Biggest news: New ad break jingles! The new music and graphics during commercial breaks on the YouTube broadcast are so fun and jazzy. It is critical that there are multiple options, and that the looping isn’t a fadeout and then a BLAST of the start of the piece again. The new motion graphics are fun, as well, with one mimicking the moving logo on a computer or DVD screen saver.
For full details on game broadcasts, head to the PWHL site here.
New York Sirens at Seattle Torrent
Wednesday, Dec. 3 at 10 p.m. Eastern
Well, the Seattle Torrent have yet to win a game, but they do have one point! I don’t want them to beat the Sirens, of course, but I do want them to win, like… a game. Getting shut out in front of Brandi Carlile has got to be brutal. The team’s roommates in the NHL also got shut out this weekend—a tough few days for the home teams at Climate Pledge Arena.
This is the first-ever meeting of these two teams, and Seattle’s third-ever game in the PWHL.
I mentioned in the last What to Watch that it looked, on paper, like Seattle and Vancouver essentially robbed the league of all the best players and said see you at the Walter Cup Championship. I still think that’s true, but as many analysts and reporters have pointed out—it will take time for these teams to, well, mesh. This seems obvious, but it’s easy to be swayed (starstruck?) by the rosters. Vancouver and Seattle are 7th and 8th in the standings, respectively.
“I like a lot of things we did tonight — much better from Vancouver to tonight. I know the result isn’t what we want, but this is going to be a journey for us to get where we want and get this identity to go,” said Seattle Head Coach Steve O’Rourke.
The Torrent forward line of Alex Carpenter, Julia Gosling and Hilary Knight fired 15 shots on goal, with all three players recording a game-high five shots in the shutout loss, so there’s a ton of offensive power at the ready. Julia Gosling hit the scoresheet in the season opener, but couldn’t capitalize against Minnesota.
The Sirens beat Vancouver 5-1 in their home opener (which had an attendance nearly 24% more than last season’s home opener, in case anyone is just devastated about the low NY attendance and insists on comparing the numbers to the most recent record-breaking attendance in Vancouver and Seattle).
They’ve won consecutive home openers, now, and I also found out that the win against the Goldeneyes was their first regulation win at Prudential Center since last season’s opener. New York apparently went 1-3-1-8 at the venue and it’s a miracle I, too, survived that record. I really only saw one regulation win omg.
As an aside, Vancouver has surrendered five goals in back-to-back games. Last season, New York was the only team to allow five goals against in consecutive games (Feb. 26 and Mar. 5). Can the Sirens... pass the bottom-of-the-standings torch?
New York’s starting goaltender Kayle Osborne tallied her second win of the season, matching her rookie stats from last season, where she has ten appearances in net. I was (still am?) a bit worried about the Sirens goaltending situation, but Osborne has been solid. Even with the team’s shutout loss to Montreal, the netminder made 26 saves on 29 shots, and it’s not like she could (realistically) help out with the other critical part of a hockey game: scoring a goal.
BTW, the Sirens goalie lineup is: Osborne, Callie Shanahan, and Kaley Doyle. I’m being told there were no other names available. (This is a joke, I love all goalies, of course).
We saw some action from the Sirens rookies (and team newbies), with first overall draft pick forward Kristýna Kaltounková netting her first PWHL goal. Casey O’Brien (third overall pick) and Anne Cherkowski (ninth overall pick) each earned their first PWHL points with assists and Cherkowski added a second assist.
Kristin O’Neill’s ‘jailbreak’ goal was her first tally with New York after being traded to the Sirens on draft day in the deal that sent Abby Roque to Montréal (which I was devastated about and slept on this pickup). It was the PWHL’s first on-empty-net shorthanded goal of the season and her second career 'jailbreak’ goal, tying the all-time lead.
Watch: TSN, MSG
Ottawa Charge at Toronto Sceptres
Thursday, Dec. 4 at 7 p.m. Eastern
First, over the weekend, Ottawa Charge Head Coach Carla MacLeod shared that she has been diagnosed with breast cancer. Our hearts are with her, and we wish her strength as she begins her treatment.
In their Nov. 26 home game against Vancouver, Charge captain Brianne Jenner tied a PWHL single-game record with a four-point performance to leading Ottawa to a 5-1 win over the Goldeneyes. She is the team’s all-time leading scorer, the first Charge player to record four points in a single game, and was named PWHL Player of the Week last week.
Recently extended Charge forward Gabbie Hughes recorded two assists for the second time in her career. Rookie Rory Guilday became the first Charge defender to record a point this season—she tallied two assists in the matchup against Vancouver.
Ottawa will play a game on Dec. 2 against Minnesota before they play this one against Toronto.
Toronto’s last game was a 3-1 loss against the Boston Fleet. They had to face Aerin Frankel who made 24 saves, so there’s that. Sceptres captain Blayre Turnbull scored her first goal of the season, her first PWHL career shorthanded tally.
The Sceptres outshot Boston 25-12 in this game, and applied great pressure in the first period, but ultimately couldn’t eke out the win. They’ll (likely) be facing Gwyneth Philips here, who was a monster in the playoffs for Ottawa. She was the first goaltender to receive the Ilana Kloss Playoff MVP award, and was a finalist for PWHL Rookie of the Year and Goaltender of the Year. However, Toronto goalie Raygan Kirk is performing better than Philips to start the season.
Watch: TSN
Minnesota Frost at Boston Fleet
Sunday, Dec. 7 at 3 p.m. Eastern
The Boston Fleet are undefeated after two games, and I assume it’s related to the sailor hats.
No, of course it’s their netminder Aerin Frankel with her 0.50 GAA and 0.980 save percentage. Combined with offense from their rookie forward Abby Newhook, and a second game-winning goal in as many games from forward Susanna Tapani, Boston has swept their first two games of the season. Also willing to throw in the power of friendship in the pluses column, here.
They beat the Sceptres on the road on Nov. 29, which snapped their five-game losing streak in Toronto (and also conveniently spoiled the Sceptres home opener). Boston will face Vancouver at Agganis Arena earlier in the week before Minnesota comes to town. I hope Boston fans wear their sailor hats to every home game.
The Minnesota Frost, the defending Walter Cup Champions, are 1-1-0-0 on the season at the time of writing this, including a shutout against the Seattle Torrent (spoiling their record-breaking home opener). Goaltender Nicole Hensley was in net for that win (her only start so far), and that means she’s got a 0.00 GAA and 1.00 save percentage. Small sample size at this point in the season, but things are looking good for the Frost.
Watch: CBC, NESN
