PWHL - Your level of interest

[Dessloch]

Just because hitting isn’t allowed, doesnt mean it’s not physical.

And no girls in NA are taught to hit, you can’t just introduce that at a pro level. That would be a disaster.

No girls in sweden have ever been taught to hit, and yet no disaster have happened and even less concussions as players are now prepared for contact, so win win in all aspects. Why would it end up differently in North america?

 

[robertocarlos]

Just because hitting isn’t allowed, doesnt mean it’s not physical.

And no girls in NA are taught to hit, you can’t just introduce that at a pro level. That would be a disaster.

It looks like they would like to hit but you're right it would be a disaster. Boys learn to hit, and more importantly take a hit, at an early age.

 

[BraveCanadian]

No interest. I don't even watch as much NHL as I used to.

 

[robertocarlos]

Why are they talking about physicality during the intermission in a league that do not allow hitting?

There is ZERO reason for this league to not make hitting part of the game! If hitting can be allowed in the SDHL swedish womens league and everyone likes it, why not? This is north america who loves hitting far more than we do in Sweden.

It will be interesting to see where the European women choose to play once they are not under contract.

 

[Dessloch]

It looks like they would like to hit but you're right it would be a disaster. Boys learn to hit, and more importantly take a hit, at an early age.

No girls in sweden have ever been taught to hit, and yet no disaster have happened and even less concussions has been registered as players are now prepared for contact, so win win in all aspects. Why would it end up differently in North america? Whats the difference?

 

[robertocarlos]

There was an accidental hit and the downed player pretended to be dead to draw a penalty. No call though.

 

[Stealth1616]

Considering my beer league team would be the perennial winners in this league.. interest is not very high

 

[hockey20000]

i decided to just tune in to 2 teams games got way many other sports to watch to commit to the whole league so if ottawa or minnie is playing i will watch .

 

[robertocarlos]

Considering my beer league team would be the perennial winners in this league.. interest is not very high

Bud Light needs to sponsor a beer league.

This women's league will survive as long as the CBC paid $30 million for the TV rights.

 

[LokiDog]

Zero interest. Less.

It’s the equivalent of tuning into a decent high school game, with zero interest or loyalty to the team or the players. A super high end high school tournament is genuinely a higher level of competition, and you may spy an odd future NHL prospect or two.

I wish I could sound less blunt on this, but there’s numerous instances of “elite” women’s teams being unable to carry the jocks of boys high school teams. I’ve shared the ice with plenty of D1 girls and they, very literally, were about as good as the Bantam’s playing for the LI Royals. Thats a good team in a good development program, but those kids are U14. Frankly, most of those kids have better hands and edge work, but are a bit less strong on the puck than a 20 year old woman on an athletic scholarship who has NCAA trainers guiding their workouts. Speeds about the same, most of them have complete muffins and, as I said, the 14yo boys tend to have better hands and edges, as well as a much higher general pace of play. I’m not affiliated with the Royals, but I would not be hesitant to lay down a decent wager that the Royals’ U16 team would handily defeat any of the PWHL teams. Granted, the Royals are a great program that I hope to get my little guy into one day, but it’s still 15-16 year old kids who I watch ride their bikes around my neighborhood and show up to drop in games on the weekends and with the adults occasionally, and I’m pretty confident they’d clean up.

With the kids being local and related to family and friends, and knowing some of the coaches, etc. it’s still not THAT entertaining to watch them play in person. There isn’t a world on earth where I’d tune in to watch them on TV if I didn’t know anything about any of them. My buddy growing up got drafted by the Canes but never signed his ELC and went and played overseas. I’ll attach his EP stats below. He’s been retired like 6 years and in his late 30s now. I’m like beyond certain he would be the PWHL MVP if he laced up today.

 

[robertocarlos]

Another heavy hit with no call.

 

[Beau Knows]

I've always enjoyed the women's Olympic tournaments and have occasionally watched the World Championships. A well-run professional league could get my attention, but man the jersey's/logo's/etc here really lack personality and aren't a good start to getting people to care.

I do think the low number of games and having just 6 teams to start with is wise. A good way to get new fans to care is to make each game extremely important, so having just 24 games each will make each one feel more significant. Selling tickets/ and getting TV viewers for 82 games is a tough sell for established NHL teams at times, so they need to keep things scaled down and not rush into bigger things it if they manage to find some early success.

Something like this is almost certainly going to take a long time to grow, so I really hope the owners of the league are committed to running this for many years before they expect to see it pay off.

 

[pcruz]

Considering my beer league team would be the perennial winners in this league.. interest is not very high

"How much you wanna make a bet I can throw a football over them mountains?... Yeah... Coach woulda put me in fourth quarter, we would've been state champions. No doubt. No doubt in my mind."


That's all I can think of when reading that...


Your beer league team would be down double digits by the end of the first period.

 

[Dessloch]

Another heavy hit with no call.

Just make it legal instead of this utter garbage who gets fans and players confused.

 

[Strangle]

The new PWHL (Professional Women Hockey League) begins today. There doesn't seem to be a lot of talk about it on this board.
What is your initial level of interest in this league?
I'm slightly curious at the start but I am dubious it will maintain my interest. What about you?

My level of interest is basically zero, but I do hope it succeeds.

I’m a father of 3 active daughters who love various sports and having good professional women’s leagues of every sport is important to girls and women and as a result, every body

 

[pcruz]

I've always enjoyed the women's Olympic tournaments and have occasionally watched the World Championships. A well-run professional league could get my attention, but man the jersey's/logo's/etc here really lack personality and aren't a good start to getting people to care.

I do think the low number of games and having just 6 teams to start with is wise. A good way to get new fans to care is to make each game extremely important, so having just 24 games each will make each one feel more significant. Selling tickets/ and getting TV viewers for 82 games is a tough sell for established NHL teams at times, so they need to keep things scaled down and not rush into bigger things it if they manage to find some early success.

Something like this is almost certainly going to take a long time to grow, so I really hope the owners of the league are committed to running this for many years before they expect to see it pay off.

I'd be shocked if over the next year or 2, we didn't have:

Toronto Maple Leafs women's team
New York Rangers women's team
Ottawa Senators women's team
Montreal Canadiens women's team
Minnesota Wild women's team
Boston Bruins women's team

Sharing team logos, team doctors and physios, and practice facilities.

 

[BB79]

Bud Light needs to sponsor a beer league.

.

Judging what's gone on with A-B over the last year, their sponsorship would be a kiss of death business-wise

 

[Golden_Jet]

I think their goal is to get revenue from the NHL. The top players might even be happy earning 60% of the top men's earnings.

They have 3 tiers of pay initially.
85,55 and 35k

There will be more games in yea2 though when they have a full season, so those will go up.

 

[Stealth1616]

"How much you wanna make a bet I can throw a football over them mountains?... Yeah... Coach woulda put me in fourth quarter, we would've been state champions. No doubt. No doubt in my mind."


That's all I can think of when reading that...


Your beer league team would be down double digits by the end of the first period.

Dude I know you think this and it’s the woke agenda, but I played against the Canadian women’s national team as a 17 year old.. and beat them.

Since then went and had a junior career along with most of my beer league team. All ex Junior A players, some junior B

We would absolutely decimate one of these teams

 

[Rob Brown]

Interest level is pretty much zero, although I voted a 1. I tuned in to try it out and turned it off pretty quickly, very sloppy hockey, so I'm not sure why I would watch it.

On top of that, though, it all just feels very rushed and poorly organized. No team names, incredibly generic jerseys, no identity, no creativity, all of which will make it more difficult to market the league and ultimately hold interest. Feels very forced to me.

 

[abo9]

Very low, I barely have time for the NHL as it is though - which would be at a 3. So, it might be more indicative of me not paying too much attention to the big leagues to start with.

Im still curious to see how the league does. If we had a local team and its cheap I might bring my partner watch a game. But we're lucky with plenty of OHL teams around too though

 

[Strangle]

I'd be shocked if over the next year or 2, we didn't have:

Toronto Maple Leafs women's team
New York Rangers women's team
Ottawa Senators women's team
Montreal Canadiens women's team
Minnesota Wild women's team
Boston Bruins women's team

Sharing team logos, team doctors and physios, and practice facilities.

I can’t see how the NHL can have any affiliation with this league at all, unless the league can stand on its own financially.

The NHL doesn’t have the revenue to help prop up a financially struggling women’s league.

I could see the NHL taking money from the league, by licensing team identities, but I don’t think the PR for doing that would be very good. The NHL would be expected to donate their intellectual property and invest financially in the league making pay equity the big question, which would obviously be unbelievably stupid.

This is how all of those women soccer players and women basketball players feel like they deserve McDavid money.

 

[Golden_Jet]

I've always enjoyed the women's Olympic tournaments and have occasionally watched the World Championships. A well-run professional league could get my attention, but man the jersey's/logo's/etc here really lack personality and aren't a good start to getting people to care.

I do think the low number of games and having just 6 teams to start with is wise. A good way to get new fans to care is to make each game extremely important, so having just 24 games each will make each one feel more significant. Selling tickets/ and getting TV viewers for 82 games is a tough sell for established NHL teams at times, so they need to keep things scaled down and not rush into bigger things it if they manage to find some early success.

Something like this is almost certainly going to take a long time to grow, so I really hope the owners of the league are committed to running this for many years before they expect to see it pay off.

The league said the lead time to get jerseys done is long once finalized, and still some backlog from Suppliers from Covid, they didn’t have the time, there will be logos and New Jerseys next year.

 

[Gaylord Q Tinkledink]

Not much, but it's not because "WoMeN aReNt As SkiLlEd"

Hockey had been a bit better this year, but overall it's just meh. I subscribed to watch the Rocket and don't even put that on too much

 

[Rob Brown]

I'd be shocked if over the next year or 2, we didn't have:

Toronto Maple Leafs women's team
New York Rangers women's team
Ottawa Senators women's team
Montreal Canadiens women's team
Minnesota Wild women's team
Boston Bruins women's team

Sharing team logos, team doctors and physios, and practice facilities.

Why though? The league and the teams have to prove to be profitable and successful before NHL teams shell out money and resources like this, and frankly it's not off to a good start. Why should the NHL prop up the league just because? Isn't that the opposite of the purpose of the league?