Canadian Embassy hosts PWHL watch party to ‘celebrate women athletes’

WASHINGTON -- Joyce Kammerman was smiling and near tears at the same time at a Professional Women’s Hockey League watch party at the Canadian Embassy on Wednesday.

“I was getting a little teary-eyed because in my lifetime, I never thought I’d see a professional women’s hockey league,” said Kammerman, Maryland Student Hockey League Girls Commissioner. “When I was growing up, girls didn’t play hockey at all, as much as I longed to be on the ice and watch the guys play.”

Kammerman was among the guests who gathered at the embassy for the special event to honor and highlight the PWHL in its inaugural season.

Diplomats, members of the U.S. Congress, local hockey officials and fans wore their favorite hockey jerseys, munched on poutine and Tim Hortons, and shared a Molson or two as they watched PWHL Ottawa defeat New York 3-0, Toronto top Boston 2-1 and the Toronto Maple Leafs get a 7-3 victory against the Washington Capitals on a third screen.

Canadian Ambassador Kirsten Hillman said the night was special because it was the first time that a professional women’s hockey league was invited to and recognized at the embassy.

“Our intention is to raise the profile of the PWHL, although from what we’re hearing in terms of their attendance numbers, they’re doing just fine, thank you very much,” said Hillman, who is the first woman to serve as Canadian ambassador to the United States. “But the more that we can bring awareness to it, and the more that we can celebrate women athletes that are providing incredible entertainment, demonstrations of enormous athleticism… They’re role models for girls, and I would argue they are role models for boys, they’re role models for everyone to show that women can perform at an elite sports level that is remarkable and exciting and worth everybody’s price of admission.”

U.S. Reps Ayanna Pressley (D-Mass.) and Nick LaLota (R-N.Y.) agreed. Pressley was named honorary captain for PWHL Boston and LaLota honorary captain of PWHL New York at the watch party.

“I continue to be inspired by the women who are leading this inaugural PWHL season as history makers in their own right, from Hilary Knight to Northeastern alumnus Alina Muller and Aerin Frankel,” said Pressley, who was a lead sponsor in the House of a bill to award the Congressional Gold Medal to Willie O’Ree, the NHL’s first Black player. “These women are world-class athletes charting a path truly for generations to come.”

LaLota said the PWHL resonates and inspires in his Long Island, New York, home.

“I’m a father of three daughters, my wife played lacrosse in college on scholarship and my three daughters are quite athletic,” he said. “From their athleticism, they learn great things about themselves: self-confidence, teamwork, discipline, other things that just make them awesome human beings, and we should take every moment to celebrate that, to honor that and to cherish that.”

The PWHL is a six-team league -- Boston, New York, Minnesota, Montreal, Toronto and Ottawa -- and is supported financially by Mark and Kimbra Walter, who own the Los Angeles Dodgers. Its board of directors include women’s tennis legend Billie Jean King, sports executive Ilana Kloss, Dodgers president Stan Kasten and Dodgers senior vice president of business strategy Royce Cohen.

The best-on-best women’s league has been a box office success. The April 20 game between Toronto and Montreal at Bell Centre, home of the Montreal Canadiens and the largest hockey arena in North America, is sold out and poised to set a record for the largest attendance at a professional women’s hockey game.

A crowd of 19,285 watched Toronto defeat Montreal 3-0 at Scotiabank Arena, the Toronto Maple Leafs home, on Feb. 16. And 13,736 saw Boston defeat Ottawa 2-1 in a neutral site game on Saturday at Little Caesars Arena, home of the Detroit Red Wings.

Amy Scheer, the PWHL’s senior vice president of business operations, said the league’s attendance numbers reflect more than a moment. “It’s a growing movement,” she said.

“We feel happy with where we are, but we are far from over,” Scheer said. “We understand that there's a lot of hard work ahead. And because we have changed our expectations, this is just the beginning of our journey… We need to continue to grow our fan base. We need to continue to grow the sport of hockey. There's so much to do, but it's nice to be off to a good start.”