- Feb 18, 2018
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THE PROFESSIONAL WOMEN’S HOCKEY LEAGUE (PWHL) THIS WEEK (5/20/2024)
PWHL Finals presented by Scotiabank are underway
NEW YORK AND TORONTO (May 20, 2024) – Here’s a look at highlights from the last week in the Professional Women’s Hockey League (PWHL), plus a look ahead to this week’s action. ...
Read more at:THE PROFESSIONAL WOMEN’S HOCKEY LEAGUE (PWHL) THIS WEEK
www.thepwhl.com
Got a shutout. Hard not to like (in hindsight).Not happy with Nicole Hensley in goal for Minnesota. Game on.
IMO, Hensley didn't earn that shutout, her teammates did - especially her defenders. Boston forwards were stymied getting anywhere near the front of the Minnesota net without someone in their way, which is where Hensley is extremely weak. She is very slow to move side-to-side, and her up & down movement is almost as slow. She'd scare me if she was my goalie.Got a shutout. Hard not to like (in hindsight).
Forward of the Year = MVP ... Speaks loudly that the League favors scoring over all other aspects of their New Game in Town. Except physicality, of course, but maybe they'll add a "Freight Train of the Year" award next season.
Lol, would be pretty funny (though not impossible) for one to win Best Forward but not MVPForward of the Year = MVP ... Speaks loudly that the League favors scoring over all other aspects of their New Game in Town. Except physicality, of course, but maybe they'll add a "Freight Train of the Year" award next season.
I'd bet you in US$ that Billie Jean participated in AT LEAST the MVP decision. She's gotten more face time with this League than Peter Puck did for the NHL in the 1970s.... Awards were voted on by an 18-member selection committee using a ranking ballot, but Idk if they released who was on that committee...
They did.Lol, would be pretty funny (though not impossible) for one to win Best Forward but not MVP
Like maybe Spooner gets Best Forward for her offense, but Poulin gets MVP for offense plus *i*n*t*a*n*g*i*b*l*e*s*
Awards were voted on by an 18-member selection committee using a ranking ballot, but Idk if they released who was on that committee...
Focusing on Mr. Kennedy's points of contention ...... there was a bit of an uproar among long-time women's hockey media. Even Ian Kennedy wrote a piece in their support (THN got one guy on the committee. Just not him).
(1) As I observed in a recent post in this mega-thread, the PWHL has clearly established the female equivalent of a "Good Old Boys Club" to help control their own destiny. This strategy included partnering very early with a number of specific sports media outlets in Canada & the U.S. (aka, the "hand-picked") to get the League noticed and to keep the North American "buzz" going through their hurried period of organization & their unusually short (and interrupted) first season of play. Expecting the PWHL powers-that-be-and-it-ain't-you to invite certain "long standing members of women's hockey media" who weren't among that original group of business partners smacks of sour grapes (with Ian Kennedy leading the grape stomping party).... The primary issue resulted from the exclusion of many long standing members of women's hockey media, specifically independent outlets The Ice Garden and The Victory Press, as well as the perception that media involved were "hand-picked" by the PWHL.
It's a stark departure from how most North American professional leagues operate their award voting, and brings into question the validity of the results as the awards will ultimately be decided by league staff, rather than an independent panel. ...