In the past week there has been a lot said and written about 2 of the at large selections for the NCAA Tournament in women's ice hockey. In this post, I will focus on the Penn State vs Providence comparison.
One of the arguments against Penn State has been that the CHA is not magically better this year, and does not all of a sudden deserve two bids. Robert Morris grabbed the CHA auto bid with an upset in the conference tourney. The question then becomes, is Penn State worthy of an at large bid? The question is not, is the CHA worthy of two bids?
Fans argue that Hockey East is stronger than the CHA. While I agree that on average Hockey East is stronger than the CHA, that's not the question. The question is, in a Providence vs Penn State comparison, who meets more of the stated criteria? Ultimately the committee felt Providence did.
If we look strictly at criteria below, as printed in the Championship Manual, I try to do an analysis of who meets each criteria. I'm not sure how the committee does this, but am trying to make sense of it.
The criteria to determine selections are as follows (in no particular order):
Won/Loss Record - Penn State wins point
Strength of Schedule - Providence wins point
Head to Head Results (when available) - na
Results versus Common Opponents - na
Quality Wins - I can't find definition of this (and suspect it's full of math I don't want to learn how to do), but likely Providence gets this point considering 2 wins over BC. Penn State did not get the chance to earn any quality wins due to their schedule not containing any games against teams in the top 10. It's very unfortunate if this is what it came down to, but it also feels unfair to not give Providence credit for their wins. If the committee took the stance they didn't want to disregard the Providence quality wins, it also seems they took the stance they COULD disregard the head to head wins of Minnesota over UMD. This seems inconsistent. If the committee wants to strictly go by criteria in one comparison, they open themselves to criticism by being subjective in another. I included subjective arguments for Penn State, further in this post.
Home / Away Weighting - not considered by me
Eligibility and Availability of Student Athletes - na
Penn State had the better Won/Loss Record, while Providence had a stronger strength of schedule. The only other relevant criteria is Quality Wins. I wonder if that's the point that Providence got that Penn State didn't. Since Penn State may not have got the chance to earn quality wins, when BC did, it feels a bit unfair but maybe this is the best the committee could do.
I didn't consider Home/Away weighting because that's getting pretty nitty gritty and I can't believe the analysis came down to that. Hopefully eventually an explanation will come from the committee, and hopefully the criteria are consistently applied to both the scenario above, and the Minnesota UMD scenario.
Two final points:
It's not a criteria for NCAA Tournament Selection, but Penn State versus Providence comparison of previous years reveals that Penn State has been .500 against Hockey East in recent years, and has a winning record versus Providence specifically. Providence has a losing record against Penn State, and has been .500 against CHA in recent years. For the purpose of this year's NCAA Tournament it's a moot point, but for the purposes of speaking factually about the accomplishments of Penn State and the CHA versus Providence, it's relevant. It is disingenuous for knowledgeable college hockey fans to speak of a team as though it is nothing more or less than the general reputation of its league. There's nuance that should be considered, and the committee could have chose to do that.
If the pairwise existed this year, it's entirely possible that Penn State would have earned an at large bid. I looked at Mercyhurst’s results the last time they earned an at large bid. It was 2014 and their results were eerily similar to what Penn State did this year, including a late season tie to Lindenwood and getting knocked out of CHA tourney by RIT. Reg season results were 15-3-2 (Penn State was 16-2-2 this year) and non conference was 7-5 (na this year). Mercyhurst made the tourney as an at large on strength of their pairwise. Of course their were 3 auto bids then, not 4, but also there was more teams because everyone was playing. So assuming there was a pairwise this year and assuming Coach Kampersal hadn’t loaded up Penn State's schedule with six games against best WCHA teams...Penn State really might have made the tourney as an at large based on math or if not they would have been very close.
The PWHPA announced today that their Sunday game at Madison Square Garden will be broadcast on NHL Network and Sportsnet. This is great news, and also my cue to subscribe to NHL Network again. I finally let it lapse last March, when the World Championships were cancelled, and it was apparent there would be no women's hockey for a while. The NHL Network has broadcast several women's games the past few years, and hopefully will expand on this in the future. Seeing a PW game on the slate is a great sign.
With today's announcement we are now on the eve of a lot of great hockey which will be broadcast. PW will be broadcast this weekend (Feb 28) as mentioned above. Next weekend when they do a showcase in Chicago, they will be on NBC Sportsnet. That one will be history making, as it's the first time they will be broadcast on Network tv in the US.
College hockey conference tourneys start this weekend and wrap up next weekend, and of course college hockey all has pretty decent streams. This leads us right into the National Championship, a two weekend tourney, the 2nd of which will (I assume) be broadcast on Big Ten Network as in years past. And THEN, Worlds. So we've got a good stretch here on tv, after some barren times.
Last February the Rivalry Series wrapped up in Anaheim at Honda Center in front of a history making crowd. Those darn Americans won in OT AGAIN, and while I love the drama of the rivalry, I'm always looking for my Canadian girls to win against America. But February 2020, that's a long time ago. Can't wait to watch on Sunday.
The rosters are mostly American players, or at the very least, players who are training in the US. Covid travel complications of course. It's Minnesota's Hub vs New Hampshire's Hub. Rosters are on the PW website, but I think the Minnesota roster has more offensive fire power for sure. Cameranesi, Knight, Brandt, Pankowski and Roque on Minnesota have that roster looking strong. Minnesota goalies are both Olympians - Rooney and Hensley. Total of 17 on the roster, 15 skaters.
Over on New Hampshire, well their roster is also amazing, but I don't think it matches Minnesota in scoring power. They also have 17 on the roster, 15 skaters. The real excitement over there is their defenders. Jincy Dunne graduated from Ohio State just last year, and on her last collegiate play of her career sprung an Ohio State forward on a rush in OT that win them their first ever WCHA Tourney Championship. I've always wanted to see Dunne on the ice with Olympians and looking at who she'll have to defend against in the Minnesota PW squad should give us a great look. Luckily she'll also have Megan Keller on her team to defend against Minnesota. New Hampshire has Alex Cavallini in net as well as Katie Burt.
So Burt is the only non Olympian goalie in this mix. She's the young kid trying to oust a Hensley or a Cavallini I suppose, which there are no guarantees of, plus Aerin Frankel in college is trying to make that USA squad too, and Frankel is absolutely crushing it, recently posting 6 consecutive shutouts. So Burt is going to need some playing time. The question is if the Sunday night game is to be televised, are they going to share time for the goalies, or treat like a real game. My guess is the Saturday night, they give some playing time to all four goalies, but come Sunday, unless something wild happens in Saturday's game, we'll see Rooney vs Cavallini. Rooney played in the 2018 Olympic gold medal game of course, and Cavallini played most of the 2019 Worlds and also looked amazing, helping USA win gold.
All of this PW stuff is against the backdrop of their pursuit of a viable league, but we also know every time these athletes step on the ice it's a tryout for their respective National Teams. With so few games for some of these women in the past almost two years now I don't really know what to expect in terms of sustained crispness and cohesion especially at 5 on 5. It will be good hockey I have no doubt, but it won't be near Olympic level I don't think. Nonetheless, the PW on NHL Network and Sportsnet will be passionate, quality hockey, and a welcome sight to women's hockey fans.
I drifted away from sports fandom in the past 12 months. For starters there was nothing really happening in women's sports, just one cancellation after another. And the pandemic has simultaneously left us with nothing to do, and yet also made us so busy what with the inefficiencies of working, parenting, and helping a child with school at the same time.
It's funny, when I leave something for a while, I forget how much I love it. To return to the sport, even as a fan, is to be reminded of how much I enjoy it.
The NW bubble was announced, and I thought yes I'll watch that, stream it on Twitch and put it on the tv. The game I watched was the Toronto Minnesota one, Saturday night. It felt like I was watching Hockey Night in Canada in a way. Lindsay Eastwood, who I used to watch on Syracuse and who had victimized my Lakers too many times was especially fun to watch. Her and Grant-Mentis were great together on the PP, leading to Grant-Mentis' first goal of the night. Every time Toronto scored, Minnesota would answer. Toronto would then grab the lead back and so on. I thought for sure the game was headed to OT, but Grant-Mentis scored again to win it with about thirty seconds left. She came up with a puck just inside the offensive blue line, walked around one defender and when the whole building was thinking pass, Grant-Mentis was thinking, let's just end this, and shot. What a game.
The game ended, Grant-Mentis a hero, the Toronto Six looking like potential future Isobel Cup winners. I turned the tv off, abandoned the mess of wrestling action figures my son had dug out while we played during the game and put him to bed. I sat down at my computer and started to work, (I feel like I should explain working on a Saturday night, but you probably get it, it's the pandemic lifestyle basically) And while I worked, for the first time in a year, I turned on a hockey podcast, a Canadian one, a big budget one with kickass music at the end that gets you pumped, or keeps you pumped, if you already are. Women's hockey is back, and so am I.
Here's Lindsay Eastwood scoring the Six's first ever goal. The season's on pause, naturally, but the Six are full of promise and the NW is planning on finishing the season, so who knows where this might lead.
Believe it or not, I'm still here. 2020 was quite the year. I'll leave it at that and let's talk a little hockey. The Lakers introduced the current freshmen class back in the fall of 2019. For my sake, because I've been away and frankly detached from sports in general, let's run who through we got. There are seven freshmen and a transfer.
Grace Nelles - Grace is a forward and has Canada U18 experience, and is the most pedigreed of the freshmen. Her sister Sarah is a junior on the team already. Nelles hails from St. Ann's Ontario, Stoney Creek Sabres (PWHL).
Sarah Boucher - Boucher is a forward from Burlington Ontario, and played for the Oakville Hornets (PWHL).
Jersey Phillips - almost a local player, Phillips is from Cheektowaga, NY. Getting more and more Western New York players over the years, although the original Western New Yorker on the team, would be Coach Sisti himself, also from Cheektowaga. Phillips played for the Buffalo Regals (Tier 1).
Mary Kromer - another forward, another wester New Yorker, being from Angola NY. Interestingly, she played her hockey in the PWHL for the Stoney Creek Sabres.
Paige Whaley - Whaley is from Carlisle, Ontario (basically Hamilton) and played for the Etobicoke Junior Dolphins (PWHL).
Chantal Ste-Croix - Ste-Croix is the sixth and final forward of the group, from Brampton, ON and also played for the Junior Lakers...I mean the Stoney Creek Junior Sabres of the PWHL. For years, I have thought the Lakers had Stoney Creek pipeline, and have never felt it more than this year with three of seven freshmen being alums of that program. Other Lakers with Stoney Creek experience: Sarah Nelles, Alexa Vasko, Rachel Marmen, and Meagan Korzack.
Calista Rowbottom - Rowbottom is a D from Missouri, who played her high school hockey in Dallas. Have to think she is the first Missourian (is that right) on the team. I would not have guessed that Missouri kids would play their high school hockey in Texas, which might say something about my geography knowledge. Always gets me when I hear AZ kids played in Colorado too. Colorado, not as north as one might think.
The last newcomer is Ena Nystrom, a sophomore transfer from RPI, and who lives in Norway. Nystrom plays for the Norwegian National Team. She's a goalie and after playing for the mightily struggling RPI who went winless last year, Mercyhurst will be a whole different world for her.
So there you have it, 6 forwards, 1 defender and 1 goalie. 4 Canadians, 3 Americans and 1 Norwegian, and as always a PWHL heavy class (5 out of 8). The Lakers sit at 2-0 on this pandemic season, and have their next game scheduled for January 2nd, vs Adrian.
USA took game one of the Rivalry Series against Canada on Saturday, in Hartford Connecticut. Canada opened the scoring with a power play goal from Victoria Bach, but USA came away with a 4-1 decision on goals power play goals from Megan Keller and Amanda Kessel, and even strength goals from Abby Roque and Alex Carpenter. Alex Cavallini (USA) and Genevieve Lacasse (Canada) each got the start in net.
5 takeaways:
1- Fluid roster construction: IIHF events are the crown jewels in international women's hockey. It is clear the Rivalry Series and other non IIHF events are used as evaluating tools, as we see the pool of players used grow and grow. Since the 2018 Four Nations there have been five events: Four Nations, Feb 2019 Rivalry Series, Worlds, Pittsburgh Camp, and Dec 2019 Rivalry Series. The US has iced a total of 43 different players in its various 23 person rosters for those events. From a viewer's perspective the more college hockey you watch, the more context you have for what you are watching. I loved watching on Saturday, but definitely had to look up some players.
I made a google drive sheet here to track the US Rosters for this quad: Team USA Roster for 2018-2022 Quad
Apologies for the formatting, still figuring it out. 8 players have been in 100% of events (Knight, Kessel, Coyne, Matheson, Cavallini, Cameranesi, Bellamy, and Bozek) and 9 have been in 80% . So it looks like there are about 6 spots up for grabs. Also of note is the continued dominance of BC, Wisconsin and Minnesota college players in US Roster construction. 25 of 43 players attend or attended these schools. I'd like to add graduation date to my google sheet as it appears team USA is trending pretty young right now, and very comfortable loading up with college kids. I suspect the January portion of the roster will have fewer college kids out of respect to their college schedules.
2- Finding Canada's next starting goaltender: Canada has relied on Shannon Szabados for years, including the 2018 Olympics where she played with a leg injury and the 2018 Four Nations, 2019 Rivalry Series and Worlds. But she wasn't at Pittsburgh and isn't on the current Canada roster. One gets the sense Canada is trying to find their new number one. On Saturday 30 year old Genevieve Lacasse played just ok. She didn't give up any egregious goals, but four goals is simply a lot. I would have liked to see her get a stick on the Pankowski pass across the crease to Keller on the first power play goal. On Roque's goal Lacasse probably made the high percentage play by going to her knees, but it appeared she didn't track the puck well off the face off, and Roque had no problem going backhand top shelf. Ultimately Lacasse gave up four goals on 31 shots. Ann-Renee Desbiens or Emerance Maschmeyer (both 25) are likely to get the start on Tuesday.
3- Quiet night for Canada's stars and veterans: Although shots were even on the night, and Canada showed promise in the second when it outshot the US 15-9, Canada looked rusty at finishing and too many veterans weren't being impact players. Spooner, Johnson, and Saulnier didn't stand out much. Poulin was ok but was held off the score sheet. Agosta made her debut post maternity leave and looked about what you would expect, a very reasonable performance from her. Agosta did have one glorious back door chance towards end of the 2nd period. She couldn't put it home, which is a shame, because we didn't see much more of her after that. The third period was all USA and they finished two even strength chances which made the difference. I still give Canada every chance of winning tonight in game two in New Brunswick, particularly if anyone other than Cavallini starts for the US.
Perhaps the best Canada gif of the night was this, Poulin just trucking somebody. Man she is sturdy on her skates. It's deceiving as she doesn't look like a big player.
4 - Abby Roque, a senior at Wisconsin was one of 6 players making their senior team debut for the US. She got regular ice time, and scored early in the third period to make it 3-1 and take the wind out of any Canadian push to tie the game. The play started with Abby winning a face off in the offensive zone against Victoria Bach. Bach is a bit indecisive about how to react, doesn't tie up Abby enough, and after the puck ping pongs to Abby she deftly protects the puck with her body and goes backhand top shelf. Beautiful goal, and it reminded me of Pankowski's (another former Badger) short handed back handed shelf goal in the National Championship game in March. They must practice that at Wisconsin. :) For Canada, it was a tough goal against. Bach, a 2018 graduate of BU is showing lots of offensive promise on the senior team for Canada, and her offensive prowess is earning her the right to be on the ice in the third, down a goal, but this had to be a learning moment for her. All of this only enhances the excitement that will play out on the ice tonight in New Brunswick.
5- My 4 stars of the game are Alex Cavallini, Alex Carpenter, the @wsportshilites twitter handle and the NBC production. NBC did have one mix up where they listed Roque as Canadian (I wish!) and somehow forgot Pankowski was a member of the 2019 Championship winning Badger team, but on the whole I enjoyed the call by John Walton, and the color by AJ Mleczko. I enjoyed that they showed the '98 Olympians drop the puck, and enjoyed all the photographic stills of women's hockey legends from years past. There is simply no comparison between watching a professional production, and anything else other than watching live. Here's a highlight package showing some great Cavallini saves as evidence of the above.
A year ago we took our then 4 year old daughter to a Try Hockey For Free event. She was already sort of skating and we knew she would love it. She did, and so did her brother. Problem was, he was only 2 years old, too young for the event. He cried and cried because he so badly wanted to go on the ice. Finally he calmed down but it was all I could do to keep on the sidelines watching.
A year has gone by. He’s got his first set of skates and at 3 years old is too young for most programs. I would never in a million years enroll him in anything except... the kid is wild for hockey, for sports in general. When he watches sports live or on tv, he plays by himself, and is part of the play in his own way. He sees his sister go off to organized sports and it is agonizing for him. He wants to play, wants to be like her.
And so, he is now enrolled in tot hockey at our local rink. The programming is incredible, how patient they are with the various sets of circumstances each new hockey player has. Here he is on his first day of tot hockey, from this weekend:
That’s him getting help with his mitts. He was quite stationary during the lesson, despite the encouragement from his coach and the fact that I’ve seen him push one of those things around before.
I’ve seen so many kids learn to skate with those but my kids just hung on them like a crutch. My daughter eventually got the basics of balance and motion figured out on roller skates, then it transferred easily to ice.
My son, I took him back today and we practiced marching on skates around the ice, holding his hand as we went. I taught him to bend his knees and put his hands out like wings of airplane if he thought he was going to fall. Of course he did fall, so I taught him to kneel on one knee, put hands on his knee and push up to standing. Sometimes I skated backwards and held both his hands while he skated forwards. Eventually I put a gap between us, outstretched my arms and encouraged him to skate. He eventually took his first strides, unassisted. I really loved that moment. It’s his fifth time on the ice. No more walker. Just stomp stomp glide a few feet at a time and soon, all over the ice.
Tomorrow night Hayley Wickenheiser, will be inducted into the hockey hall of fame, the seventh woman to receive such honors. As Angela James has joked, almost a full table now!
Wickenheiser enters the hall with four Olympic golds, and one Olympic silver medal. I could not find the IIHF point totals but I understand she's number 1. I was able to see that in 87 games played in the WWC/ OG she had 137 points, an average of 1.57 points per game. Not only that she has a long list of diverse non hockey accomplishments, resulting in her being called Canada's renaissance woman. At the end of this post, I have shared links to some of the coverage she received in the last week and after her retirement. If you haven't read any of it yet, dive in. The video from TSN includes hockey highlights, as well.
Although I knew Wickenheiser's name as a teenager in the late nineties, the only memories I have of watching her play are the 2014 Olympics. Going into those Olympics, there was a question of whether Wickenheiser still had it. She definitely did. She played on a top line, had five points in the tournament, and was on the ice in OT in that gold medal game, getting a breakaway and drawing a penalty even. I didn't realize this, but Mike Murphy points out she was on the ice providing a screen for Poulin, for her gold medal winning goal in Sochi.
Her humility was tested, as the captaincy was transferred to Ouellette for those Games, but Wickenheiser's play on the ice showed an athlete devoted towards a common goal: gold for Canada. I don't know what the greatest thing Wickenheiser ever did was, but on ice it may have been that she simply changed our understanding of what women hockey players are capable of. She showed us a level of competition, physicality, shooting skill and devotion to being the best, that the game had not seen before. In the stars we see today - their unabashed compete level, physicality and skill, devotion to the game, - we see Hayley's legacy.
In college, my coach always talked about killer instinct, trying to get us to have it, unearth it in ourselves. The player I most remember having it, of all the players I played against was Julie Chu. I only played two games against her, but she had it. I believe you can see it not just in the way these players play, but in the way they celebrate, the raw emotion that pours out of them. Chu had it, and Wickenheiser did too. I think it's on display in this 2002 gold medal game goal. There is no risk of her not scoring this goal, she leaves nothing to chance, and she is pumped with the result. Whole video is awesome, but Wickeheiser's goal is at 1:02. You'll need to click through to YouTube because of IOC rules.
I look forward to watching the festivities tomorrow.
***
The Hockey Hall of Fame museum in Toronto is very much worth a visit if you ever have the chance. I've been there 3 or 4 times, which is pretty good for a person from Western Canada I think! In May, I had the chance to take my kids there. It was a really quick visit due to time constraints, but we made it. Here are some pictures and recollections from our visit.
My poor son was so tired after a long day of travel. He had fun, but I went back and forth on whether it was a good idea to cram this visit in, and the visit wasn't without its peaks and valleys for me as a mom. When you are a mom, life is not compartmentalized. My children are at my side in almost everything I do, and it's an incredible gift, but not without challenges. My children are American, but I want them to know what it is to be Canadian, and the Hockey Hall of Fame is certainly one place to learn.
As hockey fans know, Hayley Wickenheiser is mom to Noah, now a young man in Canada's military. There is a famous picture of her holding him when he is a young boy, after the 2002 gold medal game. Such pictures are now common place, but Wickenheiser's is the first I ever saw, yet another way she changed the mold. More than that, I always just thought it was a touching photo.
The interactive games, the showcases with the women's stuff, the Stanley Cup, the display of goalie masks, the main exhibit du jour.....these are the must see's at the Hockey Hall of Fame. Here my children do as I did in the late nineties, test their shooting accuracy! This exhibit has greatly evolved since the late nineties. A popular exhibit, Carey Price and a handful of other NHL goalies got a non stop work out. My kids also loved the TSN Sports Desk. As a child, I remember sitting in a booth, and trying to call the plays on iconic moments in hockey history.
You know Wick is a badass when she already had a display case long before her induction. Sorry for the fingerprints, HHOF. There is a Wickenheiser quote on display that says something like, "Boys would say, girls don't skate, girls don't play hockey. I would say, 'Just watch me.' " My mom read this to my daughter and a part of me wanted to put my hands on her ears. She's innocent, let her be I thought. But you know, I hear my kids lecturing each other all the time on what boys and girls do. It's just their immature way of bickering, and sorting out the world. They've heard me lecture them enough, that my daughter now says, we know, we know, anyone can do anything.
I think Wick's message is relevant for grownups too. The prospect of organizing a properly funded, viable women's pro hockey league is a daunting one. The haters and naysayers are present. But the women pushing the movement must continue to dream big, work incredibly hard and change the culture around what we believe is possible for pro women's hockey.
This showcase is one of three that I recall dedicated to women's hockey. Manon Rheaume's mask is also featured in the goalie mask exhibit. Must sees for women's hockey fans. Another great exhibit is the Montreal Canadiens dressing room. I think a women's dressing room, representing the gear and stories of 20+ international women's hockey heroes, would also make a poignant display.
My daughter took this picture for me, of the induction book containing the signature of Jayna Hefford, jersey #16 for Team Canada. It means so much to me to see the women enshrined in the Hall.
Every legacy contains its dark days. The Stanley Cup and the Great Hall containing the NHL trophies, the walls covered in bios of inductees is the crown jewel of the Hockey Hall of Fame. That crown jewel is the result of decades of work. In women's hockey, to be blunt as hell - every year has been a lockout, in terms of visibility of the game. Women have put in the work for decades, it is time for brands, governing bodies and women's hockey supporters to lift the game to new heights and unprecedented visibility, with a viable pro women's hockey league.
This pic doesn't do it justice, but here's a sliver of the great hall, with the Stanley Cup. We got our picture with the Cup, and it's displayed on our fridge. My husband dressed the kids that morning....and of course they are both wearing baseball t-shirts. He didn't dress me though, and I proudly repped the Columbus Blue Jackets.
When we were standing in line, my daughter declared she wanted to win the Stanley Cup. It's amazing how dreaming is so natural. I kind of flubbed the answer.....I gave her a lecture on the Clarkson Cup. I did my best, but knowing the right answer for every parenting situation is not easy. I'm trying to let them both just grow up dreaming of winning whatever trophy is in front of them. Besides, although she won't win the Stanley Cup as a player, she could very much still win it. Anyway, she didn't listen to me, and still talks about wanting to win the Stanley Cup. All is well.
The Stanley Cup left an impact on them. As we watched the Stanley Cup playoffs, when they saw the logo on tv, they mentioned the Hall of Fame, and exclaimed "we've seen that." My kids don't understand leagues and levels of play at all. I was flattered when my daughter asked me, during game 7 of the Stanley Cup Finals if I had ever played against the Boston Bruins.
Me, in 1997 at the Hockey Hall of Fame, at the same exhibit my kids shot on 22 years later. We watched a number of people shoot at the exhibit as its very popular. There was a young girl, about 12 years old, who gave it a try. Red tshirt, track pants, little braids in her hair. She casually scored goal after goal on the virtual NHL player she shot against. She was the best of anyone I watched that day.
When she was done, she turned around and smiled, revealing a mouthful of braces. She fist bumped her dad, and I watched them walk away. It was like watching a living exhibit, another highlight of our visit. No matter the challenges in visibility for women's hockey.....girls hockey players are out there, they always have been, and they are crushing it.
Enjoy the festivities tomorrow, and if you haven't already, enjoy some reading on Hayley Wickenheiser:
I had a hard time finding all time points. If you are interested in stats, the Ice Garden article by Mike Murphy above, is the best I've seen. Here's a screen shot from Elite Prospects, and the HHOF link includes stats as well. What I can't find is total points scored in a Team Canada uniform. It's also glaring that we need to get more games for our elite women to play. Nonetheless, here's Wickenheiser's stats, per Elite Prospects:
