PWHL's best relish 'surreal,' full-circle moment on NHL All-Star stage

TORONTO — The noise came in waves.

As the announcer’s voice warbled over the PA system at Scotiabank Arena to introduce the PWHL’s entrance into the NHL’s 2024 All-Star festivities, the near-16,400 fans packed into the stands roared with approval for the first time.

When the all-stars began filtering onto the ice for their 3-on-3 Showcase, clad in alternating white and lavender threads with the PWHL logo emblazoned on their sweaters, they roared again.

And again, when the coaches were introduced. And again, when each player’s name was read aloud, both teams lined up at centre ice before the anthems were sung. And again, and again.

It took only the first two thirds of Marie-Philip Poulin’s name being recited before the crowd rained down their praise, drowning the announcement in cheers as the Canadian legend raised a stick in appreciation.

“To come out to that full building, it was pretty surreal,” said Kendall Coyne Schofield, captain of the winning squad in Thursday’s 3-on-3 tilt, and of PWHL Minnesota. “It just gets better and better every year. When I think back to five years ago, there were four of us on the ice. We had our USA jerseys and Hockey Canada jerseys on. Then you fast-forward to Tampa, there were a few players on the ice demonstrating. You fast-forward to St. Louis, and we were out there representing our national teams again, 3-on-3. 

“Here, today, we’re representing the league we’ve always dreamed of.”

Coyne Schofield’s name will always be linked to the intertwining of NHL All-Star weekend and the women’s hockey elite. It was the Oak Lawn, Ill., native who took off around the sheet in 2019 as part of the NHL’s Fastest Skater competition, dropping jaws for all those who doubted the women’s game’s best, confirming the obvious for all those already in the know.

In the half-decade since, the landscape of women’s hockey has changed dramatically, culminating in the arrival of a new league that looks every bit the long-awaited solution the hockey world has craved. And while some may still downplay the necessity of showcasing the PWHL on the far-reaching platform that is NHL All-Star weekend, for Coyne Schofield, we need only look to that moment five years ago to understand the potential impact.

“I do think that moment really catapulted us to what we see today,” she said Thursday of her 2019 sprint. “I think the visibility of that moment sparked a conversation in women’s hockey that was long overdue — of, ‘Where do these players play? What’s the treatment like for them? Where are you going to go play after you just skated the Fastest Skater lap?’ 

“It was a hard question to answer. And I think it was a hard answer for people to hear, when we did explain the reality of our situation. … Here we are, five years later.”

PWHL Ottawa’s Savannah Harmon was among those who watched Coyne Schofield’s historic moment during those 2019 NHL All-Star festivities. She was just as astounded, just as moved, as everyone else watching that day. 

Now, all these years later, it’s Harmon who finished the night front and centre, the defender racking up a hat trick and a pair of assists to lead her squad to a 5-3 victory in Thursday’s Showcase.

“Definitely one of the funnest games I’ve been a part of,” Harmon said after the final buzzer had sounded, beaming from ear to ear as she proclaimed this hat trick “probably” the first of her career. 

Her teammates made sure she had her moment in the spotlight after she potted her third of the night in what became a runaway win, the Team King bench raining gloves onto the ice in lieu of hats.

“That was a cool moment — I came back to the bench and I was by myself,” Harmon said of the hat-trick celebration, “because everyone had to go get their gloves.”

While the five-point night, and the show of support from her team, were reason enough to appreciate the experience under the Scotiabank Arena lights, it likely won’t be the back-and-forth on the ice that Harmon will remember most when this weekend’s festivities come to a close. 

It’ll be everything she saw on the other side of the glass that will stay with her, she says — all those the kids with raised hands and wide grins, taking in every moment; all the signs, scrawled in marker with stars pasted overtop, bearing the names of PWHL favourites; all those thousands and thousands of hockey lovers, showing their appreciation, recognizing greatness.

“There aren’t a lot of words to explain how that feels. That’s something that no one in this group takes lightly,” Harmon said of the atmosphere in the arena, and kids in the stands in particular. “We’re just really proud to be in this position, to be here and be representing this league, and just to be inspiring the youth.

“That’s why we do it. We had role models that we looked up to, and we’re really proud to be people that others can look up to as well.”

Coyne Schofield knows well the impact Thursday night’s game could have on those young hockey fans who watched from the stands, and those who did from their couches at home, too. Because her own journey in the sport had to come without memories like the ones made on this night, without seeing the women’s game celebrated and raised up to the level it deserved.

“I didn’t see my first women’s hockey game in person until I was 10 years old — it was when the U.S. and Canada came through the United Center in Chicago. I didn’t see my first women’s college hockey game until I went on a recruiting trip,” she said. “So, to talk about the visibility and the importance of that — seeing it, being it, and dreaming to become it — I think that’s happening every single day.”

For Sarah Nurse — whose own introductory announcement was similarly buried in cheers, as was the case for each of her PWHL Toronto teammates — the situation was much the same.

“I never dreamt of playing professional hockey,” Nurse said. “I never dreamt of playing at Scotiabank Arena. That was not a dream of mine. I wanted to play at the Olympics. When I did that, in 2018, I was like, ‘Check. I feel great about my hockey career.’ 

“This has exceeded every single expectation that I ever had for myself.”

For Nurse, Thursday’s Showcase was especially poignant. Because the Hamilton, Ont., product has been here before, on the ice in 2020 when the best of the women’s game first convened for a 3-on-3 tilt on the NHL All-Star stage.

Back then, the weight of the moment was undone by the questions about what would come after, about what the future of women’s hockey looked like. This time, the spin through the NHL’s festivities arrives as simply one part of greater landmark moment, as just one page in an historic chapter for the sport.

That progress is made clear by all the hype surrounding the next game Nurse will play on this same Scotiabank Arena sheet, when her PWHL Toronto squad meets PWHL Montreal on Feb. 16 — to a sold-out crowd of more than 18,000.

“We were in the locker room pre-game, and Patrick Burke came in and spoke. He’s been such a champion for us,” Nurse said as the night wound to a close. “They’ve come and talked to us every single All-Star Game that we’ve been a part of. And he mentioned that every time they came in, they would say, ‘This is a huge stage. This is your moment. Take this platform that we’re giving you, because this is the biggest platform that you guys have.’

“He came in [today] and he said, ‘I can’t say that anymore. You guys are selling out this arena yourselves. So, just go have fun, enjoy the moment — but this is bigger than us.’”