's one video there that I made that got a couple hundred thousand views. Then I just decided to keep making videos while trying to be positive and trying to make people laugh," Craig continued. “I know what it's like to not be happy and to have bad things happen. It's just stressful, and life does these things to you."

Not only did her followers increase, but Craig began collaborating with influencers and getting feedback on her posts. Most of it came from parents of young girls.

“Someone will say, ‘we watch your videos’ or ‘I watch it with my daughter.’ That's a win in my books, because it'd never want it to be, all about gender. Women, men, it doesn't matter. You just play the game. I want the game to be for everyone."

Craig experienced the gender disparities in ice hockey growing up. She would not be selected for a team or given the opportunity to play based on her gender. She is happy to see these younger girls playing hockey and inspiring them through her videos. The invention of the PWHL also helps inspire the younger generation according to Craig.

“Seeing the PWHL and what's going on, I'm jealous. I wish it was around 10 or 15 years ago, because I'd probably still be playing. I would have aspired to play in it.” She continued, “regardless, I'm really happy to see that for girls that are playing today, they have something to shoot for now, and it's awesome.”

Craig’s social media continues to grow as more and more people find her account. She still has one mission, which is making a positive impact on people's lives, especially young girls in the sport.

“I just want to make people smile, and I want to be a good influence on younger people, especially the females. A lot of the hockey influencers are males, and I just think if I can maybe inspire a young girl or show people that you can have fun, then this is a good thing to be doing.”