This used to be a feature of my weekly What to Watch posts, but to be quite honest, those posts were often 2000 or more words and this portion got to be an afterthought at the bottom. Making this it's own weekly post gives me a chance to give props to all the good things happening and put some ink on the things that have to improve.

↑ Hockey. Is. Back. – I'll be the first to admit I was dreading last week's games a bit since if felt like the season snuck up on me and suddenly I was jumping in the deep end. But even through the work to be ready for the puck to drop, I'm super excited that hockey is back. Last season brought the drama and even before we knew the results, I was looking forward to the roller coaster ride. Thanks to #7 UMD's sweep of #1 OSU in Columbus, I'm in full Team Chaos mode. Bring on the upsets, the underdogs, the overtimes, the surprise conference winners and first-time tournament teams. There are at least twenty women playing in the NCAA this season that will suit up for their country at the 2026 Olympics, which is part of next hockey season's calendar. It's such a privilege to watch these players grow and improve week in and week out .

↓ Disjointed and expensive streaming options – At a time when the public is clamoring to watch top-tier women's sports, it has never been more difficult or more expensive to watch NCAA DI women's hockey games. Each conference has their own streaming partnership and each requires their own subscription. In NEWHA, each school has their own streaming set up.

This season, AHA partner FloHockey is $150 for the season or $29.99 per month. BTN+ has taken away all options to pick a specific sport or school, leaving just a $12.99 a month option or the full $89.99 annual pass. Hockey East and the ECAC use ESPN+ and while that is by far the easiest, cheapest and most accessible of the options, is still going to raise its price to $11.99 a month in October. That puts the cost of accessing women's college hockey at more than $300 per season.

At the moment, it seems these are partnerships and decisions made in isolation by each conference, but for the greater good of the sport, there has to be a larger conversation about how to get these games in front of more people or risk missing out on the movement currently happening. The PWHL is entering year two and their first season had games streamed free on YouTube. College teams can and should be capitalizing on their connections to the league, but the current barriers to watching games make that all but impossible.

What to Watch started years ago because it was so difficult to find how and where to watch games and I wanted to make it easier for new fans to find and fall in love with the sport. Years later, sadly we're in the exact same place except it's even more expensive.

↑ Rookie impact – With just four games on the calendar last weekend, we still saw some of the newest talent show out, including UMD's Caitlin Kraemer, who ended the weekend with two goals and an assist, OSU's Jordyn Petrie with a goal and an assist, SCSU's Marie Moran with a goal and Lindenwood's Silje Gundersen with her first career assist.

↓ Objective officiating changes – We've been told for years heading into a new season that the focus of NCAA officials and Directors of Officiating was trying to ensure more uniform calling and enforcing of rules across all conferences. So it was frankly a little surprising that this year's rule updates include a couple of changes that allow the officials to make judgement calls, including a massive shift in how hits from behind can be called, making the enforcement of that rule incredibly subjective.

The rule was changed to say that the officials can decide if the player getting hit from behind turns as the defender is coming to, in effect, draw that hit. They've added a minor penalty that can get called, where before any hit from behind was some sort of major. In effect, officials will make decisions in the moment as to whether the player getting hit tried to draw the penalty.

The hand pass rule was also changed. Whereas before any puck contact with the glove was an automatic whistle, now the officials must decide that the pass was intentional and directed in order for the whistle to blow and the movement to be called a hand pass.

It's possible my concern is overblown, but this feels like a recipe for inconsistent officiating at the very least.

(Photo: Thomas Purves/Flickr)