Sports fans widely regard the playoff hockey season as the pinnacle of sports. The hits, goals, cellies—they are electric. Historically, that sentiment solely applied to the National Hockey League (NHL), the world’s premier men’s hockey league. But in 2024, it’s not only the men who are taking to the ice to capture their league’s championship; it’s the women, too.
Women’s professional hockey is a fairly new concept. In 2015, Dani Rylan, a former female hockey player helped establish the Premier Hockey Federation, the first women’s league to have salaries for its players. After becoming the biggest women’s league in the world, the Mark Walter Group bought out the league, voiding all player contracts. Thus, a new league was formed: the Professional Women’s Hockey League.
This all has happened in the last year, making 2023–24 the inaugural season of the PWHL. The league only has six teams, three in the States and three in Canada, all of which are in hockey’s most popular markets. Women’s hockey has had a decent fanbase at the international level, with a strong rivalry between the United States and Canada, so it is great to see the enthusiasm translate to a professional level.
Hockey is my favorite sport to watch and has been my entire life. I am a diehard Los Angeles Kings fan, so having a women’s league to watch now too is thrilling. While I cannot skate nor stickhandle as skillfully as these athletes can, nor have I even picked a favorite team as I have with the NHL, I still love watching their games and hearing about all the records they are breaking.
To ensure these women can continue to play the game they love professionally, the league needs to be profitable, which starts with viewership and attendance. Throughout the season and for their playoffs, various local sports networks have broadcasted their games, an important first step. As their viewership continues to grow, I’d love to see more games on national television as well.
Arguably the most impressive statistic to come from this season is their attendance. The PWHL published, “total attendance in 72 regular-season games was 392,259 with an average of 5,448 per game. Including the first four playoff games, PWHL attendance stands at 428,620 – an average of 5,640 per game.” Moreover, they kept breaking attendance records this season. On February 16, in a match between Toronto and Montreal in Toronto, there were a reported 19,285 fans in attendance. A little more than two months later, the same two teams broke the attendance record again, this time in Montreal, at North America’s biggest hockey arena, with 21,105 fans. These figures are phenomenal for the inaugural season of the league, and we should rightfully celebrate them.
While it’s no secret that Canadians love their hockey, the sport has a sizable fanbase in the U.S., too. Just as Toronto and Montreal fans show love to their women’s hockey teams, U.S. hockey fans should do so, too, with the teams in Boston, Minnesota, and New York.
The U.S. and Canada had a perfect split of playoff qualifying teams, each with two. In the regular season, Toronto led the league with 47 points, and Montreal followed with 41. Both Boston and Minnesota, the last two teams to clinch playoff slots, had 35. But, this seeming Canadian supremacy disappeared in the playoffs as Boston swept Montreal in a three game series and Minnesota took down Toronto in the Game 5 decider. These upsets are the excitement of playoff hockey that the NHL has, like when my beloved Los Angeles Kings went from being the 8th seed in the Western Conference to Stanley Cup Champions.
As I write this before the first game of the final between Minnesota and Boston, which is set to start on Sunday, May 19, I still do not know who I am rooting for. I think I just want a good fight from both sides—not a sweep like what Boston did to Montreal. Regardless of which team wins, the entire PWHL has won this season, not only because of their existence, but also because of their league-wide success.
All I am hoping for now is that we’ll have the Los Angeles Queens one day. For now, I’ll just stay neutral.
