AS I SEE IT COLUMN: PWHL delivers pure joy, along with societal change

I hope you were one of the 15,000 plus fans that got to experience the PWHL game last Sunday in person.

Not only was it a rare opportunity to welcome home local legend Jocelyn Larocque, sporting fans in attendance got to experience, first-hand, a completely different kind of hockey game.

When you watch a PWHL game on TV and see young girls, many of them wearing jerseys from the hockey teams they play for, you get a sense that what you are watching is completely unique, but when you are in the building, you can actually feel it.

Call it vibes or atmosphere, a PWHL hockey game is unlike any men’s hockey game.

There is unabashed joy in the building. Young girls, smiling from ear to ear, were so excited to see grownup women, who look like they do, playing a game they love and seeing tangible proof that maybe one day they too can play hockey professionally.

TV coverage shows glimpses of that uninhibited happiness, but the jumbotron shows girls and women dancing and smiling at every break. It’s non-stop joy.

Jocelyn, the most decorated Indigenous Olympian of any gender in North America, didn’t have professional hockey as a dream when she was growing up in Ste. Anne. She had to play hockey with the boys and she knew the fantasy of playing in the NHL was never going to happen.

She said it’s the look she sees in the eyes of young female hockey players, who see Jocelyn and the other players in the PWHL as a source of inspiration and motivation, that keeps her own passion for the game burning brightly.

“I never had that growing up” she said. “It’s so meaningful that now young girls can dream of playing pro hockey.”

Despite the fact that Jocelyn has represented Canada for nearly 20 years, won Olympic medals and World Championships, last Sunday was the first time many of her family, friends and fans got to see her play in person.

Nearly 300 people from Ste. Anne came out in full force to show their love to Jocelyn.

As soon as the doors opened, lots of young girls sprinted to the plexiglass at ice level to display their homemade signs. Within a couple of minutes, the entire ring around the rink was covered in signs of adoration. The very first one I saw was “We want a team.” Lots of signs welcomed Jocelyn home in very creative ways. Another sign read “Silly boys, hockey is for girls.” I saw lots of sweatshirts in the concourse with the phrase “Everyone’s watching women’s sports.”

As the runaway success of the professional women’s basketball league (WNBA), the success of our own national women’s soccer team and the explosive success of the PWHL has clearly shown, there is a huge appetite for women’s sports, as there should be.

And that’s where the PWHL isn’t just hosting fun games with a feel-good atmosphere; the league is a pioneer in delivering societal change. Now, for the first time in our planet’s history, young girls can have the exact same dream that young boys do, to play the game of hockey, the sport they love, professionally.

That’s a tectonic, societal shift.

The PWHL’s exhibition tour is testing the waters of possible future locations for new PWHL franchises. With the league on very strong financial footing and enjoying huge fan support in all their cities, look for the league to expand in size.

As for the game itself, the fans in the building thoroughly enjoyed the speed, the skill, and physical intensity. Montréal and Ottawa played a great hockey game.

The PWHL’s stop in Winnipeg was a beautiful, touching, emotional – and well-deserved – homecoming for Jocelyn, a chance to showcase the elite calibre of play in the PWHL, and a joyous celebration of women’s sport.