(Montreal) NHL players do not generally display their best level of play during All-Star weekend. Rather, it is an opportunity to relax, have fun and participate in some light competition.
But the same is not true for the women’s hockey players who will participate in the All-Star Game festivities this weekend.
Now is not the time to take your foot off the accelerator. They will be on the ice and proving themselves under the NHL spotlight.
The reality is we can’t take a day off. Because people are always going to have opinions that if we don’t give ourselves, women’s hockey is not good.
Montreal captain Marie-Philip Poulin earlier in January
Poulin and 23 other players from the new Professional Women’s Hockey League (LPHF) will compete Thursday in a 20-minute three-on-three showdown at Toronto’s Scotiabank Arena to kick off the three-day All-Star weekend festivities. the NHL.
Montreal defender Erin Ambrose is excited to jump on the ice and enjoy the three-on-three game, but she doesn’t lose sight of the fact that the players are there to develop women’s hockey and promote the LPHF during its season inaugural.
PHOTO CHRISTINNE MUSCHI, CANADIAN PRESS ARCHIVES
Erin Ambrose
“Every time our game comes on, we’re always trying to prove ourselves,” Ambrose said. It’s a frustrating thing as a female athlete, but it’s kind of where we are in the world right now. So we’re going to enjoy it, we’re going to have a lot of fun, but we also know why we’re here. »
The LPHF has had a record start since it launched its season on 1er January.
The league opener, between New York and Toronto at the Mattamy Athletic Centre, reached 2.9 Canadian viewers.
During its inaugural week, the LPHF twice set attendance records for professional women’s hockey games. First, on January 2, 8,318 fans filled the TD Place Arena in Ottawa, before 13,316 spectators gathered at the Xcel Energy Center in St. Paul, Minnesota, on January 7.
The league will aim even higher when Montreal faces Toronto at Scotiabank Arena, which has nearly 19,000 seats, on February 16.
For that reason, Montreal forward Laura Stacey views LPHF players’ participation in the NHL All-Star Weekend as a chance to build on the league’s initial momentum — and take advantage of the extra eyes that ‘they must attract.
PHOTO DAVID KIROUAC, USA TODAY SPORTS VIA REUTERS CON
Laura Stacey
Whenever there is a big spotlight, a big game and a lot of attention on women’s hockey, I think we want to show the best of ourselves. We’re just going to have that little extra feeling of “let’s do this for the next little girl who watches us, let’s prove to the world that our sport is great, that women’s hockey is growing and that it is special”.
Laura Stacey
“There is something really important that we are still fighting for. »
Women’s hockey players have participated in four consecutive NHL All-Star Weekends since 2019, when American star player Kendall Coyne Schofield – who currently plays for Minnesota – became the first woman to participate in the skills competition .
Coyne Schofield did more than just attend the event. She placed seventh of eight in the fastest skating event with a blistering 14,346-second lap around the SAP Center in San Jose, Calif., less than a second behind the Edmonton Oilers star Connor McDavid, the winner of the event.
It represents yet another decisive moment for Poulin.
“When Kendall left and she had done a pretty quick lap that her eyes really opened up at that point,” Poulin said.
Although LPHF players hope to host their own All-Star Games in the years to come, they are determined to, for now, make the same kind of impact that Coyne Schofield had during the NHL festivities.
“Every time you have the chance to step on the ice, it’s simply a way of showcasing our sport,” insisted Poulin. You want to play against the best, with the best, and three-on-three will be able to promote women’s hockey. »