Toronto – She Scores

NWHL expanding to Montreal and Toronto

Jessa Braun — Tue, 02 Apr 2019 18:34:02 +0000

The National Women’s Hockey League board announced a league expansion that now includes teams in Montreal and Toronto. According to a report by Emily Kaplan from ESPN, the additions will come into effect for this upcoming season.

Other good news is that NHL commissioner Gary Bettman says the NHL has agreed to provide a larger financial contribution to the NWHL. The league will now be one of the NWHL’s biggest sponsors.

Previously, the NHL gave the NWHL and CWHL $50 thousand each. TSN says that number will increase to $100 thousand for the NWHL. Dani Rylan, NWHL commissioner, has refused to disclose any official financial information.

There might be more teams included in the expansion in the near future, but no official announcements have been made.

Rylan is unsure of whether the NWHL will absorb the already-existing franchises or create new ones.

The NWHL will now be a seven-team league, with the other teams being the Buffalo Beauts, Connecticut Whale, Metropolitan Riveters, Boston Pride and Minnesota Whitecaps.

2019 Clarkson Cup awards and their nominees

Laura Lozinski — Wed, 20 Mar 2019 18:03:15 +0000

Clarkson Cup Awards will be held on Sunday at Ryerson University’s Mattamy Athletic Centre. Hosted by Hockey Central’s Caroline Cameron, the event will showcase the top talents in the league.

While many of the awards are voted on, there are two that have already been decided with the formal presentation to come over the weekend. The Angela James Bowl is awarded to the highest-scoring player of the year. This year’s recipient will be Marie-Philip Poulin from Les Canadiennes de Montreal, who finished the season with 50 points. Poulin also received this award in both 2016 and 2017. The other decided award is the Chairman’s Trophy, which is awarded to the regular season champions. Calgary Inferno have claimed it this season, finishing with a record of 25-4-1.

The remainder of the awards will be unveiled on the 22^nd. These include the Rookie, Defensemen, Goaltender, and Coach of the Year awards, the Jayna Hefford Trophy, and the Humanitarian Award. Taking a closer look into the race for these distinctions, the nominees for the Rookie of the Year are: Rebecca Leslie of the Calgary Inferno with 26 points, Victoria Bach of the Markham Thunder with 32 points, and Sarah Nurse of the Toronto Furies with 26 points. All three are forwards who have made an impact in the league this season.

For Defensemen of the Year, the nominees include: Kacey Bellamey, Inferno, who holds the season record for lowest even strength goals against with only 10; Erin Ambrose, Les Canadiennes, who finished with 24 points; and Laura Fortino, Thunder, who totaled 18 points on the season.

Goaltender of the Year candidates are: Alex Rigsby, Inferno, with a 2.04 GAA and 0.916 SV%; Emerance Maschmeyer, Les Canadiennes, with a 1.45 GAA and 0.935 SV%; and Noora Raty, Red Stars, with a 2.96 GAA and 0.921 SV%.

Coach of the Year nominees include Ryan Hilderman of the Inferno, Jim Jackson of the Thunder, and Courtney Kessel, of the Furies.

The big award of the night is the Jayna Hefford Trophy, which is the MVP award voted by the players. The first potential winner is Brianne Jenner from the Calgary Inferno. Jenner finished the season with 32 points, assisting her team to the Clarkson Cup finals. The next nominee is Emerance Maschmeyer. Maschmeyer is the goalie for Les Canadiennes de Montreal, and had a 15-4-1 record on the season. She recorded four shutouts in the season, and notched an extra two in the playoffs. Finally, the last nominee is Marie-Philip Poulin of Les Canadiennes de Montreal. Poulin finished the season with a league-leading 50 points. She also won this award in 2016.

Overall, the awards are shaping up to be an exciting night celebrating the top athletes in Women’s Hockey. Fans are able to buy tickets for the reception and show through the CWHL website, with student discounts available.

Six Advantages of Attending a Women’s Pro Sporting Event

Jessa Braun — Thu, 01 Feb 2018 15:03:14 +0000

Going to a women’s professional sporting event is one of the most effective ways an everyday person can support female athletics. For one, you’re providing the league and team franchise with revenue. This is important mainly because players are currently struggling to earn a sufficient salary. In the video, Kyle and I are at a Canadian Women’s Hockey League game. This is the first year that league is even paying their players. The salaries start as low as $2,000 a year and go as

high as $10,000. As a result, the players have to work day jobs on top of all their team commitments, film sessions, training, conditioning sessions and games. Working a full-time job in addition to being on a professional sports team is insane. It’s exhausting, and there’s no time for the players to see their families, conduct self-care, etcetera. So, every dollar counts. Ordering tickets online is no harder than purchasing tickets to the men’s games you and your peers go to all the time.

Secondly: your presence. Just sitting there in your seat shows the world your interest. That interest encourages the media to cover games, it urges large companies to pay the league and put up advertisements, and it sets an example for other people to come on out and support.

Yes, going to a professional women’s sporting event definitely does the league, teams and players a huge favour and yahdee, yahdee, yah. But . . . what’s in it for you? WELL….

IT’S CHEAP!
Okay let’s compare the pricing of Toronto’s professional men’s hockey team, the Maple Leafs, to their professional women’s hockey team, the Furies. If Kyle and I had sat in the exact same kind of seating at a regular season Leafs game as we did at the Furies game, we would be paying as low as $252. Kyle and I paid $15 for our Furies tickets . . . and we got the best seats in the house. Even the worst seats at a Leafs game go as low as $100. That’s more than five times the amount we got our sick, bomb.com tickets for. It’s hard to find tickets to professional women’s games that are more than $50. The average pricing is around $20 for most teams.

YOU GET GOOD SEATS NO MATTER WHAT!
Professional women’s sports games don’t take place in huge facilities. Therefore no matter where you sit, you’re pretty much guaranteed to be right beside the playing surface. You can see in the video just how close all the fans are to the ice. Kyle and I are in the back row, so there’s no one behind us. We were the furthest from the ice as it was possible to be. Some games, like the one we were at, are even general sitting, so if you arrive early enough you can choose to sit anywhere you want.

FAMILY-FRIENDLY ENVIRONMENT!
Nope, no there are not any drunken crazies sitting behind you, shaking their beer in the air and spilling it all over your head while yelling their brains out at a call a referee made that was actually a good call. Obviously people yell and some get a little into it, but nobody’s sloshed and saying questionable things that make you wonder if you should cover your kids’ ears. Most of the fans are friendly, humble fellows who just want to support the players and watch a good game of hockey.

THERE’S NO FIGHTING!
Although some people appreciate the fighting aspect in men’s hockey, I appreciate that at a women’s hockey game, you get a hockey game. The players don’t give you a side dish of boxing. It’s a clean, civil match and the helmets stay on. It’s hockey.

ZERO TRAFFIC AFTERWARDS!
What?! Yeah, that’s right. You know exactly where you parked, you get in your car, and you’re out of the parking lot and on the highway towards home all within five minutes. There aren’t enough people to generate oodles of traffic and cause you to waste an hour just trying to get out of the general area.

It’s a PROFESSIONAL Sporting Event
You get all these advantages and you think hmmm . . . this is fishy, how can a professional sports game provide this flawless of an experience? But that’s the beauty of it, my friends. These gals are the female counterparts of the male athletes you pay your week’s earnings to go and watch at huge stadiums. The ladies before your eyes have trained for this their whole lives. Take in the fact that you’re watching some of the best athletes in the continent . . . for a cheap price and in stellar seats. Who in their right mind doesn’t want to take advantage of that?