Rivalry Series scores — New PWHL jerseys — Must-click women’s hockey links
The IX: Hockey Friday with The Ice Garden, Nov. 17, 2023
Happy Friday! It’s Leighann Strollo from The Ice Garden with another weekly round up of women’s hockey news. Games are being played, camps are opening up and Twitter discourse is Twitter discoursing! That can truly only mean one thing and it’s that we are fully in hockey season, folks. The Rivalry Series between Canada and the USA has already given us a lot two games in and the PWHL dropped some huge news in the form of their first season jersey looks this week that left quite a few people hoping for more. Without further ado, let’s get into it all.
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Alyssa Turner took us through what happened one fateful night in LA in 2023-24 Rivalry Series recap: Game 2 but to highlight, the Americans took the win, 5-2, after dropping the first game to Canada earlier in the month. Despite a Laura Stacey shorthanded goal early in the game, Canada never led in the match and couldn’t make up enough ground to claim a win.
The third game of this year’s Rivalry Series will be on Canadian soil in December as the Americans look to take two in a row.
A few weeks ago, Angelica wrote that she would not talk of the branding mess that the PWHL seemed to find themselves in as we’re leading up to the inaugural season. With the team’s official jerseys dropped this week…I will talk about it.
The league has not shied away from the fact that they were still in the early stages of team branding despite a season start date quickly approaching after the new year. However, it still seemed to come as a shock to many that all six jerseys didn’t include team names, logos or seemingly anything to differentiate them from each other aside from the location names and color schemes being different.
I can understand the frustration and disappointment in these generic jerseys, especially from the standpoint of longtime women’s hockey fans who have gotten to witness some of the coolest logos and team names in sports like the Metropolitan Riveters or Calgary Inferno. It is worth remembering, though, that the lack of logos and these jerseys are meant to be temporary in order to allow play to start with…something.
It does beg the question, though, of why weren’t they ready for this? In an attempt to be the true ‘one league’ we’ve all hoped for for decades, why does the cloud of unprofessionalism still loom about? Does it all feel too rushed?
I can’t answer those questions concretely but I can say that the thought of going into the second season of the league with momentum of logos and names and new jerseys all being unveiled in the first official offseason does have marketing appeal even if we all wish we could have it now. Hopefully, the extra time taken to perfect the brands is for good reason and we can look ahead to bigger and better things than the matching diagonal location jerseys.
In addition to jerseys, the PWHL also announced where each team’s practice rinks will be.
Regardless of where you stand on the jersey reveals or any other PWHL news that has come out, professional women’s hockey is set to be played again soon and for that, we can all be excited.
More women’s hockey must-read links
Saroya Tinker announces retirement
Meet Laila Edwards, the teenage phenom set to make history with Team USA
Team Canada coming home with their luggage full of lessons
Shenzhen Kunlun Red Star Ice Hockey Club names Noora Raty as goalie coach of KRS Shenzhen
Jillian Dempsey put teaching on hold to continue playing hockey. Then her world turned upside-down
PWHL looking into neck guards, prepared for player safety
PWHL training camps: Who’s signed, who isn’t and competition at each position
The 2023-2024 schedule Chinese Women’s Ice Hockey League announced
Caroline Ouellette receives her Honoured Member plaque from Kim St-Pierre
(and one must-listen for good measure):
That’s it from me this week! If you’re American, happy fast approaching Thanksgiving week and if you aren’t…I still hope you have a week full of good food, relaxation and plenty of sports watching!
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