Leah Hextall reacts to the abuse she endured last season, leading to death threats

Last summer, it was announced that Leah Hextall would be hired as one of ESPN’s regular NHL play-by-play voices. For most of the 2021-22 season, Hextall was perched between the two benches during several games weekly, and fans were quick to criticize her every move and comment.

She sustained terrible abuse on social media, “which prompted her to deactivate a Facebook page, turn off her notifications on Twitter and tighten security controls on Instagram.” Hextall reacted to the abuse she endured this past season as on-air talent to The Athletic’s Richard Deitsch:

“Vile,” she said. “Sexist. Misogynistic. And threatening.”

Hextall had to deal with the brutal comments all season long.

“There just doesn’t seem to be an end to it. That’s where it becomes problematic: It’s not just one game here and there — it’s every single time I am in the booth.”

She especially heard about the fans’ complaints after a game broadcasting the Tampa Bay Lightning and the Toronto Maple Leafs in which Hextall stood in between benches as Pat Maroon and Wayne Simmonds were chirping back and forth:

“It keeps going. Simmonds, Maroon. Simmonds, Maroon. Here we go,” Hextall said, pointing to each side as they traded barbs.

In the intermission, she spoke with Simmonds during her segment and said: "He called you ‘soft’ — my question is: Are you?”

“You should ask him,” Simmonds said. “We’ve never dropped the gloves. He’s never obliged me before. So I don’t know. I don’t think I’m the one that’s soft.”

The interview went viral as fans called out Hextall for her stupid question.

But Hextall ain’t stupid. She knows the game and comes from a royal hockey family. Her grandfather, Bryan Hextall Sr., is a Hall of Famer and key player for the Rangers in their 1940 Stanley Cup conquest. Her uncle, Bryan Hextall Jr., played 10 years in the league in the 1960s and 1970s. Her cousin, Ron Hextall, well he needs no introduction, a top goalie in the NHL for 13 years with the Flyers, Nordiques and Islanders.

But the comments turned into threats with one saying: “I will then put a gun in your mouth and blow out your brains so no one has to hear you call a hockey game again.”

“It was that shocking, more than anything, that someone would have that much anger towards me because I was calling a hockey game,” she said in an interview. “A hockey game. I’m not saving lives here. I’m just calling a hockey game, and you were willing to threaten my physical and sexual safety?”

Hextall is hoping fans will embark on the culture change of having more women in the hockey world. Hextall has tons of experience in sports media, mostly as a reporter and as a studio host, and not as a play-by-play voice. She took on the role for NESN, as well as “Hockey Night in Canada,” but she was still learning the ropes behind the main microphone.

Let’s give her a chance to put up her best work in a safe environment.