This is allowed now…?
Well 2024 has already been a really interesting year for hockey as we’ve just had the inaugural game for the pwl the professional women’s hockey league the game Saw New York take on Toronto and it was actually incredibly interesting I was extremely impressed by the play I saw especially the
Physicality which I was quite shocked by we’ll get to that in a second though I will give a bit of background on the pwl it’s the newest attempt to create a full-time professional women’s hockey league in North America it’s replacing the phf the premier Hockey Federation and as admittedly an outsider this feels
Like the most legit attempt to create a full women’s league that’s sustainable in the future there’s the corporate backing there’s what feels like just a really high degree of involvement from athletes and I think part of that’s also due to the pay the average salary is 55
Grand and just generally it seems like there’s a lot more fan interest than there has been in the past and I really think that women’s hockey did need a clean slate in a new professional League that being said early on there was definitely some concerns and I think it
Was largely due to the sort of short time frames they had to get this league up and running in basically 6 months as the players made it clear that they didn’t want to lose a year of hockey just to get the league fully organized that means that as of right now the
Teams don’t have official names rather it’s pwhl Boston Minnesota Montreal New York Ottawa and Toronto going into the season fans weren’t even sure or where they were buying tickets for the game schedule the rules were only released today I kind of avoided making videos on the subject because I honestly didn’t
Want to be overly critical for a league that definitely feels like it’s fighting a bit of a battle anyway before today’s game the rule book was officially released and there are a couple of rules that hockey fans are really interested in for one the 32 and one point system
The maximum amount of points awarded for a game is three if you win you get three if it goes to overtime the winning team gets two the losing team gets one obviously that’s meant to encourage teams from turtling the other interesting rule addition is the penalty
Kill if you manage to get a short-handed goal your team’s penalty expires which I think is really interesting and could lead to more aggressive penalty killing I was actually kind of wondering whether this would cause teams to be a bit more conservative on the power play but to be
Honest the threat of getting scored on is already more than losing the power play anyway I just think it’s a neat little bit of excitement anyway as for the game itself as I mentioned I was very very impressed by the level of play especially the physicality I’m used to
Women’s hockey having no hitting and just the occasional contact they really emphasized that this was going to be a physical game all the former players talked about how this is sort of what women have been fighting for and honestly it was great to see there were
A few hits that I even expected would have been called in the men’s game that weren’t called here my one complaint would probably be I would like just a bit more personality overall have some fun with it right now it’s presented very much like an internal National Hockey event which is professional but
It’s just not quite as fun as the NHL game but I think they really want to get the basics down before you know they move on and experiment as for the game itself it was Toronto versus New York I’m a Rangers Fan I mean I’m a Leaf’s
Fan too but I’m mostly a Rangers Fan I think I’ll be cheering for New York in the pwhl and they look phenomenal this game Ella Shelton had the first goal in pwhl history and Ken Schroeder was an absolute brick wall I thought Toronto looked pretty good as well but New York
Honestly had it locked down but I sat and watched the entire game I watched it with my daughter she’s only three but she’s actually really interested in hockey so it was you know kind of cool to say hey those are girls you don’t usually get to see that when we watch
Hocky on TV my son he didn’t really care he liked it as much as normal I do also think it’s a shame that Toronto has them playing in such a small rank like I think they were coming in at 3,000 capacity from what I hear ticket sales
Have been strong so I would have liked them to get in a bit of a larger Arena I also will note that I thought they did a really good job of marketing the game game they had it live on YouTube and were interacting with the chat there were 15,000 people watching which I
Thought was pretty cool the game was fully online to watch afterwards plus it was also on sportset Plus or sportset now and free on CBC so if you’re Canadian it’s very easy to watch it I would really like to see more NHL integration though like the NHL only
Stands to benefit from a partnership with the pwhl like some teams I saw were supporting their women’s counterparts like the Maple Leafs put out a few posts the Rangers I was kind of disappointed didn’t do anything the NHL made one post I get it they had their Winter Classic
Today sort of their own thing but it would have been a nice opportunity for some cross promotion I really hope that something we can get moving forward anyway I’m quite interested in tomorrow evening’s game it’s Montreal versus Ottawa interesting because Montreal has arguably the greatest female hockey player alive right now Marie Philip
Pulan as well as and Renee Dean well Ottawa has one of the other big Canadian guns Brienne Jenner I will say if you’re already into women’s hockey like this is a really interesting League because you’re seeing so many High Caliber players spread out over just six teams a
Lot of players that know each other a lot of the Canadians and Americans really hate each other you can pick that up by watching the game so an interesting season to come anyway they’ll be playing 24 regular season games before the playoffs and my final note why not come to Halifax Halifax
Would absolutely fill up the Metro Center the Scotia Bank Center for pwhl it would be one of the biggest shows in town it’s close to New York Boston Toronto Montreal think about it but that’s all for me see you soon
I wanted to take a look at the opening night of PWHL hockey action which saw PWHL Toronto take on PWHL New York! All that and more on today’s hockey video!
39 Comments
You can watch their games on YouTube. I will probably be in the chat for tomorrow evening's game:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=F-6LYXQCMRQ
New York team needs to do some more advertising, the arena in Bridgeport didn’t have much fan support
they look like house league boys playing lol
Very excited to see what other content you make for PWHL! I'm super into this new league, totally agree they would benefit from having a bit more personality! Hopefully soon 🙂
I don't agree with the comment "have some fun with it". Women's sports have notoriously not been taken seriously. They always have to prove themselves at a higher level than men. I think the league is fantastic and the women are VERY knowledgeable and competitive with the sport. Thanks for watching.
Just the fact they are putting the games on TV will make this league succeed. Lord knows we dont need more top10 type programs on our 10 sports channels
Wtf is that thumbnail eck!?
Keep your eyes out for Susanna Tapani on Minnesota!!! She's a phenomenal multi-sport athlete being the infamous captain of the Finnish ringette team, super influential on the Finnish national hockey team, and has a crazy international professional hockey background .
Let’s the chicks hit !
I really like the simple uniforms. The jerseys are great. Always been a diagonal text guy.
This is only the beginning. Next year, hopefully PWHL gets some logos and nicknames. But so far, this season is going good.
They will eventually have proper team names.
Only thing I know is Detroit needs to stay the red wings **SATIRE**
I'm gonna be a regular viewer. These chicks are entertaining!
Did the same with my 2 yr old daughter. Meant a lot to myself and my wife.
The PK shorthand rule is so sick and I would love to see it in the NHL
Looks badass love the big hits
I've always been a fan of women's hockey. I'm a Montreal Canadiens fan, but honestly despite Poulin I might cheer for Toronto because I love Sarah Nurse!
The teams jersey could have been a lot better
As a hockey fan, the on-ice product is excellent! The Panel and coverage is really weak and could hurt it overall. Hope they triumph through the growing pains!
I will absolutely watch and support this league if the on ice product is worth watching. I like my hockey rough and tumble. Women's mma/boxing was unwatchable at one time, it has now evolved into a very competitive and entertaining sport. If there is not hitting, or the odd scrap, then I might as well go to the local arena on Saturday night and watch beer league for free.
I hope they start small and grow steadily. They should put teams in cities without NHL teams, as well. I'd like to see Halifax, as Eck has suggested, but I'm also thinking Hamilton, too. With the right support this league could flourish.
Just don't have the female hockey players act like the female basketball players and they should be good.
High level women’s hockey is very competitive. I hope they succeed, and I’d gladly watch it. I’m curious how checking will work its way down into amateur over time, since they play non-check all the way through U19, at least in the US. The professional level seems like an awkward time to introduce it.
I’m not related to any female players, I just have a genuine interest as a hockey player/coach/fan.
I think they need more graphic art… team names, logos, a PWHL seal, it needs the flair. Custom Goal Horns, Separate SH, PPG, and Full Strength goal songs… the NHL is a sport that attracts people because every game is a party on ice. The Hockey is there but the game is meant to be fun.
The trans community will have to ruin this league by having the males who couldn’t make the NHL “transition”. Let’s hope this league discourages that or bans that.
I normally scoff at womens sports especially the WNBA but I rock with womens hockey. Size and strength isnt as important so skills are on display. I've played with some amazing women who would step on the ice and make grown men look silly so I'm looking forward to checking this out.
All Boston sports teams posted support for the Boston PWHL team. Boston is a true sports city!
A men allowed in this league?
Gotta say, with the state of the NHL, this may be a great league to be a fan of.
PWHL has been a real blast so far!
Let the ladies wear visors!!!
i made an omelet this morning it was great……
Hopefully we get some teams in the westcoast!
It’s better hockey than the NHL.
Go Generals!
Was having this debate with someone at work the other day. I think Halifax would absolutely fill Scotiabank Place for a PWHL team.
Why not have a PWHL quota system based on nationality? Like they do in the top Swiss and German hockey leagues? Like they do in the CFL?… Sound absurd? Hear me out…
The most exciting thing about women's hockey is the Canada/USA rivalry… Doesn't have to happen in year one… BUT BUT BUT… You wanna stoke those nationalistic fires… Step one, is to make sure there's an even number of US and Canadian franchises, and every time the league expands you add an even number of teams to preserve this balance/ fifty-fifty split…
…. Now let's say, to keep things simple, you're allowed to dress 20 skaters per game…. For Canadian teams that means you have to dress 12 Canadians (SIxty percent), and the remaining 8 (forty percent) can be a mix of American and European players… For the US based teams, sixty percent must be American born players, and forty percent can be a non-American mix. Just to be clear, if you're a US team, you can dress more than 12 US born players, you just can't dress less than 12… And if you're a Canadian team… well you get the idea…
A quota system, as per the above, doesn't hurt US or Canadian women's hockey development, since the 2 talent pools are pretty much even- steven as things stand…. Doesn't give teams, on one side of the border or other, any kind of competitive advantage… Doesn't hurt Euro player development either … BUT BUT BUT… What it would do is stoke those US vs THEM/ Canada vs USA rivalries (over and above the mere geographic locations of the various teams), CAN/AM rivalries which, historically, have been not only the best thing about women's hockey, but, arguably, the most intense rivalry of any sport, period …
One last point… Let's suppose you hold a draft. If you're a US or Canadian-based team, doesn't matter… chances are you'd still draft the best player available. But, of course, due to the quota, there'd still be a tendency for US born players to gravitate south and Canadian born gals to gravitate north…
Nothing wrong with thinking outside the box imo… Sure it might create a bit of controversy, might ruffle the feathers of PC Thought Police/ Global Hegemony… Still, that sort of publicity can also be good… Moreover, hockey fans, the world over, irrespective of nationality, hate those globalist/Orwellian pieces of crap…So WIN/WIN
OH CANADA BAByyyyyyy
As a ranger fan I will like to see the rangers support the New York team. The woman football league had talent but making them play with just thongs & a bra on made it seem unprofessional like the xfl. If they have legit uniforms, I think it would’ve been more successful so I like that this is taken that professional approach and not sexualizing them. I’ll probably watch this here & there if I come across it. But for sure this is not going to be close to anything fun like the NHL
Since they are changing rules, they should have tried a 4 – 15 minute quarter system instead of the traditional 3 – 20 minute period hockey game. You know how many times people who don't know hockey always want to know "What quarter is it?" That could make new fans relate better.