I grew up in warming rooms, on metal benches and frozen baseball fields. It’s pretty safe to say I love hockey.
Growing up in Michigan, hockey was unavoidable. My cousins played, my brother played and I played. On my first team, I was one of two girls in the four-team league. The second league I joined was a girls’ league through the Griffins Youth Foundation. It was the most liberating thing I’ve ever done.
Arena with record-breaking U.S. attendance. Photo by: Jackie Moglia | Opinions Editor
Hockey was a huge part of my childhood: my brother’s hockey games, mini sticks in the basement that left one too many dents in the walls (sorry Mom!) and eventually practices and games of my own. Carpet burns from hotel hallway mini-stick tournaments built my love for the game. Even the disgusting smell of sweaty gear has become nostalgic.
Despite hockey’s presence in Michigan, I’ve always been met with shocked reactions when I mention that I played for a total of six years. At a solid 5-foot-3, I’m met with looks of “Yeah, right.” Then I explain the differing rules of checking in women’s hockey, and people quickly lose interest because hockey is supposed to be violent, so what fun can women’s hockey be if you can’t hit?
When I asked about Ewigleben Ice Arena during a Ferris tour and if they had open skates, my hockey jacket zipped up with my last name on my sleeve, I was told that we had a figure skating club. Great! I can’t figure skate.
I had it lucky, considering I had access to a girl’s team growing up. Girls who didn’t play on girl’s teams, or played at higher competitive levels, were generally on boy’s teams. This meant changing in supply closets or even bathrooms, as rinks weren’t designed with co-ed teams in mind.
Whether you played on a girl’s or boy’s team, there were always other issues. Hockey gear? Designed for men. Trying to find shoulder pads that were small enough to account for my body was incredibly difficult. Don’t even get me started on the pants.
Growing up in a sport with female players underrepresented made going to a packed stadium for a Professional Women’s Hockey League game overwhelming.
The PWHL is new, with the first official season starting in 2024. Women’s hockey had been around before in the form of the Premier Hockey Federation and Canadian Women’s Hockey League, but the PWHL unified six teams into a more set league.
There are six teams, three from the United States: the Boston Fleet, Minnesota Frost and New York Sirens and three from Canada: the Montreal Victoire, Ottawa Charge and Toronto Sceptres.
The PWHL also has unique rules that stand out from men’s hockey, such as the jailbreak rule. The jailbreak rule means that if a team scores a short-handed goal while one of their players is in the penalty box, that player gets to return to the ice.
Unfortunately, I didn’t witness that rule in action over break. I witnessed 14,288 fans packed into Little Caesars Arena to watch the New York Sirens defeat the Minnesota Frost. I saw a record-setting crowd for a U.S. arena filled with thousands of women and girls cheering on some of the most talented female hockey players on the ice. I got to see in real-time how important representation is.
I’ve been to professional hockey games before, but nothing compares to the experience of the PWHL. There’s something uniquely special about feeling safe and getting friendship bracelets in return for taking other’s photos. There’s something uniquely special about Manon Rhéaume, the first and only female NHL player, being at the game.
I’ve never been to a game with so much glitter, passion and genuine love for the sport. Seeing how excited my boyfriend was to watch the game and hearing him rave about how fun it was sparked something in me.
Growing up, I never felt women were being represented fairly in hockey. The fact that girls now grow up with the opportunity to watch and contribute to a sport so historically dominated by men by simply turning on the TV feels monumental.
As the PWHL continues to break attendance records, hope has been ignited for the recognition the league deserves. Maybe even a team coming to Detroit with the possibility of two expansion teams on the horizon.