Ida Björnstad (left) and Julie Turris
Two-year-old William won’t stop fussing. His mom Ida Björnstad is calm, but she’s obviously a little flustered by her son’s timing. She asks to pause our interview so she can grab the toddler a quick snack in the hopes he’ll settle down.
“This is the end of a long road trip, you can tell,” Julie Turris says with a knowing laugh.
Björnstad is engaged to Nashville Predators defenseman Mattias Ekholm — William’s father — and Turris is married to forward Kyle Turris. The Turrises have three young children of their own. It’s just a few days before Christmas, and the women’s partners have been on the road for almost a week, playing games in New York, Ottawa and Boston. But babies don’t care if their dads have multimillion-dollar contracts to fulfill, or if their moms have an interview with a journalist — there are episodes of Paw Patrol to watch and baths to take and Goldfish crackers to eat.
The unfiltered, sometimes unglamorous side of hockey-wife life is something Turris and Björnstad often discuss on their weekly podcast Off Ice With Ida & Julie.
“All we see [on social media] is perfection, an illusion of life,” says Björnstad. “I do not want to be a part of that. Life is not perfect. I would hate if a girl from my hometown looks at me and thinks that we have it all. I want people to see the downsides too, and realize that it’s not perfection or without insanely hard work.”
Turris and Björnstad have spent most of the past year sharing their lives with their listeners. They’ve also invited other women from around the league and the sports world — including Elizabeth Poile, Kristen Laviolette and Olympic gold medalist Lindsey Vonn — to talk about the good (gorgeous houses, nice cars and being able to afford help from nannies, of course) but also the not-so-good. Some of the latter includes the instability that comes with being tethered to an unpredictable industry, as well as the fact that many women who relocate with their partners are unable to work in America because of visa requirements. Björnstad, who had a long career in sports broadcasting in Sweden, feigns tearfulness as she says, “I miss working so much!”
This season, the duo has set out to tackle even more serious issues, including addiction and mental illness like depression and anxiety. The two agree that the episode they’re proudest of is the one they debuted on Nov. 6, which features Austin Watson’s girlfriend Jenn Guardino. In June 2018, Watson was arrested and charged with domestic assault after a witness saw Watson and Guardino get into an altercation in a Franklin parking lot. Guardino’s appearance on Off Ice was the first time she spoke publicly about what happened that night, and she also opened up about how she’s been affected by addiction and mental illness since childhood.
“Ida and I had an idea of what we wanted to talk to Jenn about, but we didn’t really write down any questions,” says Turris. “We wanted to let the interview go where it went. Her opening up and being so honest and so raw with it, it made me understand her better. And we heard back from so many people with personal experiences with addiction.
“She opened the door for so many other people to share their stories with us,” she continues. “It made Ida and I think, ‘OK, we can do something more with this podcast and explore the deeper side and human side of different people in the organization and throughout hockey.’ ”
The NHL, and the Nashville Predators specifically, have a reputation for being cagey or even secretive when it comes to, well, pretty much anything. When a player is injured, the team rarely says what the injury is beyond designating it as “upper-body” (anything from a sprained finger to a severe concussion) or “lower-body” (A broken femur? A stubbed toe? Who knows!). Sometimes that lack of clarity is no big deal, and in some cases it’s understandable. But other times it can be infuriating, like when the franchise released a non-comment regarding Watson’s arrest. Fans also objected earlier this season when former head coach Peter Laviolette (who was fired on Jan. 6) benched Turris’ healthy husband and refused to offer up an explanation beyond “It’s a roster decision.”
Reporters and fans alike pressed the Preds to explain why one of the team’s highest-paid forwards was sitting on the bench, and the team’s lack of clarity only fueled speculation. Turris decided she didn’t want to stay quiet. She voiced her frustration on the Nov. 27 episode, “Healthy Scratch” — “I am sad, I am confused, and I am mad,” she said.
Kyle returned to the ice after being scratched for seven straight games, but the franchise hasn’t spoken about the incident since.
“I love sports and especially ice hockey,” says Björnstad. “It’s a wonderful game. However, almost every team sport has a culture of silence. People are afraid to speak up ’cause there’s a chance that they will not play. I believe it’s more important than ever to speak up.”
That means transparency around the struggles players face off ice, too. Turris and Björnstad are proudly encouraging that conversation.
“I think now [hockey players] are opening the discussion up to the public more, and being more honest about what they’re going through, which I think is really great,” says Turris. “It’s not just hockey — it’s our culture in general being more understanding and granting people more grace and not judging without knowing and not putting a taboo on mental health. Hockey is in line with how everything is going in society right now, and it definitely is a lot more open. It is a more reserved sport, so the fact that they’re being more honest about different struggles is really refreshing.”
Check out the rest of the Pod Goals series about Versify, Cocaine & Rhinestones: The History of Country Music, Mirror Mirror, Something's Not Right, The Promise, Nashville Sounding Board and My Fantasy Funeral.
