The Weekend in Hockey: Why I'm rooting for the PWHL, American gold, and Bedard's injury

What you may have missed or want to catch up on the weekend in hockey.

I’m gonna start today with a quick story about why, personally, I’m rooting for the Professional Women's Hockey League to succeed.

I have a 5-year-old daughter that has started playing hockey, it’s not a team, but it’s a collection of drills and skating stations for the kids. Basically an hour of having fun on the ice.

And she really enjoys it.

The one negative thing she’s ever really brought up is that she sometimes feels like she has to “dress like a boy,” when she wears hockey equipment. She’s seen other female hockey players, in fact, her main coach is a woman.

But the kid is also media savvy, she’s going to be smarter than me. She notices whenever we watch hockey on TV at home, and I watch a ton by nature of my job, it’s most frequently men’s hockey.

So the PWHL officially opening its inaugural season, and having all the games readily available on YouTube, created an opportunity on our drive home from the rink on Sunday.

“Dad, I still feel like I have to dress like a boy when I play hockey.”

“You know, hockey gear doesn’t make you look like a boy or a girl. It just makes you look like a hockey player. You know those older girls that help out with your practice? They wear the same hockey gear.”

“Yeah, I know.”

“There’s a new league that’s only girls that we can watch. We can check the schedule this week if you want to watch that.”

“Really? I think I would love that.”

That’s the biggest reason I’m rooting for the PWHL as it tries to stick the landing.

And you know what? Early returns, even with some oddities around lack of formal team names and branding, have been good.

On Saturday there were 13,316 fans at a PWHL game in Minnesota. In Canada more than 3 million viewers watched the first game between Toronto and New York.

The next game is tonight between Ottawa and Boston, puck drop is at 6 pm. Games are free on YouTube.

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American gold

You likely already know that the United States defeated Sweden on Friday to win the Gold Medal of the World Junior Championship.

This American team was one of the deepest and most dominant we’ve seen.

In group play the United States went undefeated and outscored opponents 29-9 in four games. In the knockout stages the Americans roared past Latvia, Czechia, and Sweden by a combined score of 18-2.

It felt like more of a coronation than a competition.

Here are some highlights from the gold medal game if you want to re-live that.

On Saturday, I went to watch the University of Michigan play the United States Under-18 national team in an exhibition.

Before the game Team USA captain Rutger McGroarty was there with the trophy.

During the first two periods of the game McGroarty and the other three Michigan players who were part of the gold-medal winning Under-20 team were walking around taking pictures with their gold medals, pretty cool moment.

For USA Hockey, it’s a potential building-block moment for the oldest players on that team — those born in 2004. That group of 2004s, had never really experienced top-level international success, at the Under-18 world championships, they fell to Sweden. Last year at World Junior, they got cranked by Canada in the semifinal.

Not that winning or losing the gold this year was going to define career success for those players, but it’s a nice benchmark to use when tracking those players soon enter the NHL.

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Bedard’s broken jaw

Connor Bedard is on injured reserve right now after breaking his jaw on Friday night after a hit by New Jersey Devils defender Brendan Smith.

There isn’t a specific timeline for Bedard’s return, but he’s going to miss extended time with the nature of the injury.

For the NHL, the hope will be that Bedard is back in time to play in the NHL All-Star Game in Toronto on Feb. 3.

Bedard has been marketing gold for the NHL, even with the Blackhawks struggling to win games, some of the NHL’s top rated games have included the 18-year-old.

Him playing or not in the All-Star Game, as one TV source told me, could be the decisive factor for many fans on whether or not they actually turn on the television.

From a hockey perspective, Bedard’s injury and the lineup that Chicago fielded on Sunday against the Calgary Flames was a stark reminder of how much work needs to be done in Chicago.

This is an actual NHL forward lineup Chicago used.

It’s put the thought in my head, as well as others, what happens if Chicago wins another draft lottery?

What if they win the lottery and land Macklin Celebrini? It’s going to be hard for the NHL to quiet some conspiracy theorists if that happens.

If you are the fan of a bad team, or just want to waste some time, you can always simulate the lottery yourself here.

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This week at Shap Shots

Thanks for reading, some of the things we’ve got coming this week for paid subscribers.

— I went to a pair of college hockey games this weekend (Denver vs. Niagara, and Michigan vs. NTDP), I’ll have some college hockey notes and stories up around lunch time on that.

— For Tuesday, I’ve got a story on Grand Rapids Griffins coach Dan Watson and his journey to the AHL.

— My personal schedule of them is yet to be finalized, but I think we will have a 20/20 tonight from Stars-Wild, as well as a 20/20 on Thursday from Wings-Oilers.

— Friday Funbag will be back this week, you can leave any question you want tackled in the comments or respond to any email.

Thanks again for reading and supporting this publication. If you have any story ideas/questions/etc… you ever want to see tackled/discussed at Shap Shots leave a comment or respond to one of the email they all get back to me.

(Also just because someone said I should, if you want to sponsor a future post at Shap Shots, you can also respond to this email.)