We went to the USA Canada game in Pittsburgh on Friday and it was, to no one's surprise, a great time.
After making the hour and a half drive from Cleveland we arrived around six at the UPMC Lemieux Sports Center. It's a beautiful facility, opened in 2015. When we first got inside I was worried because there were long lines for ticketing. However, we had already printed our tickets so we were good to go, no line at all. The others were processed timely I'm sure; I just lack patience so I'm glad we didn't have to wait in line.
To the left of the entrance is The Training Table restaurant where, we got dinner. This was clutch as not all rinks are set up like this. We got hotdogs, soft pretzels, fruit cups and chocolate milk. Might sound like a silly detail but if you've ever tried to feed your kids a meal at a rink you know this is pretty good! To get to Training Table you walk under an archway with the famous Badger Bob Hockey quote: "It's a Great Day for Hockey!" The Training Table has tables to eat at which was nice for us as a family, and it looked out onto the rink where the women would play. 5 Stanley Cup banners hung from the rafters, just incredible, when you think what a feat winning one Stanley Cup is, let alone five.
The archway off to the right had images of hockey players from a very young age, up to an NHLer. One of the images was of a little girl hockey player. I think on the right side is another rink. The facility is huge but I didn't check it out. My husband said they had some cool Mario Lemieux stuff back there.... but when I am out at these things I try to focus on the kids and the game. I have to give myself a pep talk before I go that as much as I want it to be about me...it's probably in my best interest to not try to do it "all".
There were programs, game notes, and printed rosters all available for free. This was great as I couldn't find any of this at the Rivalry Series in Detroit last year.
After dinner we went and watched warmups. The rink itself is a standard NHL practice facility, with bleacher seats on one side, but still a first class facility even though "bleacher seats" is not fancy. I'd guess 800 seats? We sat in the end where US warmed up, and where Canada shot on for 2 periods. It turned out that was the perfect place to sit. One of my takeaways watching the women warmup is just how well the all shoot the puck. Most of the women are not that heavy; I don't know what the average weight is but I don't it's more than 160 pounds. But damn they can wire the puck! The other thing about a live game is you get to notice all the details. The uniforms are so beautiful....I love seeing that up close. I wish I could have gone down and watched Canada warm up, but maybe next time. Better for my kids to watch their Americans warm up I suppose.
I hope it goes without saying, that I find it really special just to watch these ladies. My heart is always with Canada, but I am also cheering for pretty much every woman on the ice. I think it's my mom heart, my sentimental old lady heart, my grow women's hockey heart, my dual citizen heart. But let it be known: WWC 2020: It's Canada's time!!!!!!! Gold or bust.
Our seats ended up being great. We had the Pittsburgh Puffins and (I think) the Hagerstown Mayhem to our left. These are women's teams. They were a little rowdy (that's a compliment) and every hockey game needs that. If I wasn't with my kids I would have gone and joined them! In front of us was a family that we chatted with. They play at the same rink in Cleveland area as us, and they mentioned Mercyhurst as a school they'd love for their daughter to play at. As an alum, you know I puffed up with pride! Hockey people are pretty great for the most part, and I was invited to come join a co-ed league in NEO. I can't tell you how often this happens. For all the negatives in hockey, the reality is there is a ton of good, people who are working together to create opportunities, for the good of the game and people's enjoyment.
To our right and on the glass were some VIPs in my opinion. The Johnstown Warriors girls hockey team is the first all girls hockey team in 53 years of their organization (from chatting with a mom). The girls are 2010's and 2009's I believe...because I was talking to one 2011 who was telling me she is on the practice squad but next year gets to be on the team. So sweet. A 2010 birth year is about 9 years old, and I can tell you to have an all girls team at that age is a huge accomplishment for whoever is running that organization.
So I sat amidst this crowd with my husband and 5 and 3 year old. The fans were accommodating; we were crammed in and you know kids were fussing here and there. My son is extremely active and his flag waving skills frankly need some work. He also doesn't stop talking and chatted with half the arena.
The puck drop was done by Brianne McLaughlin Bittle. McLaughlin Bittle is a 2x Olympian who was born in Cleveland area, went to college at Robert Morris and helped build that program. She also led the Buffalo Beauts to their NWHL Championship, and is now very involved in growing girls hockey in Pittsburgh. She had her baby son in her arms as she did the puck drop. Really nice choice to have her do the honors.
Then the hockey game. Oh man. It was unreal. I loved it, and Canada looked really really good. Be encouraged Canada - there were 18 US players that were on the 2019 WWC Gold squad, so this was a legit USA team, and Canada crushed them. Let's just check the fun storylines:
Return of MPP - she was amazing, goal and an assist as you know. That first goal that Bach put in, was all created by MPP. As soon as you saw MPP draw all the US players onto her and thread a pass across to a streaking Bach, you saw Rooney commit, and knew Bach only had to step around her and bury it. Incredible return by MPP from her injury; she looked great. She was on a line with Bach and Clark; CWHL rookie of the year Bach had a break out night. Great work by her.
The future is bright: 36-10-15 (Gabel Fillier Daoust) was a very fun line to watch. Gabel's awareness that like 4 US players were on one side of the ice as the Canadians were set up in the US zone, and then to see her saucer a pass over to Fillier in the slot, who quickly released a hard shot into the net was cool to see. This line includes a 2x National Champion and Patty Kaz winner (Gabel), USports poster girl and 2018 Olympic MVP (Daoust), and Fillier is an Ivy Leager and was the National Rookie of the Year in NCAA last year. The marketability is endless.
Knighter reminds us of her greatness: Am I allowed to call her Knighter? Doubtful. Anyway, these 2 are the biggest names in women's hockey. They always deliver, and even in a USA loss, Knight buried a puck. Neutral zone rush where she fed (Pfalzer) Matheson, and then Knight glided in her lurking way to the net and tapped a puck out of air into the net. She's a beast. Love to watch her.
The Lam Twins: Monique got more ice time than Jocelyne as far as I could tell. This makes sense considering Monique was on defense and also these two have, literally, infants, and so the six weeks difference in the age of their babies likely is still reflected in terms of where they are at in recovery. Monique led the US in shots. Total beast, she came close to scoring a couple. But that was a very compelling storyline nonetheless, to see these women get themselves back to form and back on the ice.
The US Power Play: Holy give aways! An aggressive Canadian PK led to two breakaways. One resulted in a short handed goal. Spooner also got a breakaway and she beat Rooney but the puck then hit the post.
The US' best period was the 2nd. They played better than Canada that period but the PP breakdown, and a weird "throw it on net" shot by Bach had the Canadians win that one on the score board.
I really thought Cayla Barnes scored a goal in the second on the power play, but I'm told that replay showed it didn't go in. You know us fans enjoyed getting worked up regardless. The energy in the crowd at that time was really great. It was everything you want in a hockey game. Today's game should be amazing, because the US can't be satisfied with what they did on Friday.
By the third period, the kids were a bit antsy. It was late and we had gotten there an hour before the game started, and that was after an hour and a half car drive. Apparently mine weren't the only antsy ones, because for the third period a group of about ten kids sat right against the glass where they had room to stretch out and be active and cheer. I really loved seeing it....to me that is a quintessential aspect of being in a hockey rink. I love the way the kids interact with each other, and love to see them enjoy the experience and atmosphere of being at a hockey game. For me, in addition to seeing the rowdy women's team fans, this may have been the off ice highlight of the night for me. I know it wasn't ideal for some people....one dude was visbly frustrated. But I don't know, we were in there like sardines, it was 4-1 and the kids had done a great job thus far and weren't obstructing view in a material way. Play on, kids.
After the game the women did autographs, which is incredibly generous of them. One day we'll stand in line for that, but not quite yet.
I want to acknowledge how amazing the Penguins organization was. They simply went above and beyond. This worked out so well to have the games on days when the Penguins weren't playing so the Penguins literally devoted their social media team to the women. By all appearances, a first class organization. If you want a sense of what I mean, just check out all the content on their website this week. On their website, they literally have a landing page for women's hockey, under the News drop down. I don't know if this is standard for NHL teams...I doubt it, but I am very impressed. Almost seems like these guys could be a case study for how support could be mimicked throughout the league.
Not that anyone asked me....but I give this experience a 10 out of 10.
I offer 3 ways to make it even better in the future, only because as an hockey player knows.....you are always trying to get better. I regret if this comes across as a total downer after a long positive post, but as a busy person, I just throw down my thoughts on this blog and carry on.
1- sell USA Hockey and Hockey Canada affordable, quality merchandise at these events. Knight and Poulin shirseys should be standard issue. Bring them in all sizes, especially kids sizes. If there was a merch table and I missed it, apologies!
2- include a call to action to get people involved in girls and womens hockey as players and fans, locally. Put the onus on the teams to do the work. Give RMU a chance to promote their program, as well as the Pittsburgh Puffins and local rec womens's teams, etc. The kids of Pittsburgh should know that the National Team doesn't come to town often, but growing up watching RMU play is a pretty badass option too.
3- It is a shame that is cost $30 to stream this game online. When you consider that this series replaced the 4 Nations that was canceled, and that the final for 4 Nations was streamed free on NHL Network last year......this felt like a step backwards. I wish the powers that be understood how rare and special the opportunity to watch these women play is. When US and Canada women are set to play, if it's not going to be nationally broadcast, an affordable easily accessible or free easily accessible stream should be set up. The Federations should have a process for communicating to every women's hockey organization in their federation that the game is taking place and here is the stream, and then let the team managers take it from there to communicate to the girls.
It's not that the women aren't worth the $30 to spend on them. I regret that calling for a more affordable viewing option can come across that way. For me, I think the women are priceless, and they need to be seen by more people. Also, we so often pay a premium to be a women's hockey fan (shipping prices on rare merchandise as an example), that we must recognize there is sometimes a breaking point, and people just can't keep going into their pocket. Further - consider how many women's hockey fans are also men's hockey fans and subscribe for TSN, NHL Network etc. It feels like you are paying twice for something that should be included.
Whew, got that off my chest! Now back to hockey.
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