Cheers echoed through the packed arena in Ottawa, with fans rising to their feet to shout support for the home team and some vitriol at the visitors. “New York sucks!” they chanted. Young girls in Pee Wee jerseys, bearded bros in Ottawa red, and women holding placards with slogans like “Girls Supporting Girls” join in the excitement. I raised my voice.
Because this is February in Canada, where hockey is featured on the $5 bill and where all levels of the sport are revered with almost fanatical fervor.
When Ottawa scored with minutes remaining to break the tie, the 8,000 fans erupted, demonstrating their emotional investment in the newly formed Women's Professional Hockey League.
Women's professional hockey has had a divisive history, with different leagues on four continents dividing talent and fans. But now, for the first time, virtually all of the best players have come together to display a deft, muscular style that has fans transfixed.
“It's unbelievable to play here,” New York defender Jaime Bourbonnais said after the game. “We're so lucky to have fans like them in Ottawa. It feels like the fans are right on top of you.”
It was a good start for the league, which had just started. In February, 19,285 fans packed Toronto's Scotiabank Arena to watch their team play in Montreal, setting a new attendance record for women's hockey. A month later, about 14,000 people gathered in Detroit, which didn't even have a team, to watch Boston play against Ottawa. This set a record for women in the United States.
“It's beyond our wildest dreams,” said Stan Kasten, a veteran sports executive and senior advisor to league sole owner Mark Walter. Kasten said Montreal recently moved the game to a 21,000-seat downtown arena and tickets sold out in 20 minutes.
With the notable exception of New York, the league is doing well.
Despite having a roster full of talented, mean, and likable players, New York fell short of the early buzz for a variety of reasons. Home games he has spread across his three arenas in three states, and his practice facility is located 55 miles outside Manhattan. New York has the league's worst record and faces persistent questions about whether it is a “hockey city.”
Abigail Levy, New York's prodigy goaltender, grew up in suburban Rockland County, New York, but left home to play hockey at a prep school in Minnesota and then at Boston University.
“The best female players in this area go and play elsewhere,” she says. “It’s not that big in the New York area.”
But emerging sports leagues seeking credibility and marketability are seeking a foothold in New York, which has an established media machine. It also means competing with numerous other entertainment options.
As the league was being formed, the players' association considered all issues, including where the teams would be established. “We thought about going to the Midwest, where it's smaller and hockey is more prominent,” said Abby, a New York forward who grew up in Sault Ste., and the daughter of a coach and an NHL scout. Rock said. Marie, Mich. “But the league said you can’t start a sports league without having a team in New York City.”
Where they landed isn't exactly Broadway. The team practices in Stamford, Conn., where most of the players live, and home games are played in Bridgeport, Conn., Newark, and Elmont, Long Island. But regardless of where home games were played, the stands were mostly empty. New York has the lowest attendance in the league, averaging 2,325 fans per home game.
There is no guarantee the league will be able to keep the team in New York if ticket sales continue to be delayed. So every time you lose, the pressure increases.
“I feel it every day,” said team captain Micah Zandihart, a stout defender who grew up in British Columbia. “I take being New York's captain very seriously. It's an honor, but it's also a great responsibility.”
In the final minutes of the game in Ottawa, Zandy Hart made a nice pass to Jesse Eldridge, but his shot was blocked. Ottawa withstood the onslaught and won. Before leaving the ice, Ottawa players formed a circle and waved their sticks at the enthusiastic crowd. Virtually no one was sent off until all players were sent off.
A week later, New York, in the midst of a painful losing streak, played a home game in Bridgeport. There were only 728 fans. They lost again.
“It's frustrating that in New York the building is half empty all the time,” New York veteran forward Madison Packer said. “But the talent on the ice has never been better than it is now.”
“Hockey Halfway House”
More than a dozen wine glasses clinked on a long, narrow dinner table in the Stamford home where Mr. Packer lives with his wife, Anya Packer, and their two young children. Packer, coming off a three-game losing streak, decided it was the perfect time to have a home-cooked meal to bond as a team. About half the players gathered there, chatting amiably about hockey and their playing adventures in Sweden, China, Russia and elsewhere.
The Packers' spacious colonial home is the team's cultural hub and is known as the Hockey Halfway House because it usually houses several teammates. In the PWHL, players earn more than in the previous North American league, but the average salary is $55,000.
Emma Woods, the league's hardest-hitting forward, currently resides with the Packers, along with French forward Chloe Olard.
Madison Packer grew up in the Detroit suburbs with the sons and daughters of Red Wings players. She was captain of the Metropolitan Riveters, which played in a rink in a shopping mall in East Rutherford, New Jersey, but that league disbanded last year.
She was a star at the University of Wisconsin and led the Badgers to a national championship in 2011 against Boston College. She is also her future wife. The two men didn't meet until long after that match, but now, on a shelf at home, there's one trophy from the championship match and one from the repechage match.
Anya played three seasons with the former Connecticut Whale, later became the Riveters' general manager, and is currently a technology sales executive. Madison also works remotely as an executive recruiter. She is one of the few players in the league who has children, and she has a busy schedule that starts in the morning and ends late at night doing non-hockey work.
For example, on the day of the team dinner, she helped the kids get ready for school before heading to the team's weight training session. From there, she went to a rink in Stamford to practice, then rushed to Greenwich Country Day School to present the award to the women's hockey team, which she coaches. She picked up her kids from school, drove home through rush-hour traffic on Merritt Parkway, and helped prepare steak dinners for her teammates.
After the meal, Packer soaked in a cold therapeutic tub while the other players settled into the living room to watch the game between Ottawa and Minnesota on TV. In the PWHL's first season, when six cities were selected, the league did not assign nicknames or logos. Organizers felt they did not have enough time and did not want to force teams to make inappropriate choices. Therefore, the uniforms other than the color scheme will be the same for the first year.
While watching the game, teammates exchanged thoughts on opponents they knew, noted trends on the ice and lamented Ottawa forward Cristin Della Rovere's season-ending wrist injury. . The women's players let out an “ooh” at the hard check, which led to a discussion about increased physical play in the new league (a style closer to men's hockey), which many say helped increase the PWHL's popularity. people believe.
“It suits my game,” said Taylor Baker, a tough defender from Toronto. She did not tolerate any harassment of the goalkeeper. She said, “I played with boys until high school, so I know how to hit and defend.''
Although the atmosphere was relaxed that night, New York still lost its next game and fell to last place a week later. My confidence was plummeting. With only two of the six teams not qualifying for the playoffs when the postseason begins in May, New York was desperate for a change of fortunes and a change of pace.
in the smoke
Like all losing teams, tensions began to crack. New York general manager Pascal Daust punched the metal cabinet in the executive box during the loss to Minnesota. He got scratched on the door and word spread to the locker room, but the losses continued. After two more losses, he told the team after practice that if any player wasn't giving their best, he would help them pack their bags and drive them to the airport.
He said the players are all great friends and good people, but not always great teammates. And he expressed his faith in his players, saying that even when he had the chance to trade them, he kept them all.
“No one remembers Cinderella kneeling to clean,” he said the next day. “Only a happy ending remains. There's still time to turn this season into a Cinderella story.”
But the next night, they lost again to Ottawa in Bridgeport, and their frustration reached a climax. There was a lot of jostling between New York and Ottawa players on the ice, and New York's superstar forward Alex Carpenter, who led the league in assists, kicked the door off his bench after Ottawa scored in the closing seconds. Afterwards, Packer was furious in the hallway, saying, “If we keep losing, the players can't complain even if the attendance is low.''
“It's the very definition of insanity to point fingers and point fingers at what we're doing now. Doing the same thing over and over again,” she said. “Coaches should coach, players should play, players shouldn't have the ability to coach. I've never seen anything like that in any professional league I've ever been in.”
The scathing criticism came just days after Packer called everyone home in the midst of a losing streak. That night, a bonfire crackled in the backyard. In search of a way out of the darkness, the players wrote down on slips of paper what was bothering them and what they wanted to let go of. They threw it all into flames and rising smoke. It didn't go well.
After the recent loss, Packer revealed that in his notes that night he wrote: She said she had second thoughts about joining the league. She is 32 years old, has two beautiful children, a loving wife, and she has a good job outside of hockey. Who needs aggravation? But she threw her doubts into the fire and vowed to keep playing her game.
From “void”
After a seven-game losing streak, New York took to the ice for one last chance at victory before the Women's World Championship was suspended for a month. They skated with remarkable determination, and the nearly 3,000 fans, New York's second-highest home attendance of the season, added extra momentum to the game. But like everything this year, it wasn't easy.
Jade Downey-Landry scored twice to give New York a 3-1 lead, but they had to withstand a ferocious challenge from Boston in the final desperate moments. The losing streak finally came to an end when Ms. Zandee Hart ran onto the ice with just seconds left, destroying Boston's chances and the horn sounded. Although they were still in last place, New York's players jumped off the bench in celebration.
Frank Sinatra's “New York, New York” blared over the PA system, surging into their hearts as fans celebrated and saluted. The joy continued in the locker room, where coach Howie Draper delivered the congratulations he had been waiting for a month.
“Every team and every athlete goes through a hiatus at some point,” he told his players. “I think we went into the void, and it seemed like an eternity. But you persevered and got out of there.”
The win kept the players from spending the month on their minds and gave them a few days off before practice resumed for their home game on April 20th. The game was the team's first at the New Jersey Devils Arena in Newark. their permanent residence.
“We are evaluating all venues in all cities for next year,” Kasten, the league advisor, said in a text message.
But that's not a top priority for Zandy Hart. Over the holidays, the New York State captain heads to Maine with his partner, holding out hope that New York State will overcome the odds of making the playoffs and that we'll be able to hear that sweet music again, no matter which state it's played in. Ta.
“When I won and I heard 'New York, New York,' it was such an amazing feeling,” she recalls. “It revitalized the energy that we were slowly losing. We're still in this thing. It's going to work. We have to make it work.”
