MONTREAL 鈥� Marie-Philip Poulin is setting high expectations.
Montreal鈥檚 captain 鈥� a three-time Olympic gold medallist and one of hockey鈥檚 all-time greats 鈥� has her sights set on hoisting a Cup at the end of the Professional Women鈥檚 Hockey League's inaugural season.
"Our ultimate goal is a trophy,鈥� Poulin said. 鈥淲e want to create a winning culture and franchise here in Montreal.鈥�
Poulin and the yet-to-be-named Montreal team will hit the ice Tuesday night in Ottawa to start a 24-game regular season for each PWHL club.
The PWHL is a first-of-its-kind women鈥檚 league with deep-pocketed investors and an eight-year collective bargaining agreement between the league and players鈥� union.
As one of six teams, Montreal has a solid foundation to build a winning culture.
Poulin, a 100-goal scorer for Canada, can fill the net on one end of the ice while Canadian starter Ann-Ren茅e Desbiens stops pucks on the other.
"You want to score and you don't want to be scored on,鈥� said general manager Dani猫le Sauvageau. 鈥淲hen you have Marie-Philip who can score and Ann-Ren茅e Desbiens who will deny that scoring 鈥� it's a good feeling because you're looking at both ends of the ice and you can say, 鈥榳ell this is great.鈥�"
In between that, there are question marks.
Poulin leads a strong forward group that includes alternate captains and Canadian women鈥檚 team forwards Laura Stacey and Kristin O鈥橬eill, college standout Maureen Murphy, Czech star Tereza Vanisova and steady veterans Ann-Sophie Bettez and Jillian Dempsey.
The blue line is a little less proven. Alternate captain Erin Ambrose and two-way player Dominika Laksova highlight a young defence that will rely on camp invitees to step up this season.
The fact it鈥檚 an offence-first team isn鈥檛 an accident.
"We wanted to have speed, creativity, offensive play,鈥� Sauvageau said. 鈥淎 dream team for anybody who's building a hockey team, NHL or women's hockey, is to be as offensive as possible 鈥� Hockey, at the end, is scoring goals.鈥�
"I guess I'll have to stop some pucks,鈥� Desbiens joked. 鈥淚t'll be fun, if they score a lot of goals then I can let a little more in."
Former Toronto Six goalie Elaine Chuli, the 2022 Premier Hockey Federation goalie of the year, and 26-year-old Marl猫ne Boissonault join Desbiens in a talented crease.
Not that the skaters are putting all the responsibility on the shoulders of their goalies. Stacey says the team still has job to do in front of them.
鈥淚n order to win games, you got to keep the puck out of your own net too,鈥� she said. 鈥淗ow can we improve defensively? How can we be a tough team to play against while still kind of maintaining that skill and high-level offence that we may have?
鈥淚 think that's something that we're going to need to work on 鈥� how do we balance those two things and how do we still optimize our offensive abilities while not risking too much in our own end?"
Head coach Kori Cheverie believes an aggressive defence can contribute to a powerful attack.
"We want to get on offence as quickly as possible, and in order to do that, you have to be fast defensively and you have to end things quickly,鈥� she said. 鈥淲e want to attack defensively so we can get on offence quicker."
Montreal starts its season with three road games. Trips to Minnesota and New York follow the stop in Ottawa, where a women鈥檚 pro hockey record crowd is expected at TD Place with more than 7,800 tickets sold.
"We see that the fans are also pretty excited about it,鈥� Bettez said. 鈥淚'm really looking forward to actually playing in front of the big crowds.聽
"When you score a goal that the fans are cheering on, it's like an extra player when you play at home and then vice versa when you go away."
Montreal hosts Boston in its home opener Jan. 13 at the 4,114-capacity Verdun Auditorium, which is site of seven games this season.
The club will also play four games at 10,000-seat Place Bell in Laval, Que.聽
The location for Montreal's home game against Toronto on March 16 is to be determined. The PWHL playoffs begin the week of May 6.
"I think that is a big goal of ours obviously, having that final weekend circled on our calendar is important to us,鈥� Stacey said. 鈥淲e want to be in the finals. We want to win.鈥�
This report by The Canadian Press was first published Jan. 1, 2024.
Daniel Rainbird, The Canadian Press
