Victoire has kicked off season two of PWHL hockey

MONTREAL – There’s truly nothing like the start of a new hockey season.

While the Canadiens are well into their 2024-25 campaign, there’s lots of buzz surrounding the Montreal Victoire, who kicked off the season with a thrilling 4-3 shootout win over the Ottawa Charge at Place Bell in Laval in front of a sold out crowd of 10,033 fans on November 30.

It’s hard not to get swept up in the hype of women’s pro hockey, and if last year’s inaugural campaign serves as any indication, the interest is here to stay – and grow. League-wide, records of capacity crowds were set... and broken. The latest record belongs to the Victoire, who sold out the Bell Centre in minutes and packed a 21,105-seat arena to the brim on April 20.

Based on last year's success, the Victoire will be looking to maintain that standard of excellence during this brand-new season where there will be no shortage of novelty for fans to revel in.

Take the team's name, logo, and jerseys as an example. Last year, all PWHL teams went nameless but this year, each club is coming into the campaign with a fully-formed identity. "PWHL Montreal” is now “Montreal Victoire” and their burgundy, navy blue and cream jerseys are already a big hit among fans, like Alex Newhook.

“I like it a lot! I think they have the nicest jerseys in the League. They did a good job with it. I like the Victoire logo, I think the colors are nice,” said the Canadiens forward.

“I think they’re easy jerseys for people to buy,” he added.

Newhook has been a big supporter of the women’s game. He attended a handful of contests last season and his sister, Abby, is co-captain of the NCAA’s Boston College Eagles and will be eligible for the upcoming PWHL Draft.

“It’s been fun watching it grow,” he said of the mounting interest in women’s hockey. “My sister played guys hockey growing up and she’s only two years younger than me. I got to witness her path pretty closely, and it’s been fun to watch. There wasn’t really a clear-cut path as to where the end goal was aside from the Olympics, so now that there’s a pro league, I think it’s great. I think more women, at a younger age, are going to have something to look towards and set their goals towards.”

Expect Newhook to be among those heading to Place Bell this season to cheer on captain Marie-Philip Poulin and her teammates on their quest to make up for an early first-round exit in 2023-24 and win the franchise’s first-ever Walter Cup. While not an entirely novel experience as Montreal played six games in the Laval venue last season – including the longest playoff game in League history following a triple-overtime thriller that resulted in a Boston win (sigh) – the Club announced in September that they will make Place Bell their primary arena for the 2024-25 season.

“We’re excited to have them back and especially to have them full-time,” said Canadiens vice president, content strategy and commercial marketing Shauna Denis. “I think you saw last year with how they were able to sell out those games that obviously, this isn’t just a Canadiens market; it’s a hockey market.”

Denis, who has worked for the Habs for over 15 years and won the 2009 Clarkson Cup with the Montreal Stars of the now-defunct Canadian Women’s Hockey League, knows firsthand what it was like when women’s hockey was not a mainstay or on most people’s radars... aside from every four years at the Olympics.

“The fact that they’re playing 13 games at Place Bell is amazing. You’re going to have these full arenas which is something that back then, you never imagined that you were packing an AHL-sized venue for that many games in a season,” she said. “Looking at the Bell Centre that sold out in minutes last year, there’s clearly an appetite. There’s a huge fan base that’s really, adamantly interested in consuming women’s sports, attending the games, following them on social media, so it’s amazing to see.”

A new season is upon us, and fans can take all the excitement and hype that’s been building up heading into season two of the PWHL and show their support for the Victoire loudly in the stands.

As Shania Twain (and forward Cole Caufield) would say: “Let’s go, girls!”

To catch the Victoire in action, click here.