January 28, 2025 • 40 mins
CBC women’s hockey and investigative reporter Karissa Donkin joins Sarah to talk about how Team USA and Team Canada hockey players put their rivalry aside to change the sport’s future, what teams are hot (and cold) in the PWHL this season and why women’s hockey is in its Taylor Swift era. Plus, more insight into the blockbuster Jewell Loyd/Kelsey Plum trade, and a well-deserved posthumous entry into the Good Game Hall of Fame.
- Read Kevin Pelton’s story on the blockbuster Jewell Loyd/Kelsey Plum WNBA trade here
- Read Karissa Donkin’s story about Coach Troy Ryan here
- Follow Karissa on Bluesky here and on Instagram here
- Leave us a voicemail at 872-204-5070 or send us a note at goodgame@wondermedianetwork.com
- Follow Sarah on social! Bluesky: @sarahspain.bsky.social Instagram: @Spain2323
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Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:00):
Welcome to Good Game with Sarah Spain, where we're bugging
Sue Bird's phone to see if she's putting the full
court press on Page Beckers to demand Dallas send her
rights to the Seattle Storm. It's Tuesday, January twenty eighth,
and on today's show, we'll be talking to CBC Hockey
reporter Carissa Duncan about the PWHL's second season, the teams,
the players, the traditions and those big rowdy crowds, plus
(00:21):
a new entry into the Good Game Hall of Fame.
Instant takeaways from Sunday's, a big WNBA trade and a
whole lot of shaking going on. It's all coming up
right after this Welcome Max slices. Here's what you need
to know today. So we briefly mentioned the blockbuster WNBA
(00:42):
trade in yesterday's show, but when it comes to the
deal's effect on the teams involved and the league as
a whole, there's a.
Speaker 2 (00:48):
Whole lot more to get into.
Speaker 1 (00:50):
ESPN's Kevin Pelton did a bang up job right and
about the trade, including getting into stuff like the nitty
gritty details of player usdrate, shot selection and how player
salaries will affect roster construction for the teams involved, So
you should definitely read his story. We'll link to it
in the show notes, but in the meantime, here's what
you need to know.
Speaker 2 (01:08):
First.
Speaker 1 (01:08):
Most importantly, the trade happened because Jewel Lloyd wanted out
of Seattle and reportedly Kelsey Plum wanted out of Las
Vegas too.
Speaker 2 (01:15):
Now, the Aces end of the deal is the most
clear cut.
Speaker 1 (01:18):
They basically replace Plum with Lloyd, not in apples to
Apple's trade, but close. Lloyd has played more playoff games
against Vegas than any other opponent and played well in them,
and she won Olympic gold with Aces players Chelsea Gray,
Asia Wilson, and Jackie Young last summer. Also, all four
of those players share the same agent, so the Aces
feel pretty good about being able to renegotiate with Lloyd
to stay in Vegas beyond the one year left on
(01:40):
her deal. Now, the Sparks at a superstar and Plum
to their subpar backcourt, accelerating their rebuild, but they do
give up the number two pick in the draft and
with it, the dream of getting Paigebeckers. Now, if you remember,
the Yukon Star is expected to be the top pick
in the WNBA Draft, but some think she'll threaten to
return for a sixth year of college eligibility rather than
play for the Dallas Wings, hoping to force Dallas to
(02:03):
deal the number one pick. So the dream of Page
is over for the Sparks. They no longer have that
number two pick to play with, but they do add
Plum to All Star Derek a Hamby, All Rookie team
member Rakia Jackson, and last year's number two pick Cameron Brink,
who will be back from an ACL injury now to
the Storm.
Speaker 2 (02:19):
So they lose.
Speaker 1 (02:20):
Lloyd and they don't get Plumb, who apparently preferred La
over a return to the Pacific Northwest where she started
in college.
Speaker 2 (02:27):
She can't stand the rain could be either way.
Speaker 1 (02:29):
The Storm instead gets center Lee Yuru and the number
two pick from La, and now the Beckers sweepstakes becomes
their concern. Storm have a great new practice facility, a
winning culture, former Yukon great Sue Bird in the ownership team,
and Becker's close friend and former teammate at Yukon, Nika
Mule on the roster, so they got a really good
case to convince Beckers to push to join Seattle, and
(02:51):
the Storm have five first round picks over the next
three years to offer the Wings, who, of course, would
rather get the second best player in the draft and
picks and assets than see Becker's rer to Yukon and
get only the second best player in the draft.
Speaker 2 (03:03):
Now.
Speaker 1 (03:03):
Christina Williams, the host of In Case You missed it
right here on the iHeart Women's Sports Network, is joining
us later this week to do a deep dive into
WNBA free agency, So we'll get more into this deal
and all the other.
Speaker 2 (03:13):
Deals going on. You won't want to miss it too.
Speaker 1 (03:16):
Unrivaled the League announced on Monday that Phantom Basketball Club
guard Natisha Hideman has been reassigned to the Laces, effective immediately. Heideman,
who's a free agent in the WNBA, is one of
two injury replacement players signed with Unrivaled, along with Melissa Smith.
Hidaman joined the Phantom after Marina Maybry was ruled out
for a few weeks with a calf injury. Heideman played
three games with the team before her move to the
(03:38):
Laces was announced. The Laces are currently without both Alissa
Thomas and Jackie Young. Young has yet to make her
unrival debut due to injury, while Thomas heard her nee
in the fourth quarter of last Friday's win over the
Vinyl More Pro Hoops News. Former longtime WNBA Washington Mystics
head coach and GM Mike Tebow is the new head
coach of the Belgium women's national basketball team. The moves
(04:00):
that's upper reunion between Tebow and international star Emma Mesiman.
She played seven seasons for him in DC from twenty
thirteen to twenty twenty, and the two helped the franchise
win its first WNBA championship in twenty nineteen. Mesaman earned
MVP honors. It's also going to reunite him with point
guard Julie van Lou, who played for the Mystics this
past season, which was Tibo's last ride as the team's GM.
(04:21):
He's the winningest coach in WNBA history and one Coach
of the Year in the.
Speaker 2 (04:24):
League three times.
Speaker 1 (04:26):
Tibo also won a gold medals and assisted with the
USA women's national team at the Paris Olympics last year.
Speaker 2 (04:31):
The Belgian Cats.
Speaker 1 (04:32):
Put the world on notice in last year's Olympic tournament,
putting together quite a run before losing to Australia in
the bronze medal game, and finishing fourth overall to the NWSL.
The Chicago Red Stars sorry the newly rebranded Chicago Color
not specified Stars announced on Tuesday that star player Mallory
Swanson will not be joining the club for the start
of training camp due to personal reasons. In a statement
(04:54):
sent out by the team, Swanson said, quote, I'd like
to thank the club and the fans for their understanding
during this time time. I appreciate the kindness and encouragement
from my teammates and all the Stars staff, and hope
to be back with the team and playing in front
of our fans as soon as I can.
Speaker 2 (05:08):
End quote.
Speaker 1 (05:09):
The team said it supports Swanson's decision and are excited
to welcome her back whenever she's ready. More NWSL news.
The Houston Dash have acquired forward Messiah Bright from Angel
City FC. In return, Angel City will receive up to
one hundred and fifty thousand dollars in intra league transfer funds. Bright,
who joined the NWSL in twenty twenty three as a
member of the Orlando Pride, played in twenty one matches
(05:30):
for Angel City in twenty twenty four. To golf, the
LPGA has announced that the fur Hills Serie Pack Championship,
scheduled for March, has been dropped from the schedule after
the underwriter of the tournament failed to make payments. In
a statement, the LPGA said that canceling the event was
quote unavoidable due to the event underwriter failing to fulfill
any portion of its payment obligations to the LPGA Tour
(05:51):
for the twenty twenty four and twenty twenty five.
Speaker 2 (05:53):
Events end quote.
Speaker 1 (05:55):
The LPGA added its looking to reschedule the event later
this year. The twenty twenty five Tours, the LPGA's seventy
fifth anniversary season, starts this Thursday with the Hilton Grand
Vacations Tournament of Champions in Florida.
Speaker 2 (06:09):
We got to take a quick break.
Speaker 1 (06:11):
When we come back, we chat with Carissa Donkin about
the past, present and future of the PWHL joining us now.
She's an investigative reporter for CBC in Canada, also covering
women's hockey in the PWHL for CBC Sports and the
author of Breakaway, a book about women's hockey in the
(06:31):
PWHL set to release in the fall. She grew up
a Toronto Maple Leafs fan and she minored in criminology,
so crime pays the bills, but hockey provides the thrills.
Speaker 2 (06:40):
It's Carissa Donkin.
Speaker 3 (06:41):
What's up, Chrissa, Hey Sarah. That is a very cool intro.
Thank you for that. That was fun.
Speaker 1 (06:47):
I want to talk about that to start, because you
were exclusively doing investigative reporting out of college and then
you made a pivot during COVID to get yourself around hockey.
Speaker 2 (06:55):
Can you tell us about that.
Speaker 3 (06:57):
Yeah, so I've I've kind of had my footnotel lot
of different baskets, honestly.
Speaker 2 (07:02):
So your foot in baskets, yeah, you know.
Speaker 3 (07:04):
What, that sounded better in my head. You know, I
don't usually wear baskets on my feet. Let's say I
got good my feet in a number of different shoes,
which I there we go. Yeah. So, like when I
came out of university, I started working at the Toronto
Star and I did basically everything you can imagine there.
I did crime as you can expect, I did a
little bit of sports. I was an arts reporter for
(07:25):
a little bit. I even did some some auto reporting,
which I can tell you is not my forte. That's
not where I was meant to be, you know. And
then I came back to New Brunswick, where I'm from,
and I started doing some city hall reporting. I covered
our provincial legislature, I did some crime reporting, and then
I got into investigative journalism and kind of never looked back.
(07:47):
So I'm part of a small but mighty investigative team
here in Atlantic Canada on the East Coast, and I've
been doing that since twenty sixteen. And then, as you
mentioned during COVID, you know, some of the stories, as
you can imagine that you do with the investigative unit,
they're quite heavy and it's difficult stuff, and I really
needed something to do to kind of take my mind
(08:08):
off of some of the tough stories, honestly that I
was doing. And so I sat there and I thought
about what I could do. And you know, I'm not
very good at home renovations, so that was out, and
I thought, what are my skills? Well, I like to write.
If I could write about anything in the world that's
not my job, what would I write about? And I
settled on women's hockey because I've always loved hockey. It
(08:31):
had never been my job, not even close to it,
but it's just something I loved. And I thought about
what could I create that isn't out there, and I
thought about what would I want to read, and that's
how I started working on my book. And then I
got in touch with the folks at CBC Sports. So
this was before the PWAHL even existed that I'm thinking
about writing a book about it, So you know, you could,
(08:52):
as you can imagine, it took a while to kind
of manifesting. Yeah, to get a publisher on board with that,
and thank goodness, my publisher believed in it, and the
same with CBC Sports. I got in touch with them
before the league actually started, and it turns out CBC
is one of the broadcasters of the league, so that
worked out and it's been a blast. I've been with
CBC Sports now since I started just before the draft
(09:15):
in twenty twenty three.
Speaker 1 (09:17):
There was stuff to cover in women's hockey. Though the
PWHL is currently in its second season, but you really
were already looking into it when they were creating and
shaping the league. You were covering the Professional Women's Hockey
Players Association a few years ago. Can you take us
back to that time and that organizing group and give
us a sense of how women's hockey reached this moment,
right now.
Speaker 3 (09:35):
Yeah, I think that's really important to mention because there
has been a lot to get to where we are now.
I mean, this league didn't just sprout out of nowhere, right,
And not that people think that, but sometimes I think
people forget that there were all kinds of women who
played hockey before twenty twenty three. They just maybe didn't
do it in a league that was as big and
as well funded as the PWHL is. So if we
(09:58):
go all the way back to twenty nineteen, so there
was a league called the Canadian Women's Hockey League, and
that league had a lot of the best players in
the world. So Hillary Knight, who people would know, she
played for the Montreal team in that league, just as
an example. And then there was another league that was
called the National Women's Hockey League later rebranded to become
the Premier Hockey Federation, and a number of players played
(10:20):
in that league as well. A lot of the you know,
American national team players at the time were playing in
that league. So twenty nineteen, the CWHL folds and so
a lot of the best players, particularly in Canada, don't
have anywhere to play anymore. So Fink Maddie for the Pulz,
Sarah Nurse like, those players had nowhere to play, and
they also weren't being compensated for their labor in that league,
(10:44):
so they only started paying players a couple of seasons
before the league folded, and some players made as little
as two thousand dollars a season. So it was professional
on the ice, but it was you know, it was
professional really in name only. They didn't have professional facilities,
they didn't have professional coaches who were compensated the way
that they should have been. You know, none of that
stuff was in place in that league. And a number
(11:06):
of the players in the American team also had issues
with the professionalism of what became the PAHF and at
the time was the National Women's Hockey League. Lots of
acronyms in women's hockeys era. So essentially what happened is
the American players, you know, they had been dissatisfied with
with you know, the quality in the PHF or the
NWHL at the time. The Canadian players had nowhere to play.
(11:30):
And the important context here is that some of the
American players they had stood up a couple of years
earlier and they threatened to not go to the twenty
seventeen Women's World Championship on home soil because their federation,
they felt, wasn't treating them equally to men. So they
weren't getting you know, equal hotel accommodations, they were not
(11:51):
getting their championship rings the same way that the men did.
And so a number of women, Hillary Knight, Kendall, Quinn
Schofield among them stood up and said, Hey, that's not right,
and we're not going to play in this World Championship
until you, you know, give give us what we deserve essentially,
and so they ended up working out a deal, but
(12:12):
that sort of stuck with those women that if they
can band together, then they can make a difference. And
that's a page that they took from Billy Jean King,
and it's a page that they took from the American
soccer players as well, the ninety nine ers. So all
this kind of fits in together. So that's sort of
the context of where we're at in twenty nineteen and
all these players they're in Finland to play in the
(12:34):
World Championship of the national team players and this is
just you know, a few days after the CWHL folds
and the American players and the Canadian players sit down
at a breakfast table together. And so maybe that doesn't
sound like much, but for people who watch women's hockey,
like these people do not like each other.
Speaker 2 (12:52):
On the ice, one of the best rivalries in sport.
Speaker 3 (12:55):
Absolutely, And I know a lot of people think, oh,
you know, yeah, a lot of these players play together,
they go to college together. Whatever, the rivalry is not
what it was. That is not true. Like Hillary Knight
said it best to me once, she said, sometimes we
don't even like to ride in the elevator together at
these tournaments. So the fact that they all sat down
together is remarkable. And so the wheels kind of were
(13:16):
in motion. You know. Obviously they had a World Championship
to play, but once they got back, they knew that,
you know, they had to ban together. And so what
they created was essentially a union, though they didn't have
an employer at the time, so it was called the
Professional Women's Hockey Players Association, as you said. And then
they did a barnstorming tour across North America. Obviously, as
we know, there was a pandemic in the middle that
(13:38):
kind of slowed things down, but they went all over
the place in North America, to kind of showcase their game,
and you know, they said, we're not going to play
in a league. Of course, the PHF is still operating.
They're not going to play in this league until they
can create something sustainable that's going to properly compensate them
for their labor. And so then they you know, they
(13:59):
just needed to find the right investor group and along
comes to Mark Wealter Group and Billy Jean King Enterprises
and pass forward here we are today.
Speaker 1 (14:08):
Yeah, the willingness to sort of put on hold the
professional play as much as it was mostly professional in name,
that's still an opportunity to play, and you only get
so many years to do that. So to put the
long term goals of women's professional hockey as the priority
is really impressive. It also, like you said, really did
mirror a lot of what the ninety nine ers did,
(14:28):
who had to put on their own friendlies after their
big World Cup win because US Soccer didn't want to
invest in. And then when they started selling them all out,
US Soccer came back around and said, wait, we.
Speaker 2 (14:38):
Want a part of this. And you know you didn't
want to do this for us.
Speaker 1 (14:41):
So the idea that they had to put on these
barnstorming games to remind folks like this is a product
people want and to help get them the league that
they deserve.
Speaker 2 (14:48):
Is just it's really cool.
Speaker 1 (14:49):
What sort of strides or evolutions have you seen in
the PWHL in this second season, whether that's the hockey
player or the business side, Because there was a lot
of great coverage of how it came together and that
first season last year, Is there anything that's notably different
in this second season?
Speaker 3 (15:02):
Yeah? And I just want to say, Sarah first, you know,
when you're talking about how the journey that we saw
the female hockey players take, marrying what we saw with
the soccer players and mirroring what we saw with Billy
Jean Kings, She's really the thread that runs through it, right,
I mean, she has been women's hockey's fairy godmother, and
she's she's on the league's advisory board as well.
Speaker 1 (15:20):
As well, and all the way back to Cammi Granado
exactly right. I mean Billye, I always say Billy Jan
King's basically the fourst Gump of women's sports, Like you
could just drop her into any notable historic event and
she was probably there, even if it was behind the scenes.
Getting the phone call and telling them how to mobilize.
It's really it's really impressive.
Speaker 3 (15:36):
Yeah, absolutely for sure. But when we're talking about the
second season, I mean, I think first of all, we
can talk about how it's it's portrayed. I mean, I
think in the first season, a lot of the coverage
was around first which is fair. It's exciting, you know,
brand new league and you know, first championship, all these
record breaking games where we saw attendance like we've never
(15:57):
seen before in women's hockey. So there were a lot
of kind of big moments that we were talking about.
And it does feel like we're talking more about the
hockey this year, which is really exciting because you know,
looking back at women's hockey coverage over the years, which
I did when you know, when I was putting together
my book, it's you know, so much of it has
(16:18):
focused on Okay, there's no league. Oh, there's two leagues.
They don't want to play in this league. It's league building,
it's it's the rift, it's all of this stuff, and
it's so rarely about the hockey. And so the fact
that we're talking about the hockey now is really fun
and really exciting and you know, we've seen some interesting
rules in season two, which I kind of like because
(16:42):
you know, the idea is that they don't have to
be the NHL. They can try stuff and maybe it'll
work and maybe it won't. Like the jailbreak goal, for instance,
that so great that was season one, but I mean
that's hey, why not right? And people think that just
because the NHL does it one way, that's how everybody
has to do it.
Speaker 1 (17:01):
A lot of that is getting to know the players
and the teams and getting people who maybe appreciate hockey,
mostly at the national team level, for the women to
know some of the storylines and then want to get
more involved. We're going to get into the hockey and
some of those storylines. But I want to ask you
one more big picture question about the PWHL and the PA.
So last week, the PA announced a new executive director,
Maleka Underwood. She's taken the place of Brian Burke. Underwood
(17:23):
was a longtime member of the US national women's baseball team,
but also has a lot of experience on the business
and nil side of things. She previously worked at One
Team Partners, including serving as their interim CEO. For those
who aren't familiar one team partners, works with players, associations,
and athletes in major pro leagues, so she brings all
of that experience. Got any interesting thoughts on that hire?
Speaker 3 (17:43):
Yeah, I mean, I don't think it's super surprising. I
don't think Brian Burke was meant to be in that
role forever. He kind of came in as things were
getting started. But I will say I think it's important
to have somebody strong in that role because the league
and the players did sign a a longer term contract,
but we can already see there are some things that
(18:04):
maybe if they knew how successful the league was going
to be, the players would have pushed a little harder
for this or that. Like one thing I think that's
really missing from it is reserve players don't get access
to the same benefits as the full time roster players.
But they go out there and they practice just as often.
They're in the gym just as often, maybe even more,
(18:24):
because they're trying to prove that they deserve a roster spot.
So those players, it's like impossible to be a reserve
player unless you really have another job or some other
way to sustain yourself. So that's just one of the
things that I think, you know, they'll have to address
when when the time comes, and to have somebody like
her on board, somebody who can you know, represent the
(18:46):
players strongly. I think that's what they were looking for there.
Speaker 1 (18:49):
Yeah, we've asked about that of a couple p WHL
folks and even the players about potential opt outs in
that deal. Because while it's great to have the security
of a lengthy CBA before you launch the league, and
I know that something that Mark Walter wanted in place,
it also means that the players are not able to
deal with things that they realize midway through are not
beneficial or maybe not up to par. We'll see if
(19:10):
they are able to use their leverage or if the
new executive director has anything to say about trying to
make some amendments before that is run its course. You
mentioned some of these games that are incredible attendance, incredible vibes.
The Takeover Tour in particular has been so cool to
watch a series of neutral site game showcasing the league,
(19:30):
a lot of rabid crowds and a lot of folks
making an argument for their city to benefit from the
league's planned expansion. We've seen already Seattle Vancouver, Denver, and
Quebec City still to come. We've got Edmonton, Buffalo, Raleigh, Detroit,
and Saint Louis.
Speaker 2 (19:44):
Have you heard any rumors based on cities that.
Speaker 1 (19:46):
Are leading the way or maybe changing the minds of
leadership as a result of their turn hosting so far.
Speaker 3 (19:51):
Yeah, So I don't have the answer for where they're
gonna go.
Speaker 2 (19:54):
That's it break some news. Carressa tell us right now.
Speaker 3 (19:57):
Well, I think the PWHL is still figuring that out.
That is the number one question that everybody wants the
answer to. I think it's important to say expansion is
not guaranteed for next season. It could happen as early
as next season. To be honest, they did bring the
league together quite quickly, so, you know, pulling one team
together in a few months, like, hey, that's nothing. They
brought together a whole league with six teams. But it's
(20:20):
tough right now because on one hand, I think you
could expand to two markets in the US you have
American owners. You saw a great showing in Denver. Detroit
last year was fantastic. Obviously, there's a ton of interest
in Seattle. You'd kind of like to think that they'd
like a team a little bit closer to Minnesota to
make life there a bit easier. So maybe maybe you
(20:43):
know Chicago or.
Speaker 2 (20:44):
Saint Louis something like that. Chicago not on.
Speaker 3 (20:49):
The takeover tour this year, but definitely a big women's
hockey community there, as you know. And then you know,
you think about like Edmonton and Vancouver and Seattle, like
is at the right time to go to the West coast.
Certainly there's a huge women's hockey community in Seattle. There's
(21:09):
no doubt in my mind that they would embrace the team.
And Vancouver obviously sold out, and I believe Edmonton, if
it's not sold out, is pretty close to being sold out.
So there's all kinds of different options there, And you know,
when you're thinking about going a little bit further west,
the thing to keep in mind is that these players
do fly commercially, So we're not talking about NHL players
(21:30):
sitting on their private planes, right Like, those are long
trips to take on a commercial flight. So I think
that's something that the league is going to keep in mind.
But I would say one city that's going to be
really hard to say no to Sarah is Quebec City.
It would be the smallest PWHL market, but I think
that that rivalry with Montreal is going to be super
(21:52):
fun if that team were to come to pass. And
the biggest reason why I think Quebec City could work
not just because people love women's hockey there, but they
have an arena that was built for a professional tenant.
It was built for an NHL team that has never
come and so there's lots of room and availability for
a professional team there. And that's the one thing that
(22:12):
might be tricky in some of these other markets is
finding the right facility. So there are a few things
the PWHL is looking at. So it's arena availability, it's
economic opportunity, it's geography, of course, it's you know, media,
youth hockey markets, and so there's a lot of fun
things I think for them to take into account. But
(22:32):
I mean, the fact that we're talking about expansion already
is is cool. It's going to happen. It's just a
matter of you know, whether it happens as soon as
when unware Yeah, right, exactly?
Speaker 2 (22:43):
Have you gotten to cover many of the games in person?
Speaker 3 (22:45):
I followed the Montreal team around a little bit last year,
so I went to a number of their games. I
went to a game in Boston as well. I was
at the Scotia Bank Arena game last year in Toronto.
I've spent the most time in so I think I
can speak about Montreal the most. But it's an incredible atmosphere.
Speaker 1 (23:06):
It feels like it and it feels like they're starting
to put together some new traditions, which is one of
the things in women's sports that I think is really fascinating.
When you have men's sports, there's so much built in
nostalgia and some cases one hundred plus years of tradition
that gets passed down, and when you're creating a new league,
you have to sort of try to find this balance
between what's organic and also creating some things that you
(23:29):
know will bring fans back that they'll feel like they, Oh,
if I identify and understand this, it means I'm a good fan.
Speaker 2 (23:34):
I know what's to come, and I know what to
cheer at this moment, or what to yell.
Speaker 1 (23:38):
Or what to bring or what to wave or whatever.
Have you seen some of those traditions start anywhere yet?
Speaker 3 (23:43):
I mean, I think we have to talk about the
Taylor Swift sing along. That's a thing at pretty much
every every game, and I have heard people compare it
to the Aras Tour. I haven't been to the arastur
so you know, I can't speak to that, but it
certainly has that fun vibe. Like, for instance, in Montreal,
they always had a DJ at the intermission, so it's like,
(24:06):
even if you don't really know women's hockey and you
want an introduction to it, like you come to this
rink and you know, you don't have to worry that
maybe you don't know everything because everybody is kind of
still learning. It's a brand new league, and you know,
if you want to.
Speaker 2 (24:20):
And you get a party at the break exactly, dance party.
Speaker 1 (24:23):
That's awesome. Okay, let's talk about some of these teams.
Let's talk Montreal Victor their top of the standings right now.
What makes them so good.
Speaker 3 (24:30):
Well, they have the best player in the world, so
Matri Filipoulin their captains, so that helps. But I think
the thing with Montreal this season, Sarah, is their depth
is just so improved. And that was the problem for
Montreal in the playoffs last year against Boston. Boston's depth
was just better. Obviously, the teams were really close. All
three games went to overtime. One went to triple overtime.
(24:53):
But this year, like the third and the fourth lines
are just so so much better. I think Montreal drafted
really well. Like bring in a player like Kayla Barnes
who has been quarterbacking their number one power play, which
moves Aaron Ambrose to the number two power play. And
that's somebody who has quarterbacked the top power play unit
on Team Canada for a while. So like that is
(25:15):
huge on the blue line. And then when we look
up front, a player like Abby Boren, who we saw
in short stints with the Minnesota team last year as
a reserve player, watching her play full time with Montreal,
I mean she has just been incredible. And same with
Jennifer Gardner, who was a great draft pick by Montreal.
(25:35):
And so it's the depth I think that really makes
Montreal stand out. I mean, one of their best players,
Laura Stacey, they've been without her for the last couple
of games and they haven't really missed a beat.
Speaker 2 (25:44):
Impressive, super impressive.
Speaker 1 (25:46):
Minnesota frost last year's Walter Cup winners as champions of
the league close behind them.
Speaker 2 (25:51):
What are they doing well this year?
Speaker 3 (25:52):
Yeah, And you know I have to admit coming out
of Minnesota's draft, I sort of thought, like, I don't know,
I'm not sure. You know, Minnesota kind of limped into
the playoffs, and I think everybody maybe underestimated them a
little bit. But I think someone we have to talk
about on the frost this year is, well, there's two people.
I think we have to talk about. Kendall coin Schofield,
who's having an incredible year and you're really seeing that
(26:15):
speed from her, Like she just looks so fast out there,
and so she's been at the top of the leader
board all this year for points, but it's just like
it feels like she is It's incredible that she came
back as quickly.
Speaker 2 (26:28):
As she did from having a baby.
Speaker 3 (26:30):
Yep, but she's so fast this season, like she can
really see her wheels. And then we see somebody like
Taylor Hisie who hasn't even been at one hundred percent
all season, and she's she's been one of their best players.
So I think for Minnesota, you know, they go into
this season with a bit of a target on their back,
like everybody wants to beat the champions, right, and it
hasn't really really phased them. I Mean, they've had a
(26:51):
couple of games where they've been stumbling and they had
illness going throughout their locker room. Like Taylor Heiseie said,
if you were to put your ear up to our
locker room, you hear everybody like coughing and sneezing and
throwing up and stuff like that. But they've just weathered
the storm.
Speaker 2 (27:06):
Battled through.
Speaker 1 (27:06):
Yeah, Toronto Sceptor is not battling through quite as well.
Speaker 2 (27:10):
They're at the bottom of the standings.
Speaker 1 (27:11):
Obviously a big loss to have Natalie Spooner out with
injury for so long.
Speaker 2 (27:14):
Is she the only thing they've been missing?
Speaker 3 (27:16):
Well, I think their goaltending hasn't quite been up to part.
And we saw Kristin Campbell, their starter, have a bit
of a slow start last season as well, but she
was able to turn it around and she was ultimately
chosen as the best goaltender of the year in the league.
But it just hasn't quite been there for her this year.
I don't think she's been as steady for them. And like,
for instance, at the Scotia Bank Arena game, they went
(27:36):
with their number two, who's a rookie, Reagan Kirk. You
know who's who's been just mined for them, but you
can tell that they're really missing that sort of rock
and net in Kristin Campbell, like she's not the problem,
hasn't really been scoring for Toronto, like they've been scoring
goals without Natalie Spooner, but they're just letting a bunch
of the men, so that's the problem. Yeah, but they're
(27:57):
also missing Natalie Spooner. I think obviously you miss your
MVP when she is injured and she's still out as
we speak, but just having her like in front of
the net and causing chaos and getting in the goalies' eyes, like,
they're really missing that kind of presence. And if you
look at their top scorer right now, Hannah Miller, she's
(28:18):
somebody who does that really well. And she's somebody whose
game I think translates really well to the p WHL
because of that. So they just they need a bit
more of that. And we will see Natalie Spooner I think,
come back in the near future. We don't know exactly
when yet, and it's it's not fair to expect her
to turn everything around. Herself is one person, but it's
gonna help for sure.
Speaker 2 (28:39):
Yeah.
Speaker 1 (28:40):
Toronto also made some headlines at the end of December,
Jocelyn the Rock went to Ottawa in exchange for Victoria
Bach and Haley Skimora.
Speaker 2 (28:47):
What did you make of that trade?
Speaker 3 (28:48):
Yeah, I mean I think, well, first of all, I
think that's the biggest p WHL trade that we've seen.
I mean, I know the league's only two years old,
but just trades in general in women's hockey is really exciting.
Like we didn't really have that before. There were trades,
but usually players knew where they were going because you
couldn't just send somebody somewhere without their you know, without
(29:09):
their consent.
Speaker 2 (29:10):
Because this was the real deal.
Speaker 3 (29:11):
Yeah, so this was real, Like Joscelyn le Rock had
no idea that she was going to be traded. And
I think it's so cool, Sarah, because if we think
about like last New Year's Day, everybody was talking about
like the birth of the new league and the first game,
who's going to score the first goal? All this stuff,
all these first and then this year, you know, we
get to the one year anniversary of the league and
(29:32):
we're talking about hockey trade.
Speaker 2 (29:34):
Yeah, so that just goes ye, just the straight up hockey.
Speaker 1 (29:37):
I didn't even think about it, but I wonder if
it's extra tricky to make a trade between countries because
that was Toronto and Ottawa dealing. But if you were
sending a Canadian player from a team in Canada to
suddenly go live in the States, how much stickier is
that in terms of you know, visas and all the
other things in order to get there and work. I
haven't really dug into that. Maybe that's a story if
(29:58):
you haven't already written it yet. Does that get in
the way of trades at all? Their slow teams down? Okay,
last question on the teams. New York was far and
away the worst team last year, but they've added number
one draft picks Sarah Filia. They're on the up and
up this year, currently fourth in the standings. What have
you seen from that team in making that turnaround?
Speaker 3 (30:15):
Yeah, I mean, I think there are a couple of changes. Obviously,
they brought in a new head coach as well in
Greg Fargo, So I think they they're playing with this
sort of strong possession style, and I think just having
a different voice maybe has helped a lot as well.
And then I think again, kind of like Montreal, they
drafted well, I mean, you can't go wrong with the
first overall pick being Sarah Filiate Like, that's not really
(30:36):
you can't really give them too much credit for that.
You couldn't really go wrong by drafting her. But you
look at some of the other draft picks that they
made as well, and you know, somebody like an Alie
Simpson who's really short up their depth on the back end,
I think New York might have the best decor in
the league. And then you know, just up front that
(30:57):
offensive talent with Sarah Phillier and Alex car together. I
think Alex Carpenter's been one of the most underrated players
for a long time. She's just an incredible shooter, and
I think part of that is she wasn't playing in
North America for a while, so she's not somebody you
really saw. But yeah, to see her and Sarah Philia
on the same line, I actually thought, you know, going
into the season, Sarah, I thought they should split them up,
(31:18):
and I was wrong. They're incredible together, right, Like like
Jesse Eldridge as well, who you know has has been
running their second line and who I think is really talented,
who we probably don't talk about enough. So New York's
just firing on all cylinders. Right now.
Speaker 1 (31:32):
Yeah, it's fun to watch, Like I like watching those
teams kind of figure things out and get out of
the get out of the rut. Okay, quick question for
you before we let you go.
Speaker 2 (31:41):
So we used to.
Speaker 1 (31:42):
See most of these US and Canadian teams get together
at these lead ups to the Olympics. There wasn't really
a way for players to get together and train and
prepare and stay ready. But because of the p WHL,
these centralization camps are kind of going away. Do you
think that shift is going to change the hockey we
see at the Olympics because we've we've got this next
Winter Olympics right on the corner.
Speaker 3 (32:01):
Yeah, it's I think it's an interesting question. I mean
I think that you know, like in Canada, ference and centralization,
I think it could be so grueling and difficult on
players mentally, like for them to just pick up their
lives and move to Calgary for a few months. It's
it's a lot to ask of the player. But I
think there's also a level of bonding and chemistry that
(32:23):
comes through that. So, you know, I think it will
get to a point where they have to think about,
you know, how much programming do we need so for sure,
we're not going to see centralization or you know, the
US equivalent of that, where players just go off and
and you know, live somewhere for months and train together.
But we've continued to see the rivalry series, and I
think that's been really helpful for you know, for the
(32:46):
national teams to make their their roster decisions, and I
think we will continue to see part of that. Maybe
it won't be a seven game rivalry series like the
rivalry series started because players didn't really have a ton
of places to play kind of when the CWHL folded
and then as we went into COVID, But I think
it's still a valuable tool and it could be helpful
(33:06):
for those for that chemistry building as well. But Sarah,
where I think the PWHL really changes what we're going
to see at the Olympics and at the World Championship
is with teams like you know, Chechia or Finland, where
you're seeing some of their best players coming to the
p WHL. And so we look at like, you know,
Swedish goaltender m Soderberg, maybe she gets to see Hillary
(33:30):
Nights shooting on her in practice every day, so she
doesn't just see her, you know, once in a million
years at Worlds, So that's only going to make her better,
and that's going to make Sweden better.
Speaker 1 (33:39):
And Hillary Knight's listening and she's like, yeah, I'm also
getting to shoot on her every day, So I know,
if I go, you know, top shelf, it's harder for
you know, she doesn't like it.
Speaker 2 (33:47):
Five hole.
Speaker 1 (33:48):
Troy Ryan, the Canadian coach, is a coach in the PWHL,
but the US national team coach, John Rablowski is not.
Does that have any impact on this rivalry? I mean,
one's getting a good look at a lot of players.
Speaker 3 (33:59):
Yeah, yeah, I mean I do think there's still a
lot of you know, USA Hockey scouting that's that's going on.
I wouldn't read into that too much, honestly, and I
do think people make a lot of make a lot
out of that. The fact that you know, Gina Kingsbury,
who's the GM of Team Canada, and Troy Ryan are
both with the scepters, and there's a number there are
a number of players on the scepters who play on
(34:20):
the Team Canada as well, So I mean, yeah, there
are some benefits there. But I think in the world
where we are today, Sarah, Like anybody can go to
a game, it's really easy to find video from it.
And I know that there are USA Hockey scouts who
are going to these games and are pretty in touch
with it, so I wouldn't worry too much for that.
Speaker 1 (34:39):
It's not lost on us that the Canadian is downplaying
the potential outcomes of a spy. I don't know if
Americans would feel the same way about it. By the way,
you just published a story last week about Troy Ryan,
the coach of the Scepters and the Canadian national team,
about his long journey to becoming one of the top
coaches in the world. Lots of great and interesting stories
in there, so we'll link to that story in the
show notes for people to read it.
Speaker 2 (35:00):
So keep following your work.
Speaker 1 (35:01):
We'll link to the ways to follow you and keep
up with the PWHL. Thank you so much for joining
us and forgiving us a whole ton of info on
this league.
Speaker 3 (35:08):
Yeah, thanks for having me and big fan of the show.
Speaker 2 (35:13):
Thanks to CHRISA for joining us. We got to take
another break.
Speaker 1 (35:15):
When we come back, we induct the newest member of
the Good Game Hall of Fame.
Speaker 2 (35:29):
Welcome back slices.
Speaker 1 (35:30):
As we previewed during yesterday's show, Tennessee coach Kim Caldwell
returned to the bench to coach her team against SECFO
South Carolina on Monday night, just seven days after giving
birth to her son, Connor Scott. That reminded us of
the story of Tennessee's most famous coach, the legendary Pat
Summit and a wild story involving the birth of her son,
Which means it's time for the latest induction to the
(35:52):
Good Game Hall of Fame.
Speaker 3 (35:55):
Ah.
Speaker 2 (35:55):
Yes, the Good Game.
Speaker 1 (35:56):
Hall of Fame, where we celebrate women's sports lore, the
kind of legendary stories we should all know by heart,
just like we know that MNBA Great Shaquille O'Neil wears
a size twenty two shoe and NFL QB Aaron Rodgers
spends his off seasons doing ayahuasca and going on darkness retreats. Yeah,
we've got some catching up to do in women's sports.
So grab another plaque and find a good place on
the wall. Today we've got another inductee. Let's time travel
(36:20):
back to September nineteen ninety. Tennessee is one of the
biggest players in women's Soups, having won two of the
last four NCAA titles. But a few months before our
story begins, the Lady Voles fall to Virginia in the
regional finals, meaning that for the first time in four years,
they won't be progressing to the Final four. And to
make that sting hurt even more, Tennessee was the host
(36:40):
of that year's Final Four, leaving the team uninvited to
their own hometown party, so that tough loss was undoubtedly
on pat Summit's mind in September of nineteen ninety, when,
at eight months pregnant, she flew from Knoxville to Allentown,
Pennsylvania for a recruiting trip meant to convince then high
schooler Michelle Marciniak to come to Tennessee. Summit wasn't expecting
(37:01):
her son to arrive for another couple weeks and was
surprised when while visiting with Marciniac and her family and
their home, she started experiencing contractions. When they didn't subside,
Summit and Crewe decided it was time to go. They
loaded onto the plane and took off with Summit intent
on getting back to Tennessee where her husband was, but
as her contractions continued to increase, the pilot recommended the
(37:21):
plane make an emergency landing in Roanoke so Summit could
get to the hospital. That's Ronoke, as in Roanoke, Virginia,
the state that had defeated some its lady voles just
a few months earlier. How did Summit respond to that
suggestion in the most pat Summit way possible quote, don't
land anywhere but Knoxville.
Speaker 2 (37:39):
Put your pedal to the medal end quote.
Speaker 1 (37:41):
This whole saga was included in Jeff Goldberg's twenty fifteen
book Unrivaled, which is somehow not a prophetic look at
a future three on three league, but actually about the
history of the Tennessee Yukon women's hoops rivalry. Per Goldberg's telling,
some made it to Knoxville with quote moments to spare.
She was almost fully dilated when she arrived at the
hospital end quote.
Speaker 2 (38:00):
And the story gets even better.
Speaker 1 (38:01):
Just a few months after Tyler Summit entered the world,
Tennessee reclaimed the NCAA Championship trophy, beating Virginia in the
title game. You can't write this stuff, folks. Welcome to
the Good Game Hall of Fame. Posthumously pat Summit. We
love that you're listening, but we want to get you
in the game every day too, So here's our good
gameplay of the day. Keep sending us questions for our
(38:23):
Big Citrus, ask us Anything, mail bag episode, sports questions,
questions about life, love and the pursuit of happiness, the
best coffee or pizza in our city, travel tips, workout tips,
dog tips, the.
Speaker 2 (38:34):
World is your oyster.
Speaker 1 (38:36):
Hit us up and we'd especially love to hear your
angelic voices in a voicemail, So shoot us a question
that way eight seven two two oh four fifty seventy.
That's eight seven two two oh four fifty seventy, and
you can always email us good game at wondermedianetwork dot com. Finally,
don't forget to subscribe, rate and review. It's easy slices
(38:56):
watch Surviving Your First Earthquake rating zero out of five
Holy Shits review. Yesterday Morning producer Alex got her first
taste of the old seismic shakes, a three point eight
magnitude earthquake centered off the coast of New Hampshire and Maine.
Now she reported herself shaken but not stirred. As a
former defunct geology major whose only previous earthquake experience was
(39:19):
reading about them in textbooks. She said it was fun
to finally be at the epicenter of attention. I remember
my first quake. It was maybe five maybe six in
LA I was rehearsing with my second city sketch group
shoutout reverse Coma when we felt the first jolt and
suddenly we all went running toward the one desk in
the room to try to hide under it. Then it
(39:41):
was in an earthquake while driving. Then it was in
an earthquake while in Flagrante delicto. Seriously, and after a
few of those scary suckers, I now live in a
city that is very, very cold, but has no major
natural disasters for now at least, And that's the way
I like it. Now, it's your turn, rate and review.
Thanks for listening, See you tomorrow. Good game, Carissa, Good Game,
(40:02):
PWHL few earthquakes. Good Game with Sarah Spain is an
iHeart women's sports production in partnership with Deep Blue Sports
and Entertainment.
Speaker 2 (40:14):
You can find us on the.
Speaker 1 (40:15):
iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts.
Production by Wonder Media Network, Our producers are Alex Azzie
and Misha Jones. Our executive producers are Christina Everett, Jesse Katz,
Jenny Kaplan and Emily Rutter.
Speaker 2 (40:27):
Our editors are Emily Rutter, Britney Martinez and Grace Lynch.
Speaker 1 (40:31):
Our associate producer is Lucy Jones and I'm Your Host
Sarah Spain
Welcome to Good Game with Sarah Spain, where we're bugging
Sue Bird's phone to see if she's putting the full
court press on Page Beckers to demand Dallas send her
rights to the Seattle Storm. It's Tuesday, January twenty eighth,
and on today's show, we'll be talking to CBC Hockey
reporter Carissa Duncan about the PWHL's second season, the teams,
the players, the traditions and those big rowdy crowds, plus
(00:21):
a new entry into the Good Game Hall of Fame.
Instant takeaways from Sunday's, a big WNBA trade and a
whole lot of shaking going on. It's all coming up
right after this Welcome Max slices. Here's what you need
to know today. So we briefly mentioned the blockbuster WNBA
(00:42):
trade in yesterday's show, but when it comes to the
deal's effect on the teams involved and the league as
a whole, there's a.
Speaker 2 (00:48):
Whole lot more to get into.
Speaker 1 (00:50):
ESPN's Kevin Pelton did a bang up job right and
about the trade, including getting into stuff like the nitty
gritty details of player usdrate, shot selection and how player
salaries will affect roster construction for the teams involved, So
you should definitely read his story. We'll link to it
in the show notes, but in the meantime, here's what
you need to know.
Speaker 2 (01:08):
First.
Speaker 1 (01:08):
Most importantly, the trade happened because Jewel Lloyd wanted out
of Seattle and reportedly Kelsey Plum wanted out of Las
Vegas too.
Speaker 2 (01:15):
Now, the Aces end of the deal is the most
clear cut.
Speaker 1 (01:18):
They basically replace Plum with Lloyd, not in apples to
Apple's trade, but close. Lloyd has played more playoff games
against Vegas than any other opponent and played well in them,
and she won Olympic gold with Aces players Chelsea Gray,
Asia Wilson, and Jackie Young last summer. Also, all four
of those players share the same agent, so the Aces
feel pretty good about being able to renegotiate with Lloyd
to stay in Vegas beyond the one year left on
(01:40):
her deal. Now, the Sparks at a superstar and Plum
to their subpar backcourt, accelerating their rebuild, but they do
give up the number two pick in the draft and
with it, the dream of getting Paigebeckers. Now, if you remember,
the Yukon Star is expected to be the top pick
in the WNBA Draft, but some think she'll threaten to
return for a sixth year of college eligibility rather than
play for the Dallas Wings, hoping to force Dallas to
(02:03):
deal the number one pick. So the dream of Page
is over for the Sparks. They no longer have that
number two pick to play with, but they do add
Plum to All Star Derek a Hamby, All Rookie team
member Rakia Jackson, and last year's number two pick Cameron Brink,
who will be back from an ACL injury now to
the Storm.
Speaker 2 (02:19):
So they lose.
Speaker 1 (02:20):
Lloyd and they don't get Plumb, who apparently preferred La
over a return to the Pacific Northwest where she started
in college.
Speaker 2 (02:27):
She can't stand the rain could be either way.
Speaker 1 (02:29):
The Storm instead gets center Lee Yuru and the number
two pick from La, and now the Beckers sweepstakes becomes
their concern. Storm have a great new practice facility, a
winning culture, former Yukon great Sue Bird in the ownership team,
and Becker's close friend and former teammate at Yukon, Nika
Mule on the roster, so they got a really good
case to convince Beckers to push to join Seattle, and
(02:51):
the Storm have five first round picks over the next
three years to offer the Wings, who, of course, would
rather get the second best player in the draft and
picks and assets than see Becker's rer to Yukon and
get only the second best player in the draft.
Speaker 2 (03:03):
Now.
Speaker 1 (03:03):
Christina Williams, the host of In Case You missed it
right here on the iHeart Women's Sports Network, is joining
us later this week to do a deep dive into
WNBA free agency, So we'll get more into this deal
and all the other.
Speaker 2 (03:13):
Deals going on. You won't want to miss it too.
Speaker 1 (03:16):
Unrivaled the League announced on Monday that Phantom Basketball Club
guard Natisha Hideman has been reassigned to the Laces, effective immediately. Heideman,
who's a free agent in the WNBA, is one of
two injury replacement players signed with Unrivaled, along with Melissa Smith.
Hidaman joined the Phantom after Marina Maybry was ruled out
for a few weeks with a calf injury. Heideman played
three games with the team before her move to the
(03:38):
Laces was announced. The Laces are currently without both Alissa
Thomas and Jackie Young. Young has yet to make her
unrival debut due to injury, while Thomas heard her nee
in the fourth quarter of last Friday's win over the
Vinyl More Pro Hoops News. Former longtime WNBA Washington Mystics
head coach and GM Mike Tebow is the new head
coach of the Belgium women's national basketball team. The moves
(04:00):
that's upper reunion between Tebow and international star Emma Mesiman.
She played seven seasons for him in DC from twenty
thirteen to twenty twenty, and the two helped the franchise
win its first WNBA championship in twenty nineteen. Mesaman earned
MVP honors. It's also going to reunite him with point
guard Julie van Lou, who played for the Mystics this
past season, which was Tibo's last ride as the team's GM.
(04:21):
He's the winningest coach in WNBA history and one Coach
of the Year in the.
Speaker 2 (04:24):
League three times.
Speaker 1 (04:26):
Tibo also won a gold medals and assisted with the
USA women's national team at the Paris Olympics last year.
Speaker 2 (04:31):
The Belgian Cats.
Speaker 1 (04:32):
Put the world on notice in last year's Olympic tournament,
putting together quite a run before losing to Australia in
the bronze medal game, and finishing fourth overall to the NWSL.
The Chicago Red Stars sorry the newly rebranded Chicago Color
not specified Stars announced on Tuesday that star player Mallory
Swanson will not be joining the club for the start
of training camp due to personal reasons. In a statement
(04:54):
sent out by the team, Swanson said, quote, I'd like
to thank the club and the fans for their understanding
during this time time. I appreciate the kindness and encouragement
from my teammates and all the Stars staff, and hope
to be back with the team and playing in front
of our fans as soon as I can.
Speaker 2 (05:08):
End quote.
Speaker 1 (05:09):
The team said it supports Swanson's decision and are excited
to welcome her back whenever she's ready. More NWSL news.
The Houston Dash have acquired forward Messiah Bright from Angel
City FC. In return, Angel City will receive up to
one hundred and fifty thousand dollars in intra league transfer funds. Bright,
who joined the NWSL in twenty twenty three as a
member of the Orlando Pride, played in twenty one matches
(05:30):
for Angel City in twenty twenty four. To golf, the
LPGA has announced that the fur Hills Serie Pack Championship,
scheduled for March, has been dropped from the schedule after
the underwriter of the tournament failed to make payments. In
a statement, the LPGA said that canceling the event was
quote unavoidable due to the event underwriter failing to fulfill
any portion of its payment obligations to the LPGA Tour
(05:51):
for the twenty twenty four and twenty twenty five.
Speaker 2 (05:53):
Events end quote.
Speaker 1 (05:55):
The LPGA added its looking to reschedule the event later
this year. The twenty twenty five Tours, the LPGA's seventy
fifth anniversary season, starts this Thursday with the Hilton Grand
Vacations Tournament of Champions in Florida.
Speaker 2 (06:09):
We got to take a quick break.
Speaker 1 (06:11):
When we come back, we chat with Carissa Donkin about
the past, present and future of the PWHL joining us now.
She's an investigative reporter for CBC in Canada, also covering
women's hockey in the PWHL for CBC Sports and the
author of Breakaway, a book about women's hockey in the
(06:31):
PWHL set to release in the fall. She grew up
a Toronto Maple Leafs fan and she minored in criminology,
so crime pays the bills, but hockey provides the thrills.
Speaker 2 (06:40):
It's Carissa Donkin.
Speaker 3 (06:41):
What's up, Chrissa, Hey Sarah. That is a very cool intro.
Thank you for that. That was fun.
Speaker 1 (06:47):
I want to talk about that to start, because you
were exclusively doing investigative reporting out of college and then
you made a pivot during COVID to get yourself around hockey.
Speaker 2 (06:55):
Can you tell us about that.
Speaker 3 (06:57):
Yeah, so I've I've kind of had my footnotel lot
of different baskets, honestly.
Speaker 2 (07:02):
So your foot in baskets, yeah, you know.
Speaker 3 (07:04):
What, that sounded better in my head. You know, I
don't usually wear baskets on my feet. Let's say I
got good my feet in a number of different shoes,
which I there we go. Yeah. So, like when I
came out of university, I started working at the Toronto
Star and I did basically everything you can imagine there.
I did crime as you can expect, I did a
little bit of sports. I was an arts reporter for
(07:25):
a little bit. I even did some some auto reporting,
which I can tell you is not my forte. That's
not where I was meant to be, you know. And
then I came back to New Brunswick, where I'm from,
and I started doing some city hall reporting. I covered
our provincial legislature, I did some crime reporting, and then
I got into investigative journalism and kind of never looked back.
(07:47):
So I'm part of a small but mighty investigative team
here in Atlantic Canada on the East Coast, and I've
been doing that since twenty sixteen. And then, as you
mentioned during COVID, you know, some of the stories, as
you can imagine that you do with the investigative unit,
they're quite heavy and it's difficult stuff, and I really
needed something to do to kind of take my mind
(08:08):
off of some of the tough stories, honestly that I
was doing. And so I sat there and I thought
about what I could do. And you know, I'm not
very good at home renovations, so that was out, and
I thought, what are my skills? Well, I like to write.
If I could write about anything in the world that's
not my job, what would I write about? And I
settled on women's hockey because I've always loved hockey. It
(08:31):
had never been my job, not even close to it,
but it's just something I loved. And I thought about
what could I create that isn't out there, and I
thought about what would I want to read, and that's
how I started working on my book. And then I
got in touch with the folks at CBC Sports. So
this was before the PWAHL even existed that I'm thinking
about writing a book about it, So you know, you could,
(08:52):
as you can imagine, it took a while to kind
of manifesting. Yeah, to get a publisher on board with that,
and thank goodness, my publisher believed in it, and the
same with CBC Sports. I got in touch with them
before the league actually started, and it turns out CBC
is one of the broadcasters of the league, so that
worked out and it's been a blast. I've been with
CBC Sports now since I started just before the draft
(09:15):
in twenty twenty three.
Speaker 1 (09:17):
There was stuff to cover in women's hockey. Though the
PWHL is currently in its second season, but you really
were already looking into it when they were creating and
shaping the league. You were covering the Professional Women's Hockey
Players Association a few years ago. Can you take us
back to that time and that organizing group and give
us a sense of how women's hockey reached this moment,
right now.
Speaker 3 (09:35):
Yeah, I think that's really important to mention because there
has been a lot to get to where we are now.
I mean, this league didn't just sprout out of nowhere, right,
And not that people think that, but sometimes I think
people forget that there were all kinds of women who
played hockey before twenty twenty three. They just maybe didn't
do it in a league that was as big and
as well funded as the PWHL is. So if we
(09:58):
go all the way back to twenty nineteen, so there
was a league called the Canadian Women's Hockey League, and
that league had a lot of the best players in
the world. So Hillary Knight, who people would know, she
played for the Montreal team in that league, just as
an example. And then there was another league that was
called the National Women's Hockey League later rebranded to become
the Premier Hockey Federation, and a number of players played
(10:20):
in that league as well. A lot of the you know,
American national team players at the time were playing in
that league. So twenty nineteen, the CWHL folds and so
a lot of the best players, particularly in Canada, don't
have anywhere to play anymore. So Fink Maddie for the Pulz,
Sarah Nurse like, those players had nowhere to play, and
they also weren't being compensated for their labor in that league,
(10:44):
so they only started paying players a couple of seasons
before the league folded, and some players made as little
as two thousand dollars a season. So it was professional
on the ice, but it was you know, it was
professional really in name only. They didn't have professional facilities,
they didn't have professional coaches who were compensated the way
that they should have been. You know, none of that
stuff was in place in that league. And a number
(11:06):
of the players in the American team also had issues
with the professionalism of what became the PAHF and at
the time was the National Women's Hockey League. Lots of
acronyms in women's hockeys era. So essentially what happened is
the American players, you know, they had been dissatisfied with
with you know, the quality in the PHF or the
NWHL at the time. The Canadian players had nowhere to play.
(11:30):
And the important context here is that some of the
American players they had stood up a couple of years
earlier and they threatened to not go to the twenty
seventeen Women's World Championship on home soil because their federation,
they felt, wasn't treating them equally to men. So they
weren't getting you know, equal hotel accommodations, they were not
(11:51):
getting their championship rings the same way that the men did.
And so a number of women, Hillary Knight, Kendall, Quinn
Schofield among them stood up and said, Hey, that's not right,
and we're not going to play in this World Championship
until you, you know, give give us what we deserve essentially,
and so they ended up working out a deal, but
(12:12):
that sort of stuck with those women that if they
can band together, then they can make a difference. And
that's a page that they took from Billy Jean King,
and it's a page that they took from the American
soccer players as well, the ninety nine ers. So all
this kind of fits in together. So that's sort of
the context of where we're at in twenty nineteen and
all these players they're in Finland to play in the
(12:34):
World Championship of the national team players and this is
just you know, a few days after the CWHL folds
and the American players and the Canadian players sit down
at a breakfast table together. And so maybe that doesn't
sound like much, but for people who watch women's hockey,
like these people do not like each other.
Speaker 2 (12:52):
On the ice, one of the best rivalries in sport.
Speaker 3 (12:55):
Absolutely, And I know a lot of people think, oh,
you know, yeah, a lot of these players play together,
they go to college together. Whatever, the rivalry is not
what it was. That is not true. Like Hillary Knight
said it best to me once, she said, sometimes we
don't even like to ride in the elevator together at
these tournaments. So the fact that they all sat down
together is remarkable. And so the wheels kind of were
(13:16):
in motion. You know. Obviously they had a World Championship
to play, but once they got back, they knew that,
you know, they had to ban together. And so what
they created was essentially a union, though they didn't have
an employer at the time, so it was called the
Professional Women's Hockey Players Association, as you said. And then
they did a barnstorming tour across North America. Obviously, as
we know, there was a pandemic in the middle that
(13:38):
kind of slowed things down, but they went all over
the place in North America, to kind of showcase their game,
and you know, they said, we're not going to play
in a league. Of course, the PHF is still operating.
They're not going to play in this league until they
can create something sustainable that's going to properly compensate them
for their labor. And so then they you know, they
(13:59):
just needed to find the right investor group and along
comes to Mark Wealter Group and Billy Jean King Enterprises
and pass forward here we are today.
Speaker 1 (14:08):
Yeah, the willingness to sort of put on hold the
professional play as much as it was mostly professional in name,
that's still an opportunity to play, and you only get
so many years to do that. So to put the
long term goals of women's professional hockey as the priority
is really impressive. It also, like you said, really did
mirror a lot of what the ninety nine ers did,
(14:28):
who had to put on their own friendlies after their
big World Cup win because US Soccer didn't want to
invest in. And then when they started selling them all out,
US Soccer came back around and said, wait, we.
Speaker 2 (14:38):
Want a part of this. And you know you didn't
want to do this for us.
Speaker 1 (14:41):
So the idea that they had to put on these
barnstorming games to remind folks like this is a product
people want and to help get them the league that
they deserve.
Speaker 2 (14:48):
Is just it's really cool.
Speaker 1 (14:49):
What sort of strides or evolutions have you seen in
the PWHL in this second season, whether that's the hockey
player or the business side, Because there was a lot
of great coverage of how it came together and that
first season last year, Is there anything that's notably different
in this second season?
Speaker 3 (15:02):
Yeah? And I just want to say, Sarah first, you know,
when you're talking about how the journey that we saw
the female hockey players take, marrying what we saw with
the soccer players and mirroring what we saw with Billy
Jean Kings, She's really the thread that runs through it, right,
I mean, she has been women's hockey's fairy godmother, and
she's she's on the league's advisory board as well.
Speaker 1 (15:20):
As well, and all the way back to Cammi Granado
exactly right. I mean Billye, I always say Billy Jan
King's basically the fourst Gump of women's sports, Like you
could just drop her into any notable historic event and
she was probably there, even if it was behind the scenes.
Getting the phone call and telling them how to mobilize.
It's really it's really impressive.
Speaker 3 (15:36):
Yeah, absolutely for sure. But when we're talking about the
second season, I mean, I think first of all, we
can talk about how it's it's portrayed. I mean, I
think in the first season, a lot of the coverage
was around first which is fair. It's exciting, you know,
brand new league and you know, first championship, all these
record breaking games where we saw attendance like we've never
(15:57):
seen before in women's hockey. So there were a lot
of kind of big moments that we were talking about.
And it does feel like we're talking more about the
hockey this year, which is really exciting because you know,
looking back at women's hockey coverage over the years, which
I did when you know, when I was putting together
my book, it's you know, so much of it has
(16:18):
focused on Okay, there's no league. Oh, there's two leagues.
They don't want to play in this league. It's league building,
it's it's the rift, it's all of this stuff, and
it's so rarely about the hockey. And so the fact
that we're talking about the hockey now is really fun
and really exciting and you know, we've seen some interesting
rules in season two, which I kind of like because
(16:42):
you know, the idea is that they don't have to
be the NHL. They can try stuff and maybe it'll
work and maybe it won't. Like the jailbreak goal, for instance,
that so great that was season one, but I mean
that's hey, why not right? And people think that just
because the NHL does it one way, that's how everybody
has to do it.
Speaker 1 (17:01):
A lot of that is getting to know the players
and the teams and getting people who maybe appreciate hockey,
mostly at the national team level, for the women to
know some of the storylines and then want to get
more involved. We're going to get into the hockey and
some of those storylines. But I want to ask you
one more big picture question about the PWHL and the PA.
So last week, the PA announced a new executive director,
Maleka Underwood. She's taken the place of Brian Burke. Underwood
(17:23):
was a longtime member of the US national women's baseball team,
but also has a lot of experience on the business
and nil side of things. She previously worked at One
Team Partners, including serving as their interim CEO. For those
who aren't familiar one team partners, works with players, associations,
and athletes in major pro leagues, so she brings all
of that experience. Got any interesting thoughts on that hire?
Speaker 3 (17:43):
Yeah, I mean, I don't think it's super surprising. I
don't think Brian Burke was meant to be in that
role forever. He kind of came in as things were
getting started. But I will say I think it's important
to have somebody strong in that role because the league
and the players did sign a a longer term contract,
but we can already see there are some things that
(18:04):
maybe if they knew how successful the league was going
to be, the players would have pushed a little harder
for this or that. Like one thing I think that's
really missing from it is reserve players don't get access
to the same benefits as the full time roster players.
But they go out there and they practice just as often.
They're in the gym just as often, maybe even more,
(18:24):
because they're trying to prove that they deserve a roster spot.
So those players, it's like impossible to be a reserve
player unless you really have another job or some other
way to sustain yourself. So that's just one of the
things that I think, you know, they'll have to address
when when the time comes, and to have somebody like
her on board, somebody who can you know, represent the
(18:46):
players strongly. I think that's what they were looking for there.
Speaker 1 (18:49):
Yeah, we've asked about that of a couple p WHL
folks and even the players about potential opt outs in
that deal. Because while it's great to have the security
of a lengthy CBA before you launch the league, and
I know that something that Mark Walter wanted in place,
it also means that the players are not able to
deal with things that they realize midway through are not
beneficial or maybe not up to par. We'll see if
(19:10):
they are able to use their leverage or if the
new executive director has anything to say about trying to
make some amendments before that is run its course. You
mentioned some of these games that are incredible attendance, incredible vibes.
The Takeover Tour in particular has been so cool to
watch a series of neutral site game showcasing the league,
(19:30):
a lot of rabid crowds and a lot of folks
making an argument for their city to benefit from the
league's planned expansion. We've seen already Seattle Vancouver, Denver, and
Quebec City still to come. We've got Edmonton, Buffalo, Raleigh, Detroit,
and Saint Louis.
Speaker 2 (19:44):
Have you heard any rumors based on cities that.
Speaker 1 (19:46):
Are leading the way or maybe changing the minds of
leadership as a result of their turn hosting so far.
Speaker 3 (19:51):
Yeah, So I don't have the answer for where they're
gonna go.
Speaker 2 (19:54):
That's it break some news. Carressa tell us right now.
Speaker 3 (19:57):
Well, I think the PWHL is still figuring that out.
That is the number one question that everybody wants the
answer to. I think it's important to say expansion is
not guaranteed for next season. It could happen as early
as next season. To be honest, they did bring the
league together quite quickly, so, you know, pulling one team
together in a few months, like, hey, that's nothing. They
brought together a whole league with six teams. But it's
(20:20):
tough right now because on one hand, I think you
could expand to two markets in the US you have
American owners. You saw a great showing in Denver. Detroit
last year was fantastic. Obviously, there's a ton of interest
in Seattle. You'd kind of like to think that they'd
like a team a little bit closer to Minnesota to
make life there a bit easier. So maybe maybe you
(20:43):
know Chicago or.
Speaker 2 (20:44):
Saint Louis something like that. Chicago not on.
Speaker 3 (20:49):
The takeover tour this year, but definitely a big women's
hockey community there, as you know. And then you know,
you think about like Edmonton and Vancouver and Seattle, like
is at the right time to go to the West coast.
Certainly there's a huge women's hockey community in Seattle. There's
(21:09):
no doubt in my mind that they would embrace the team.
And Vancouver obviously sold out, and I believe Edmonton, if
it's not sold out, is pretty close to being sold out.
So there's all kinds of different options there, And you know,
when you're thinking about going a little bit further west,
the thing to keep in mind is that these players
do fly commercially, So we're not talking about NHL players
(21:30):
sitting on their private planes, right Like, those are long
trips to take on a commercial flight. So I think
that's something that the league is going to keep in mind.
But I would say one city that's going to be
really hard to say no to Sarah is Quebec City.
It would be the smallest PWHL market, but I think
that that rivalry with Montreal is going to be super
(21:52):
fun if that team were to come to pass. And
the biggest reason why I think Quebec City could work
not just because people love women's hockey there, but they
have an arena that was built for a professional tenant.
It was built for an NHL team that has never
come and so there's lots of room and availability for
a professional team there. And that's the one thing that
(22:12):
might be tricky in some of these other markets is
finding the right facility. So there are a few things
the PWHL is looking at. So it's arena availability, it's
economic opportunity, it's geography, of course, it's you know, media,
youth hockey markets, and so there's a lot of fun
things I think for them to take into account. But
(22:32):
I mean, the fact that we're talking about expansion already
is is cool. It's going to happen. It's just a
matter of you know, whether it happens as soon as
when unware Yeah, right, exactly?
Speaker 2 (22:43):
Have you gotten to cover many of the games in person?
Speaker 3 (22:45):
I followed the Montreal team around a little bit last year,
so I went to a number of their games. I
went to a game in Boston as well. I was
at the Scotia Bank Arena game last year in Toronto.
I've spent the most time in so I think I
can speak about Montreal the most. But it's an incredible atmosphere.
Speaker 1 (23:06):
It feels like it and it feels like they're starting
to put together some new traditions, which is one of
the things in women's sports that I think is really fascinating.
When you have men's sports, there's so much built in
nostalgia and some cases one hundred plus years of tradition
that gets passed down, and when you're creating a new league,
you have to sort of try to find this balance
between what's organic and also creating some things that you
(23:29):
know will bring fans back that they'll feel like they, Oh,
if I identify and understand this, it means I'm a good fan.
Speaker 2 (23:34):
I know what's to come, and I know what to
cheer at this moment, or what to yell.
Speaker 1 (23:38):
Or what to bring or what to wave or whatever.
Have you seen some of those traditions start anywhere yet?
Speaker 3 (23:43):
I mean, I think we have to talk about the
Taylor Swift sing along. That's a thing at pretty much
every every game, and I have heard people compare it
to the Aras Tour. I haven't been to the arastur
so you know, I can't speak to that, but it
certainly has that fun vibe. Like, for instance, in Montreal,
they always had a DJ at the intermission, so it's like,
(24:06):
even if you don't really know women's hockey and you
want an introduction to it, like you come to this
rink and you know, you don't have to worry that
maybe you don't know everything because everybody is kind of
still learning. It's a brand new league, and you know,
if you want to.
Speaker 2 (24:20):
And you get a party at the break exactly, dance party.
Speaker 1 (24:23):
That's awesome. Okay, let's talk about some of these teams.
Let's talk Montreal Victor their top of the standings right now.
What makes them so good.
Speaker 3 (24:30):
Well, they have the best player in the world, so
Matri Filipoulin their captains, so that helps. But I think
the thing with Montreal this season, Sarah, is their depth
is just so improved. And that was the problem for
Montreal in the playoffs last year against Boston. Boston's depth
was just better. Obviously, the teams were really close. All
three games went to overtime. One went to triple overtime.
(24:53):
But this year, like the third and the fourth lines
are just so so much better. I think Montreal drafted
really well. Like bring in a player like Kayla Barnes
who has been quarterbacking their number one power play, which
moves Aaron Ambrose to the number two power play. And
that's somebody who has quarterbacked the top power play unit
on Team Canada for a while. So like that is
(25:15):
huge on the blue line. And then when we look
up front, a player like Abby Boren, who we saw
in short stints with the Minnesota team last year as
a reserve player, watching her play full time with Montreal,
I mean she has just been incredible. And same with
Jennifer Gardner, who was a great draft pick by Montreal.
(25:35):
And so it's the depth I think that really makes
Montreal stand out. I mean, one of their best players,
Laura Stacey, they've been without her for the last couple
of games and they haven't really missed a beat.
Speaker 2 (25:44):
Impressive, super impressive.
Speaker 1 (25:46):
Minnesota frost last year's Walter Cup winners as champions of
the league close behind them.
Speaker 2 (25:51):
What are they doing well this year?
Speaker 3 (25:52):
Yeah, And you know I have to admit coming out
of Minnesota's draft, I sort of thought, like, I don't know,
I'm not sure. You know, Minnesota kind of limped into
the playoffs, and I think everybody maybe underestimated them a
little bit. But I think someone we have to talk
about on the frost this year is, well, there's two people.
I think we have to talk about. Kendall coin Schofield,
who's having an incredible year and you're really seeing that
(26:15):
speed from her, Like she just looks so fast out there,
and so she's been at the top of the leader
board all this year for points, but it's just like
it feels like she is It's incredible that she came
back as quickly.
Speaker 2 (26:28):
As she did from having a baby.
Speaker 3 (26:30):
Yep, but she's so fast this season, like she can
really see her wheels. And then we see somebody like
Taylor Hisie who hasn't even been at one hundred percent
all season, and she's she's been one of their best players.
So I think for Minnesota, you know, they go into
this season with a bit of a target on their back,
like everybody wants to beat the champions, right, and it
hasn't really really phased them. I Mean, they've had a
(26:51):
couple of games where they've been stumbling and they had
illness going throughout their locker room. Like Taylor Heiseie said,
if you were to put your ear up to our
locker room, you hear everybody like coughing and sneezing and
throwing up and stuff like that. But they've just weathered
the storm.
Speaker 2 (27:06):
Battled through.
Speaker 1 (27:06):
Yeah, Toronto Sceptor is not battling through quite as well.
Speaker 2 (27:10):
They're at the bottom of the standings.
Speaker 1 (27:11):
Obviously a big loss to have Natalie Spooner out with
injury for so long.
Speaker 2 (27:14):
Is she the only thing they've been missing?
Speaker 3 (27:16):
Well, I think their goaltending hasn't quite been up to part.
And we saw Kristin Campbell, their starter, have a bit
of a slow start last season as well, but she
was able to turn it around and she was ultimately
chosen as the best goaltender of the year in the league.
But it just hasn't quite been there for her this year.
I don't think she's been as steady for them. And like,
for instance, at the Scotia Bank Arena game, they went
(27:36):
with their number two, who's a rookie, Reagan Kirk. You
know who's who's been just mined for them, but you
can tell that they're really missing that sort of rock
and net in Kristin Campbell, like she's not the problem,
hasn't really been scoring for Toronto, like they've been scoring
goals without Natalie Spooner, but they're just letting a bunch
of the men, so that's the problem. Yeah, but they're
(27:57):
also missing Natalie Spooner. I think obviously you miss your
MVP when she is injured and she's still out as
we speak, but just having her like in front of
the net and causing chaos and getting in the goalies' eyes, like,
they're really missing that kind of presence. And if you
look at their top scorer right now, Hannah Miller, she's
(28:18):
somebody who does that really well. And she's somebody whose
game I think translates really well to the p WHL
because of that. So they just they need a bit
more of that. And we will see Natalie Spooner I think,
come back in the near future. We don't know exactly
when yet, and it's it's not fair to expect her
to turn everything around. Herself is one person, but it's
gonna help for sure.
Speaker 2 (28:39):
Yeah.
Speaker 1 (28:40):
Toronto also made some headlines at the end of December,
Jocelyn the Rock went to Ottawa in exchange for Victoria
Bach and Haley Skimora.
Speaker 2 (28:47):
What did you make of that trade?
Speaker 3 (28:48):
Yeah, I mean I think, well, first of all, I
think that's the biggest p WHL trade that we've seen.
I mean, I know the league's only two years old,
but just trades in general in women's hockey is really exciting.
Like we didn't really have that before. There were trades,
but usually players knew where they were going because you
couldn't just send somebody somewhere without their you know, without
(29:09):
their consent.
Speaker 2 (29:10):
Because this was the real deal.
Speaker 3 (29:11):
Yeah, so this was real, Like Joscelyn le Rock had
no idea that she was going to be traded. And
I think it's so cool, Sarah, because if we think
about like last New Year's Day, everybody was talking about
like the birth of the new league and the first game,
who's going to score the first goal? All this stuff,
all these first and then this year, you know, we
get to the one year anniversary of the league and
(29:32):
we're talking about hockey trade.
Speaker 2 (29:34):
Yeah, so that just goes ye, just the straight up hockey.
Speaker 1 (29:37):
I didn't even think about it, but I wonder if
it's extra tricky to make a trade between countries because
that was Toronto and Ottawa dealing. But if you were
sending a Canadian player from a team in Canada to
suddenly go live in the States, how much stickier is
that in terms of you know, visas and all the
other things in order to get there and work. I
haven't really dug into that. Maybe that's a story if
(29:58):
you haven't already written it yet. Does that get in
the way of trades at all? Their slow teams down? Okay,
last question on the teams. New York was far and
away the worst team last year, but they've added number
one draft picks Sarah Filia. They're on the up and
up this year, currently fourth in the standings. What have
you seen from that team in making that turnaround?
Speaker 3 (30:15):
Yeah, I mean, I think there are a couple of changes. Obviously,
they brought in a new head coach as well in
Greg Fargo, So I think they they're playing with this
sort of strong possession style, and I think just having
a different voice maybe has helped a lot as well.
And then I think again, kind of like Montreal, they
drafted well, I mean, you can't go wrong with the
first overall pick being Sarah Filiate Like, that's not really
(30:36):
you can't really give them too much credit for that.
You couldn't really go wrong by drafting her. But you
look at some of the other draft picks that they
made as well, and you know, somebody like an Alie
Simpson who's really short up their depth on the back end,
I think New York might have the best decor in
the league. And then you know, just up front that
(30:57):
offensive talent with Sarah Phillier and Alex car together. I
think Alex Carpenter's been one of the most underrated players
for a long time. She's just an incredible shooter, and
I think part of that is she wasn't playing in
North America for a while, so she's not somebody you
really saw. But yeah, to see her and Sarah Philia
on the same line, I actually thought, you know, going
into the season, Sarah, I thought they should split them up,
(31:18):
and I was wrong. They're incredible together, right, Like like
Jesse Eldridge as well, who you know has has been
running their second line and who I think is really talented,
who we probably don't talk about enough. So New York's
just firing on all cylinders. Right now.
Speaker 1 (31:32):
Yeah, it's fun to watch, Like I like watching those
teams kind of figure things out and get out of
the get out of the rut. Okay, quick question for
you before we let you go.
Speaker 2 (31:41):
So we used to.
Speaker 1 (31:42):
See most of these US and Canadian teams get together
at these lead ups to the Olympics. There wasn't really
a way for players to get together and train and
prepare and stay ready. But because of the p WHL,
these centralization camps are kind of going away. Do you
think that shift is going to change the hockey we
see at the Olympics because we've we've got this next
Winter Olympics right on the corner.
Speaker 3 (32:01):
Yeah, it's I think it's an interesting question. I mean
I think that you know, like in Canada, ference and centralization,
I think it could be so grueling and difficult on
players mentally, like for them to just pick up their
lives and move to Calgary for a few months. It's
it's a lot to ask of the player. But I
think there's also a level of bonding and chemistry that
(32:23):
comes through that. So, you know, I think it will
get to a point where they have to think about,
you know, how much programming do we need so for sure,
we're not going to see centralization or you know, the
US equivalent of that, where players just go off and
and you know, live somewhere for months and train together.
But we've continued to see the rivalry series, and I
think that's been really helpful for you know, for the
(32:46):
national teams to make their their roster decisions, and I
think we will continue to see part of that. Maybe
it won't be a seven game rivalry series like the
rivalry series started because players didn't really have a ton
of places to play kind of when the CWHL folded
and then as we went into COVID, But I think
it's still a valuable tool and it could be helpful
(33:06):
for those for that chemistry building as well. But Sarah,
where I think the PWHL really changes what we're going
to see at the Olympics and at the World Championship
is with teams like you know, Chechia or Finland, where
you're seeing some of their best players coming to the
p WHL. And so we look at like, you know,
Swedish goaltender m Soderberg, maybe she gets to see Hillary
(33:30):
Nights shooting on her in practice every day, so she
doesn't just see her, you know, once in a million
years at Worlds, So that's only going to make her better,
and that's going to make Sweden better.
Speaker 1 (33:39):
And Hillary Knight's listening and she's like, yeah, I'm also
getting to shoot on her every day, So I know,
if I go, you know, top shelf, it's harder for
you know, she doesn't like it.
Speaker 2 (33:47):
Five hole.
Speaker 1 (33:48):
Troy Ryan, the Canadian coach, is a coach in the PWHL,
but the US national team coach, John Rablowski is not.
Does that have any impact on this rivalry? I mean,
one's getting a good look at a lot of players.
Speaker 3 (33:59):
Yeah, yeah, I mean I do think there's still a
lot of you know, USA Hockey scouting that's that's going on.
I wouldn't read into that too much, honestly, and I
do think people make a lot of make a lot
out of that. The fact that you know, Gina Kingsbury,
who's the GM of Team Canada, and Troy Ryan are
both with the scepters, and there's a number there are
a number of players on the scepters who play on
(34:20):
the Team Canada as well, So I mean, yeah, there
are some benefits there. But I think in the world
where we are today, Sarah, Like anybody can go to
a game, it's really easy to find video from it.
And I know that there are USA Hockey scouts who
are going to these games and are pretty in touch
with it, so I wouldn't worry too much for that.
Speaker 1 (34:39):
It's not lost on us that the Canadian is downplaying
the potential outcomes of a spy. I don't know if
Americans would feel the same way about it. By the way,
you just published a story last week about Troy Ryan,
the coach of the Scepters and the Canadian national team,
about his long journey to becoming one of the top
coaches in the world. Lots of great and interesting stories
in there, so we'll link to that story in the
show notes for people to read it.
Speaker 2 (35:00):
So keep following your work.
Speaker 1 (35:01):
We'll link to the ways to follow you and keep
up with the PWHL. Thank you so much for joining
us and forgiving us a whole ton of info on
this league.
Speaker 3 (35:08):
Yeah, thanks for having me and big fan of the show.
Speaker 2 (35:13):
Thanks to CHRISA for joining us. We got to take
another break.
Speaker 1 (35:15):
When we come back, we induct the newest member of
the Good Game Hall of Fame.
Speaker 2 (35:29):
Welcome back slices.
Speaker 1 (35:30):
As we previewed during yesterday's show, Tennessee coach Kim Caldwell
returned to the bench to coach her team against SECFO
South Carolina on Monday night, just seven days after giving
birth to her son, Connor Scott. That reminded us of
the story of Tennessee's most famous coach, the legendary Pat
Summit and a wild story involving the birth of her son,
Which means it's time for the latest induction to the
(35:52):
Good Game Hall of Fame.
Speaker 3 (35:55):
Ah.
Speaker 2 (35:55):
Yes, the Good Game.
Speaker 1 (35:56):
Hall of Fame, where we celebrate women's sports lore, the
kind of legendary stories we should all know by heart,
just like we know that MNBA Great Shaquille O'Neil wears
a size twenty two shoe and NFL QB Aaron Rodgers
spends his off seasons doing ayahuasca and going on darkness retreats. Yeah,
we've got some catching up to do in women's sports.
So grab another plaque and find a good place on
the wall. Today we've got another inductee. Let's time travel
(36:20):
back to September nineteen ninety. Tennessee is one of the
biggest players in women's Soups, having won two of the
last four NCAA titles. But a few months before our
story begins, the Lady Voles fall to Virginia in the
regional finals, meaning that for the first time in four years,
they won't be progressing to the Final four. And to
make that sting hurt even more, Tennessee was the host
(36:40):
of that year's Final Four, leaving the team uninvited to
their own hometown party, so that tough loss was undoubtedly
on pat Summit's mind in September of nineteen ninety, when,
at eight months pregnant, she flew from Knoxville to Allentown,
Pennsylvania for a recruiting trip meant to convince then high
schooler Michelle Marciniak to come to Tennessee. Summit wasn't expecting
(37:01):
her son to arrive for another couple weeks and was
surprised when while visiting with Marciniac and her family and
their home, she started experiencing contractions. When they didn't subside,
Summit and Crewe decided it was time to go. They
loaded onto the plane and took off with Summit intent
on getting back to Tennessee where her husband was, but
as her contractions continued to increase, the pilot recommended the
(37:21):
plane make an emergency landing in Roanoke so Summit could
get to the hospital. That's Ronoke, as in Roanoke, Virginia,
the state that had defeated some its lady voles just
a few months earlier. How did Summit respond to that
suggestion in the most pat Summit way possible quote, don't
land anywhere but Knoxville.
Speaker 2 (37:39):
Put your pedal to the medal end quote.
Speaker 1 (37:41):
This whole saga was included in Jeff Goldberg's twenty fifteen
book Unrivaled, which is somehow not a prophetic look at
a future three on three league, but actually about the
history of the Tennessee Yukon women's hoops rivalry. Per Goldberg's telling,
some made it to Knoxville with quote moments to spare.
She was almost fully dilated when she arrived at the
hospital end quote.
Speaker 2 (38:00):
And the story gets even better.
Speaker 1 (38:01):
Just a few months after Tyler Summit entered the world,
Tennessee reclaimed the NCAA Championship trophy, beating Virginia in the
title game. You can't write this stuff, folks. Welcome to
the Good Game Hall of Fame. Posthumously pat Summit. We
love that you're listening, but we want to get you
in the game every day too, So here's our good
gameplay of the day. Keep sending us questions for our
(38:23):
Big Citrus, ask us Anything, mail bag episode, sports questions,
questions about life, love and the pursuit of happiness, the
best coffee or pizza in our city, travel tips, workout tips,
dog tips, the.
Speaker 2 (38:34):
World is your oyster.
Speaker 1 (38:36):
Hit us up and we'd especially love to hear your
angelic voices in a voicemail, So shoot us a question
that way eight seven two two oh four fifty seventy.
That's eight seven two two oh four fifty seventy, and
you can always email us good game at wondermedianetwork dot com. Finally,
don't forget to subscribe, rate and review. It's easy slices
(38:56):
watch Surviving Your First Earthquake rating zero out of five
Holy Shits review. Yesterday Morning producer Alex got her first
taste of the old seismic shakes, a three point eight
magnitude earthquake centered off the coast of New Hampshire and Maine.
Now she reported herself shaken but not stirred. As a
former defunct geology major whose only previous earthquake experience was
(39:19):
reading about them in textbooks. She said it was fun
to finally be at the epicenter of attention. I remember
my first quake. It was maybe five maybe six in
LA I was rehearsing with my second city sketch group
shoutout reverse Coma when we felt the first jolt and
suddenly we all went running toward the one desk in
the room to try to hide under it. Then it
(39:41):
was in an earthquake while driving. Then it was in
an earthquake while in Flagrante delicto. Seriously, and after a
few of those scary suckers, I now live in a
city that is very, very cold, but has no major
natural disasters for now at least, And that's the way
I like it. Now, it's your turn, rate and review.
Thanks for listening, See you tomorrow. Good game, Carissa, Good Game,
(40:02):
PWHL few earthquakes. Good Game with Sarah Spain is an
iHeart women's sports production in partnership with Deep Blue Sports
and Entertainment.
Speaker 2 (40:14):
You can find us on the.
Speaker 1 (40:15):
iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts.
Production by Wonder Media Network, Our producers are Alex Azzie
and Misha Jones. Our executive producers are Christina Everett, Jesse Katz,
Jenny Kaplan and Emily Rutter.
Speaker 2 (40:27):
Our editors are Emily Rutter, Britney Martinez and Grace Lynch.
Speaker 1 (40:31):
Our associate producer is Lucy Jones and I'm Your Host
Sarah Spain
Host
Sarah Spain
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