When the Game Changes: Losing My Mom and Finding Myself Again

INSTANT NATIONAL BESTSELLER

An engaging and deeply moving memoir from renowned Sportsnet anchor Evanka Osmak about finding a women’s hockey community just as she was losing her beloved mother to ALS.

When fan-favourite Sportsnet TV anchor Evanka Osmak was forty-one years old, she became a hockey player for the first time.

She had her dream job, a solid group of female friends, and a beautiful family; still, she realized she needed something outside of work that was just for her, particularly in the wake of a pandemic that caused all our worlds to shrink. That’s when she found Sister Sports, a local hockey league just for women. Evanka was used to reporting on hockey, so she knew the game inside and out—from the broadcast studio. But she’d never played before. And she wouldn’t realize until later how much this league would come to mean to her.

At the same time as she was falling in love with the game as a player, not just as a sports anchor, she received some devastating news: her beloved mother, Jeannie—her family’s rock—had been diagnosed with ALS.

As Evanka navigated her mother’s treatment and progressing illness, she found a sense of hope and community within her hockey team of adult women that helped her deal with the unthinkable.

When the Game Changes is a deeply affecting memoir that shows Jeannie’s care and influence throughout Evanka’s life, from her childhood through her lively early career, to finding herself in the co-anchor’s seat at Sportsnet. It’s the profound story of a daughter’s extraordinary love for her mom, and how a team of like-minded women provided solace at one of life’s most challenging times.

This is the story of how sports, family, and women’s community can get us through our darkest hours.

Evanka Osmak is a veteran anchor at Rogers Sportsnet. Before television, she studied civil engineering at Queens University. Her passion for sports and broadcasting landed her a job in Arizona and then eventually Sportsnet in Toronto in 2007. Evanka lives in Toronto with her husband and two children. 

Kristina Rutherford is a senior writer at Sportsnet, and in fifteen years there she has covered major events including the Stanley Cup Finals, the Olympic Games, the World Series, the Scotties Tournament of Hearts and the US Open Tennis championships. Kristina lives in Toronto with her partner, Adam, their two kids and their dog, Riggins.