Heise and PWHL Minnesota 'love being the underdog' against Toronto

Taylor Heise figures nobody is picking Minnesota to upset Toronto in the first round of the PWHL playoffs — in part because of her team’s dismal finish, dropping five straight to close the regular season. And all that doubt is just fine by the league’s No. 1 draft pick: Heise is embracing the underdog status. 

Not only did Minnesota squeak into the playoffs, but top-seeded Toronto got to choose between playing them or third-place Boston, and elected to suit up against Heise & Co. 

Ahead of Game 1 of that series, which goes tonight at a sold-out Coca-Cola Coliseum in Toronto, Heise caught up with Sportsnet to discuss Toronto’s choice, the “passive-aggressive” way the top team made its selection known, her team’s confidence in spite of their latest results, and why she can’t help but feel a little bit of hatred for many of her opponents in Toronto. 

[Editor’s note: This interview has been edited for length and clarity.] 

What was it like watching the last game of the season with your team’s playoff fate on the line? [Ottawa could have clinched the final playoff spot with a regulation win over Toronto.]

HEISE: I actually didn't watch. Either way, I knew that our fate was going to be what it was, and me watching wasn’t going to really have anything to do with it. I'll definitely re-watch the game just to see Toronto's tendencies and stuff, since we will be playing them. But I just didn't think it was worth my time. I think it's something where you’ve got to pick and choose your battles and what's mentally going to help you and what's not. For me, I wanted to clean my apartment and have a good night and just hope for the best. 

How’d you find out that Ottawa lost and you were in? 

I had some friends texting me, but I had turned my phone over [screen down], so I didn't even look at it until the game was almost over. When I did look, I had like 17 texts from one of my friends, and I was like, ‘Oh God, we're done.’ That was my immediate thought. But then I saw she was just giving me her thoughts on the game and such. 

Honestly, I watched the last two minutes. That's it. But at that point, it was already 4 - 2, I think, or 3 – 2, so I had good faith in that finish. I know Toronto is a great team and I know Ottawa is a great team, so it was going to go either way. And that's kind of how every game in this league has been going. 

I think for us, we need a little bit of a reboot, and I think that's exactly what we're going to get this week. Playoffs, it's anyone's game. I don't think one team is head-and-shoulders above another. Toronto obviously picked us for reasons — they think we're not as good and going to be an opponent they can beat. I think we're really going to take that to heart and just say, ‘Well, we're going to go out there and give it our best and show them what we got.’ It's going to come with a lot of animosity from us, I think.

Does Toronto’s choice inject more physicality and bad blood into the series? 

Yeah, I would say so. I mean, you're coming at our character, our teamwork, our effort, things like that. As much as that's maybe not the case when you just choose someone based on who you think you're going to do the best against, it's still like a little slap to the face. And I think we're going to take that and we're going to run with it. 

No one thinks we're winning this, I think, at this point, just because of how we've done in the last five games. But we haven’t had a super bad game. I think people have taken those five games and kind of taken it out of proportion. One game we lost with three seconds left, one game we had a lot of penalties and ended up losing by one with 15 or 20 seconds left. Other games, you know, we've just not been as sharp with our special teams. But I think now after learning from all that, it's going to be good and I’m excited to see how our team will respond. 

Obviously, we have three [playoff] games no matter what, but you don't want three games in a row to be your last. So for us, not having home-ice advantage is fine. The first two [games], we’re fine playing anywhere. But you know, taking at least one game out of that first two would be huge for us, and I think that's something that we're totally capable of doing. 

Did you see the video of how Toronto made its selection? 

I did not actually see that. Oh geez. Well, that's classic Canadian right there, I think. A little passive-aggressive, but I think that's funny. I give [Natalie Spooner, whose one-year-old son, Rory, was presented as the scout deciding Toronto’s opponent] full props. Someone who is a mom, you know, we have Kendall [Coyne Schofield] on our team who's also a mom. And being that and having to also play professionally and having all those things on your mind, it's something that's not easy and they both do it with grace. 

Wait, do you think being passive-aggressive is a classic Canadian trait? 

I do. It’s also Minnesotan, like, trust me. It’s more of that passive-aggressive like, ‘Oh, just gonna move past you ‘cause you’re in my way!’ That kind of thing. One of my linemates, Michela Cava, she's from Canada and you know, I have lots of friends from there, but I've just never been on a team with Canadian national team players, to be honest with you, and that just kind of makes me have that small hatred for them, and that's just how it is. They have the same hatred for us. We’re very cordial and we get along and they are people who are moving the sport forward, just like us.

How do you think your team matches up against Toronto? 

They have, like, the entire Canadian national team on their roster [laughs]. We don't have as many national team players but that doesn’t mean we have less firepower. [Editor’s note: Toronto has seven players who suited up for Canada at the last world championships, while Minnesota has five who played for Team USA.] I think once we come together and have all of our best attitudes and best performances out there, I think it's a really good matchup. And we're very physical and more than willing to do what it takes to get the puck deep and to get pucks out of our zone. We have amazing goaltending, obviously. Like, they've really only played one goaltender [Kristen Campbell] all year. We’ve played two [Nicole Hensley and Maddie Rooney] and I think that they're going to find their groove here again coming up this week. 

We haven't been scoring as much as they have. They’ve had the hot stick, I would call it, for some of their players. But playoffs, it's a different realm. You can start on a streak right now and that's the most important one. 

How’s your excitement level heading into the first-ever PWHL playoffs?

I'm really, really excited. Playoff hockey is for the most competitive people and that's exactly how I would describe myself. It's been a really fun ride — obviously recently it hasn't been as fun, losing five games straight, but I think we've learned a lot. And I think even seeing in our practice [on Monday], we were looking 10 times better, and just seeing the smile on everyone's faces, going out to the rink, knowing that we had another opportunity to play. It’s special. 

Have you pictured what the first playoff game at home in Minnesota is going to be like? 

No, but it'll be on Monday, which is an interesting day. Obviously we'd rather have it on a weekend, but beggars can't be choosers at this point. We wanted to host, but obviously we didn't put ourselves in that position. So right now we're looking forward to that game on Monday and seeing how many people we can pack the Xcel Energy Center with. I'm hoping it'll look just like our first inaugural game where we have 15,000 fans, maybe even more. 

How would you grade your team’s confidence level? 

I think we were we were definitely a little bit lower on the confidence a few days ago, and last week. But we turned it around [Monday] at practice. We just looked at each other, we’re like: It's a clean slate, 0-0, who cares about what has happened before? Obviously we’ll learn from it, but we want to take what's new and go for it. 

We’ve got a lot of girls who are very confident human beings on our team. I feel like I'm one of them. But you know, I’ve taken a lot of losing in the past month. I can't lie to you, losing the world championships and just having this losing streak right now is a lot. But that just propels you forward for something good. You obviously have to work for it and you have to put in the effort and have a good attitude, but I'm going to take all that and try to lead this group into where we're headed and where we're supposed to be. And I'm hoping that's on the winning side.

Do you believe Minnesota can pull off what many would see as an upset in this series? 

Yeah. And I love being the underdog. I think a lot of people want Toronto to win. The league, everything has been set up quite well and they’ve done well, and they’ve got the big scores and everything. But we're just more of that grind team that's going to get under your skin. 

And you know, we have that kind of chip on our shoulder right now that Toronto picked us. So, we're going to take that underdog mentality and just do everything we can. I have full confidence in this group, for sure. 

I'm going to do anything and everything that it takes. I haven't been super amazed and pleased with the way I've been playing recently. It’s just, sometimes the puck doesn't go in the net, and that is simply how it works. And that's something that I can’t be displeased with, because I put in enough time and effort that that's going to happen. 

At this point, I think I'm going to do everything and anything I can for this team to win. And if that means I'm on the scoresheet or if it means I’m not, I don't care. I think playoffs, we’re not going to care who scores. So, it's just making sure that I'm having a good attitude and I'm treating my teammates the right way and making sure they all feel loved and cared for, and that everyone on our team is more than willing to do the little things that it's going to take to win. 

Anything you want to add? 

This is something that you want to tune in for. This is not something that's ever happened before. It’s the inaugural season of this league, and I think it's going to be something special. This league is something that has taught me not only about the resiliency of women in sport, but also the perspective that other people can gain from it. Even looking at social media, I see all these people who have DM’d me or Instagrammed or Tweeted at me about how they came to their first game and it's changed their perspective about how women play. So, it's been fun to see. And I think it's going to be something that people are going to want to tune in for this year as well as every year to come.

Are you going to go watch the video of Spooner’s son throwing the ball into the Minnesota bucket now? 

I might have to. Actually, I might watch it before the game as a little, get-my-shit-together type of deal [laughs].