When the Game Changes: Losing My Mum and Finding Myself

by Evanka Osmak, Kristina Rutherford (Primary Contributor)

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 her beloved mother, 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.

This is the profound story of a daughter’s deep 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.

256 pages, Paperback

Published April 7, 2026

Reviews

[Brenda Barrington · Rating 5 out of 5]

A great memoir, equally sad and triumphant! I laughed, cried and was inspired by this book!

[Charlene · Rating 5 out of 5]

I picked up this book because I have watched Evanka Osmak for years on Sportsnet. I was interested to see her story, but what I got was so much more. We get to see how Evanka started out as a reporter and the support she received from her family, especially her mother. We follow her career, and see her established in her field, but wanting a challenge, which is when she takes up learning to play hockey at 41. We also see her relationship with her mother, and how it changes when her mom is diagnosed with ALS.

Evanka shows incredible strength and grace as she navigates the progression of her mother’s illness, while managing a family of her own and her career. Throughout the book you could easily see her mother’s impact and influence on Evanka’s life. This story is about grief, but it is also the story of trying something new and finding yourself.

I always struggle to write reviews of memoirs, because this is someone’s life and their story. This story gave us hurt, helplessness, healing, and hope while showing the strength it takes to tackle life’s challenges head on. I truly enjoyed the humour and heartfelt moments in this book.

Thank you to Simon and Schuster Canada for a copy of this book. All opinions are 100% mine.

[Alicia · Rating 5 out of 5]

Thanks to NetGalley and Simon & Schuster for an advanced digital copy of this title.

If you are a woman who has ever been on the precipice of an earth shattering life change and lost yourself because of it, this book is for you. You will find companionship and kinship through Osmak’s words.

I also recommend this to anyone who is grieving. Even if that grief is not related to a loss of a mother. She pairs sadness and deep loss with uplifting, hopeful stories for great balance.

I had not heard of Evanka prior to reading this novel. I am a sucker for a strong woman’s memoir and jumped in blind. I looked at Evanka’s social media to put a face to the voice. I assure you, she is as beautiful inside, as this book will show you, as she is on the outside. Most importantly, she is vivacious and full of life, exactly as she describes her mother. So many of the qualities she admires in her mother are ones I would use to describe her. I truly admire the grace, insight and somehat self-deprecating nature (she is humble and humorous) throughout. I wish her many more goals.

[Kate Viner · Rating 5 out of 5]

I loved this book by Sportsnet’s Evanka Osmak so much. I loved it as a memoir of a young person making her way towards her dream job. I loved it as a story about doing something new, purely for yourself, as you get older - in Evanka’s case, joining a women’s hockey league as an absolute beginner at the age of 41. And I loved this, although in a heartbreakingly devastating way, as a story about a daughter’s love for her mum. I think that this book will be a beacon of strength and courage for others who are going through difficult times. Thank you, Evanka, for sharing so much and being so vulnerable - and oftentimes very funny! - in this wonderful book. Bravo!

[Kaytee Pergentile]

I gravitated toward this one because of the connection to ALS—my grandfather passed from it 20 years ago this year. I also see Evanka on Sportsnet regularly, so it felt like reading about someone familiar, while realizing how much I didn’t actually know. I really appreciated the span of her story—before, during, and after her mother’s illness—and the honesty in her grief and rebuilding. Her decision to join a hockey league for herself really stood out as a reminder of the importance of identity outside of everything else.

[Angie F. · Rating 5 out of 5]

Evanka Osmak's When the Game Changes: Losing My Mum and Finding Myself is a very compelling memoir about family, loss, sports, and the unusual turns that life sometimes takes.

Osmak is probably best known for being an anchor on Sportsnet, but When the Game Changes is so much more than a sports memoir. It does detail the circuitous route that she took to get to her dream job, and while that was very interesting and engaging, the most compelling part for me was the discussion of her mother's diagnosis of ALS and everything that followed from that.

I also think that using hockey as a framing device was very effective. Joining a women's hockey league at the age of 41 not only helped with taking the author's mind off of her mother's illness and eventually coping with grief, but was also able to put other aspects of her life, such as her on air role, and being a wife and a mother into a new perspective. The chapters wove back and forth in time, but each section of the narrative whether it be the present or the past had equal momentum.

Overall, the book was both hopeful and moving and I highly recommend it.

Osmak mentions several times that she is insecure about being able to write this book. She need not have been because this book is wonderful. It is not just for the sports fans, but for anyone who has lost someone to illness and all of the complicated emotions that come from being in a caregiver role to a parent.

Thank you very much to Simon & Schuster Canada for providing a physical advance reader copy for review. All opinions are my own.

[Kelly (miss_kellysbookishcorner)]

3.50

review to come

[Marnie Pedersen · Rating 3 out of 5]

I thought that there were be more about loss and grief.
It was a good coming of age story for a young woman.