Boston’s new PWHL team wanted to give the 4,012 fans who came out to their opener Wednesday night at the Tsongas Center in Lowell something to cheer about.
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After the historic player introductions and a ceremonial puck drop from Bruins legend Patrice Bergeron, however, there unfortunately hadn’t been much to bring the crowd to its feet. Minnesota, playing the spoiler, had jumped out to a 2-0 lead just eight minutes into the game. After Theresa Schafzahl (wearing No. 37, coincidentally) scored Boston’s first-ever goal in the second period, Minnesota quieted the crowd right back down by answering less than a minute later.
Boston was determined to not go quietly, though. They made a ferocious push in the third, peppering Minnesota goalie Nicole Hensley with shots and bringing the crowd to life in the process. When they twice hit the post, there was a collective exasperated “Awww.” When Boston had a goal called back after review, the referee’s announcement was met with angry boos.
When Boston finally pulled within one with 2:40 remaining, on a Megan Keller rocket from the point, the crowd erupted. They remained on their feet and loud the rest of the way, right up until one last chance from Shiann Darkangelo at the buzzer was turned aside.
Boston had lost the game, 3-2, but the players and coaches had found something else: A fanbase that, over the course of one game, was already living and breathing with their every shot.
“I think the more and more these fans watch the game, the more they're going to buy into us being Boston,” said coach Courtney Kessel. “Like this is going to be something that they want to be a part of and they want to have their butts in the seats, because it is going to come to life. This is fantastic hockey and you always want to see a great game. But totally, when we were within one, you could really feel the energy in the building, the energy on the bench.”
This was the Professional Women’s Hockey League’s No. 1 goal above all else: Great hockey, played by the world’s best players, in a professional setting.
The road to get here has been both too long – with over a decade of competing leagues and factions, most of which were “professional” in name only – and too short – with opening night arriving just six months after the PWHL itself was formed.
In a perfect world, PWHL management would have had a year or more to plan for the league’s debut.
“This was not the way to do it,” admits PWHL Advisory Board member Stan Kasten, who is the current president of the Los Angeles Dodgers and former president of the Atlanta Braves and Washington Nationals. “If you want to do something, it's why we give expansion teams two years to get ready before we unveil them. To stand up a league and six teams in six months from the day we made the agreement, four months from when we announced the teams, yeah, that's nuts.”
If parts of the PWHL look like they were thrown together at the last minute, it’s because they were. The league was created in late June, when billionaire Mark Walter – who owns the Dodgers and the WNBA’s Los Angeles Sparks and is part-owner of the Los Angeles Lakers and Premier League club Chelsea FC – bought out the Premier Hockey Federation (formerly the NWHL).
The teams weren’t announced until August. Their options for venues were limited at that point, with several that they looked at already booked up for the winter. The teams still don’t have names or mascots. They’re running behind on getting merchandise shipped. Some details regarding broadcasts and gameday event execution weren’t finalized until a week or two before opening day.
Taking a year off to better plan for a fall 2024 debut was not an option, though. Many of the world’s best players had already gone years without playing in a league. Missing another year was a non-starter.
Following the collapse of the Canadian Women’s Hockey League in 2019, the only league left in North America was the NWHL/PHF, which included the Boston Pride. Many top players rejected that league, though, because of what they believed was subpar pay and a lack of professional resources. Led by a board that included current PWHL Boston captain Hilary Knight, they formed the Professional Women’s Hockey Players Association to advocate for the standards they believed they deserved.
They finally found a willing partner in Walter. Now, in the PWHL, they make a living wage, with salaries ranging from $35,000 to $80,000, according to the Boston Globe. They have health care and other benefits. They have an eight-year collective bargaining agreement. They have trainers and professional facilities, with Boston practicing and training at the Boston Sports Institute in Wellesley.
“The support, the hands on deck is tremendous,” said Kessel, who played at the University of New Hampshire and for Team Canada before shifting to coaching. “Obviously the funding – these players are getting full-time salaries where they show up and they're just hockey players. It's all they have to worry about. They have breakfast served, they practice, they go home, they can rest, they can take care of their bodies.
“Our facilities are tremendous. We're at Boston Sports Institute. We have athletic training, we have our strength and conditioning right in house. So, it's one-stop shop, and I really think that allows us to have that development and that growth coming out of college. It doesn't stop now that you've graduated from college. You can get better and better every single year that passes.”
All of this is expensive. Walter and Kasten are businessmen. While he wouldn’t share specifics, Kasten acknowledged that there are financial benchmarks the PWHL will be expected to hit. The league’s owners will be monitoring attendance and ratings and merchandise sales and making changes where necessary.
Locally, PWHL Boston is not committed to the Tsongas Center as its home beyond this season. It remains to be seen if playing 30 miles north of Boston is a long-term solution. The Tsongas does have the facilities and size the league is looking for, though. Its 6,000 capacity allows for an immediate and significant upgrade over the 700 the Pride could draw at Warrior Ice Arena in Brighton. It was also broadcast-ready, which was important since every game will be carried locally on NESN (with The Skate Pod’s own Bridgette Proulx on the call for home games).
“The Tsongas Center is phenomenal,” Kasten said. “It's great. We'll see over the course of the year if it's the best fit or not, but I will tell you, it stands up against any venue that we're going to be at.”
Kasten insists league ownership is committed for the long haul, and that they’re confident the league will be successful.
“We put a 10-year plan together, which is our first 10 years, because this is not short-term. It's not long-term. It's permanent,” he said. “We think we know what we're doing. We thought if we got the hockey right, the rest is blocking and tackling, and we know how to block and tackle.”
That is one thing the PWHL has done: Get the hockey right. The league can boast that it finally has all the world’s best players under one umbrella. The Boston roster is filled with Olympians and college stars. Knight is arguably the greatest American player of all time. Now 34, she still has plenty in the tank, as evidenced by her being named the IIHF Female Player of the Year in 2023.
Her center on Wednesday was former Northeastern star Alina Müller, who was a top-10 finalist for the Patty Kazmaier Award – given annually to the best player in women’s college hockey – in all five of her collegiate seasons. The left wing on that line was Loren Gabel, who won the Patty Kaz in 2019 at Clarkson and was the PHF’s leading scorer and league MVP last season while playing for the Boston Pride.
The Boston roster features three other Patty Kaz winners in forward Jamie Lee Rattray, defender Sophie Jaques and goalie Aerin Frankel. Forward Hannah Brandt and defenseman Megan Keller were each on the last two U.S. Olympic teams. Forward Gigi Marvin was a three-time Olympian in 2010, 2014 and 2018.
The league’s first three games have been fast and physical. At the players’ request, the PWHL will allow more checking along the boards than has generally been permitted in women’s hockey. Open-ice hitting is still off limits, though.
The hope and belief is that the more people see games like Wednesday night’s, the more the league and the women’s game overall will grow. It starts with the hockey itself, and everything else can follow.
“It's not perfect,” Kasten said. “We knew it wouldn't be perfect, but we got the hockey right. And that's what mattered.”