Watching Women's Hockey - My Perspective
by Chris Morris
I have started a new phase of my life…watching women’s sports, specifically hockey (but also some WNBA, NWSL and Olympic soccer, but mostly hockey…). This is helped by the fact there is alot of women’s hockey available to watch….whether it’s the Canada vs. USA Rivalry series leading into 2022’s Olympics, or the PWHPA or PHF games, at times it’s hard to keep up…and sometimes I fail, I admit, as I can’t watch all the games, but I’m trying. Not only that but I want to know more…more about the players, the teams, the leagues…The Ice Garden website is a great resource, go check them out…
But I have been watching some games and taking notes, similar to how I do my Movie a Day Reviews…
I hope you enjoy!
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11/13/21
Canada vs. Finland on TSN 4am start
*8-0 win for Canada
*hosts Tessa Bonhomme, Sami Jo Small, Cheryl Pounder and a guy (Victor Findlay)
*Kenzie Lalonde did play by play for the 1st game
*nice piece on Kim St. Pierre, who is being inducted into the Hall of Fame Monday
*Canada takes Finland apart which will hopefully “inspire” Finland to play better at the Olympics, I guess?
*player of the game(s) gets a Hair dryer?
Toronto (Sonnet) vs. Boston (Bauer) on Youtube/CBC.ca
*this is the “consolation game” to get the non existent “bronze medal” I guess?
*seemed one sided, but Toronto scored two to tie at 2-2 going into the 3rd, later Toronto takes 3-2 lead
*no time clock, let alone power play time, penalties, player names, etc
*poor colour guy keeps saying “The PWHPA would like to thank our sponsors…” at nearly every stoppage in play, it gets really repetitive and while I get why they are doing it, it just makes me want to Fast Forward…
*two cameras seemingly next to each other, one zoomed in, one not (which is the one we normally see)
*a pretty amatuer-ish production but the hockey was good…
Boston Pride vs. Connecticut Whale on Twitch
*from what I gather, Pride are the team to beat and Whale (like the old Hartford Whalers that they are seemingly named after) are the underdogs; Whale take the 3-2 lead in the 3rd, Pride get a string of power plays and try to score and tie it up
*announcer was good at saying “one minute gone in the power play, one minute left”; “Pride aren’t used to losing, time is running out on them”…it helps because we can’t see the clocks so without him we’d be lost…
*Pride tie it up with 40 seconds left
*Pride won in OT, Christian Putigna scores and seems to do some trash talking on the way out, waves goodbye to the goalie
*OT is 3-on-3
*Announcer is Mark Shunster? I think? PHF are great on social media, telling us when games are scheduled, the team lineups but not great at letting us know who the announcers are for the games…
*nothing else until 11/20/21?
*at the same time these games are on, I also could be watching Boston vs. New Jersey on Sportsnet; CHL Mississauga Steelheads at Kingston Frontenacs on CBC; I’d be curious to see how many people watch men’s minor league hockey on a Saturday afternoon…
Calgary vs. Montreal PWHPA finals (of this particular tournament)
*this game’s production is a HUGE improvement!
*two female announcers, a clock on the screen, tells you who scores, stories being told…sideline reporter even…a PP clock! Replays! Transitions!
*commercials! so Eastlink Community TV is a local Nova Scotia channel? Like their version of Public access?
*Montreal (sponsored by Harvey’s but I refuse to call them Team Harvey’s) goalie lets in a bad goal but rebounds later on when Calgary is on the power play, score is 1-0 after first period but could be a lot worse
*Host Mavs Gillis with a massive mullet and bald spot combo!
*Samantha Isbell intermission interviewer
*Kristen Richards from Toronto 1st intermission interview
*Brigette Lacquette from Calgary 2nd intermission
*tomorrow’s (Sunday’s) “Hockey Fest” sounds fun
*game is awesome, 3-on-3 OT is even better; a 100% improvement on the 1st game and a really enjoyable watch!
*Kenzie Lalonde doing play by play, no idea who the colour girl is but she’s great! (Izzy Germain?)
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12/4/21
Connecticut Whale 5-1 over Minnesota Whitecaps on Twitch
Toronto Six @ Boston Pride on Twitch
*I lost my notes for these games apparently…weird!
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12/11/21
Metropolitan Riveters vs. Toronto Six on Twitch
*there is commentary but just the bare minimum; someone was on the powerplay but I wouldn’t have known it without the commentary
*during intermission they just turn off the mics and show the ice
*it seems with these games they have the hard camera on the same side of the ice as the crowd, so the cameras look towards a black wall
*back from intermission they show highlights of the 1st intermission which is good…
**good thing about Twitch is I can pause the game and watch it later (rather than trying to watch two games at once)
**apparently I was wrong, I can’t pause the game…I guess I will now just wait for it to end, then watch it on replay…but that also means I should stay off Twitter because spoilers!
*2nd period suddenly it’s 1-1!
*3rd period what a pass for Toronto’s 2nd goal! The announcer calls it a lucky goal, but it seemed like a pass to me…
*The Six win! Great game…good that Madison Packer came back to the game…
***so later on Twitter I see replays of the goals (thanks to eleni) and they have play by play and commentary (and other camera angles) on the ESPN+ broadcast…they can’t just simulcast the games? I am confused why they do this, do they not think we have Twitch in Canada? We don’t have a lot of things, like Hulu or HBO Max, but we do have Twitch…actually we don’t have ESPN+ either but we do have TSN Direct which shows ESPN+ stuff…
Team Canada vs. PWHPA All Stars on my phone
*for some reason I couldn’t get the player to work on my laptop, yet it would work on my phone so here we are…this is a new experience…
*no commentary just the sounds of the game which is a weird way to watch a game…
*during intermission they show tons of commercials, then videos of people trying sledge hockey, a little boy who had cancer who played hockey and it might have made it cry a little; hockey in Nunavut; then back to a static shot of the ice; they do point the camera at the crowd, but there doesn’t seem to be many people there so…not sure what the better option is…
*then the game is back on…this intermission seems WAY shorter…
*funny in that there is no commentary but they have a power play countdown clock…
*2-0 Canada after 2!
*Canada wins 5-1
*I have to admit the novelty of watching hockey with no play by play on my phone wore off…
*side note, I’m watching Riveters vs. Six and Canada vs. PWHPA simultaneously as they both started at 11am PST
*at the same time on TSN they are showing MLS Soccer, College Basketball, a Grey Cup preview…on Sportsnet they are showing a replay of last night’s Pittsburgh Penguins vs. Washington Capitals game plus Bundesliga Soccer and repeats of WWE Raw and Smackdown…on CBC they usually show minor league hockey but today they are showing Freestyle Skiing, Bobsleigh and Skeleton I’m assuming because they are qualifying events for the Olympics? They couldn’t have shown this game on ONE of those networks? Seriously?
*the PHF afternoon game, Buffalo Beauts vs. Minnesota Whitecaps, is postponed due to weather
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12/15/21 Canada vs. USA in St. Louis, MO
*Meagan Mikkelson is back for Canada!
*the arena, The Centene Community Ice Centre in Maryland Heights is St. Louis Blues practice facility looks freaking cool…apparently it can fit 4,500 in there…it cost $83 million according to Wikipedia
*the camera man on the hard camera SUCKS! Constantly having to catch up to the play…
*the Canadian goalie Ann-Renee Desbiens is terrible at stick handling…she needs to stay in the crease (where she is great) and leave that puck alone!
*Poulin scores in OT to win! Fist pumping like crazy for a game that means nothing…really it would be best for Canada to lose all these exhibition games in order to be pissed off going into the Olympics…but I’ll take the win!
*1st period sucked, 2nd period was good, 3rd period was great, OT was awesome…how it’s supposed to be right? I think…?
*of course Canada was going to win, they were the visiting team!
*Sami Jo Small is a great analyst, can’t wait to read her book…or listen to it on Audible…
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12/17/21 Canada vs. USA Rivalry Series from St. Louis again
*same cameraman!
*Sarah Fillier, the Canadian rookie sensation, scores!
*alot of penalty confusion here in the 2nd…
*something I’d like to know more about…who is the best D-person in women’s hockey? Keller? Steckline? Fast? Mikkelsen? Larocque? Ambrose? Someone else????
*going into OT I was thinking “this has been a great game, I actually won’t mind if US win…” but then Canada wins (thanks to Poulin AGAIN) and I’m very happy!!!
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12/18/21 PHF on Twitch
Toronto Six vs. Minnesota Whitecaps
*Six’s star Mikayla Grant-Mentis scores only a few minutes into the game, or at least sets it up! How is she not on the Canadian Olympic team?
*the extra detail of the PHF uniforms, I’m not sure how I feel about it…I’m sure it looks cool to someone getting to see them up close, but on TV (or streaming) they look messy…for instance, the Whitecaps goalie got a closeup and it looked like she splashed water all over her shoulders, with the dark purple circles (are they polka dots?) against the light purple uniform…
*play by play guy has said the Minnesota purple uniforms aren’t the typical uniforms and are special for “Hockey Fights Cancer” and that’s cool, but my point about overly detailed uniforms still counts, for both Minnesota and Toronto…
*I do like how the Six players have Canadian/American flags on their shoulders to let us know where the individual players are from…a nice detail…
*so I read on Ice Garden this week that when at home, the Toronto Six play on a bigger ice surface, so if they are in Minnesota, I assume that means they are on smaller ice? Does that effect the Six? They seem to be doing well so far…
*just curious how extensive the video replay for referees is, such as the disputed goal for Minnesota that didn’t count…since they have replays on goals, I’m guessing they have a production truck, or is it all done by some guy with a laptop? I’d be curious to know more about that…
*The Six score their 4th goal with 9 seconds left…I bet Minnesota “appreciated” that…a lopsided win for the Six…
*not a great game but good…
*saw some hilights online later on and I find it interesting that they showed the game on both Twitch (which I saw) and on ESPN+ and had two sets of broadcasts…on ESPN+ there was a two person team…just something that is weird to me…
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12/19/21
Team Toronto vs. Team Calgary PWHPA Kipling Finals
on Sportsnet
12/19/21 PHF on Twitch
Toronto Six vs. Minnesota Whitecaps
**at the same time as the PWHPA game Toronto vs. Calgary on Sportsnet in Canada, so I watched that live and this on replay…
*I have found it’s easier to watch PHF games on Twitch replay…simple things like Twitch giving me the option to have them let me know when a game is starting…as opposed to TSN Direct which is pretty lame, at least what I’ve experienced…
*only problem with watching the replay is avoiding spoilers…which is hard…
***okay, I’m on Twitch and click on Toronto vs. Minnesota but the video is showing Connecticut vs. Buffalo…I checked on Instagram and this game did happen today (I thought maybe this was an old video they put up as a mistake) but by going online I know that Connecticut wins 3-1, so do I keep watching?
Twitch says Toronto vs. Minnesota but…
*also had to check what was going on due to the fact I’m watching this late at night and it’s like “Uh…what’s happening?”
*okay I do like getting to sample other teams and getting to know them, so I’ll watch…
*I don’t know where this is taking place, I see a Beauts banner behind one of the goals so I’m guessing Buffalo…
*the ice surface looks huge and the building has seating all the way around so it seems like a bigger arena than the other arena’s I’ve seen in PHF…
*nice back and forth action here in the 1st period…
*I think I might have figured out why the ice surface looks so huge…I can barely see the blue line and the face off circles are barely visible…and also I do think the ice surface is, frankly, HUGE!
*going back to my thoughts about the PHF uniforms, Connecticut and Buffalo seem to have “cleaner” uniforms, no clutter, as opposed to the Minnesota/Toronto uniforms…plus I hate that the players’ names are on the bottom of the uniforms as we can’t see them, especially if the player tucks in, ala Wayne Gretzky…
*Connecticut scores to make it 1-0
*during the intermission they just lock the camera down on the crowd and there are some awkward things although I did FF through it…
*Connecticut player #8 essentially tackles a Buffalo player as she tries to get a breakaway and was penalized for “tripping”…I guess there is no rule against tackling…I watched to see if #8 disputed the penalty and luckily she didn’t…things I hate in sports is diving in soccer (well diving in hockey too but in soccer it’s just…don’t get me started…) and hockey players clearly breaking rules then putting their arms up when the referee calls them on it and they say “What? I didn’t do anything…” I hate that…
*seem to be lots of penalties in the 2nd period…
*okay I’m dumb I guess but I just figured out that they play a Mario sound effect when the penalty expires…I wondered why I keep hearing that sound effect (the “Wha-wha-wha…”)
*2nd period intermission…this family dancing to music I can’t hear while they wave at the zamboni as it drives by…hypnotic…
*then just as the 3rd period starts, they collect their stuff and leave…I hope they are just going to the bathroom or something cause why would they hang out for intermission then leave before the 3rd? Odd…I have to keep watching now just to see how this plays out…
*the 3rd period begins and I don’t know if that family came back…I need resolution!
*okay some quick goals and it’s 3-1 Connecticut, which is the eventual final score…so now do I bother watching the last 11:22 of the 3rd?
*I am watching but it’s on in the background…
*good stuff, would have enjoyed a more competitive game but it’s hockey not pro wrestling so…
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12/20/21
*supposed to be Canada vs. USA Rivalry Series Game #3 (of this round) in Minnesota, but the game is cancelled due to COVID…TSN showed a replay of the last game plus they showed their special Documentary “On the Line” from their “Engraved on a Nation” series…doc is all about the Canada vs. USA Rivalry series through the years…here is my movie review of that doc from earlier this year…
Engraved on a Nation: On the Line 2019
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