LULU GARCIA-NAVARRO, HOST:
It all began with a tweet. Colorado Avalanche Center Nathan MacKinnon was all set to compete in the National Hockey League's All-Star Skills Competition, but he got a bruised foot. So he had to pull out. But McKinnon had another player in mind to fill in. And his team tweeted out an invitation to Kendall Coyne Schofield. She's a forward for the U.S. women's national team, which took the gold medal at last year's Olympics. Her first thought, she said, was, I can do this. And so she did. In the fastest skater event, she posted a time of 14.346 seconds, which placed seventh among some of the NHL's top players. And it made her the first woman to ever compete in the NHL All-Stars Skills Competition. Obviously, I was a little nervous, Coyne Schofield told ESPN. But she said, I knew it was a moment that was going to break a lot of barriers and a moment that would change the perception of our game. Transcript provided by NPR, Copyright NPR.
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