5 Dubs for The P-Dub. Breaking Down Minnesota’s PWHL Home Opener.
Like the other 13,315 record breaking hockey fans in attendance, I decided to go check out the PWHL home opener at the Xcel Energy Center on Saturday afternoon. It was a really good time, an afternoon filled with Wins (Dubs) for the PWHL (P Dub). Most notably, 5 big wins that all hockey fans should appreciate:
Dub #1: Getting the Hockey Right
The league has taken a bit of flack for not giving the PWHL’s original six franchises team nicknames, instead just referring to them as MINNESOTA or BOSTON or MONTREAL, etc. When combined with minimalist jerseys, it appeared to some people (and the Internet) that the PWHL had forgotten to invite the marketing person to their first dance.
Listening to L.A. Dodgers CEO and PWHL consultant, Stan Kasten, on KFAN last week, he addressed this head on, saying with a six-month sprint to opening day (whereas most new leagues have two years), the PWHL focused on only what was essential namely getting the hockey right.
Getting the hockey right is no easy task in the State of Hockey. Most of the hardcore hockey fans I told that I attended the PWHL home opener, asked me quietly almost covering their mouth like a NFL coach on the sideline with his clipboard, “how was the hockey . . .was it okay?”
The answer is a triumphant “yes!” The PWHL hockey product is excellent. Of course, it will be different at first because many hockey fans are most familiar with the women’s game from the Rivalry Series or the Olympics. Keep in mind that the Olympics, are the 25 best players in the world, and the PWHL in year one has a player pool of six teams with twenty-five players each.
Is the PWHL hockey product watered down if you’re used to watching the Olympians? No, it’s really not. There were certainly some nerves in the building on Saturday, this is what happens when the State of Hockey decides to send 13K+ full throated fans to support you. But really the only place you noticed the nerves was occasionally the defense failing to hold the zone a few times playing more conservative, a soft goal to start, and Minnesota’s top line with Taylor Heise and Kendall Coyne Schofield gripping their sticks a little tight likely wanting to be the heroes.
If you haven’t watched women’s hockey in a while, prepare to be astounded. The quality of play is excellent. Maddie Rooney was solid in net for Minnesota, the puck movement was fluid, and the speed superb. Hockey fans will also love that there seems to be a league mandate to “let them play” when it comes to physicality. Expect #CheckLikeAGirl to be trending in the near future, as the PWHL game is surprising physical.
The PWHL do appear to have made some smart moves when it comes to getting the hockey right. Yes, there was a draft. But it’s likely no coincidence that Montreal’s entire roster is filled with French Canadian names including Marie-Philip Poulin. Hillary Knight is in Boston, Taylor Heise in Minnesota . . .perhaps marketing was more involved than we think!
And with the consistent presence of a top tier professional league, the on-ice hockey product will only continue to evolve. Just like the 20–25-year-old young guns changing the NHL, this next generation of female players will change the PWHL. It won’t be long before you’re seeing lacrosse goals in the P Dub, clap bombs from the point, and ten bell saves from goaltenders on Sports Center. Heck, we might even see a gloves off fight, hockey players are hockey players after all. If you haven’t watched women’s hockey since Krissy Wendell was embarrassing people at the Coliseum, prepare to be astounded for what these ladies can do today.
So, yes, hockey dads. You can take the clip board away from your mouth and stop whispering. The hockey is really, really good.
Dub #2—Boas in the Building
The atmosphere on Saturday was also a big win. I’d say it was more “inclusive,” but that sounds political. For whatever reason the PWHL environment felt fun and inviting almost like a Taylor Swift or Harry Styles show. It was a hockey game where you’d feel totally comfortable wearing a feather boa (and people did).
Maybe women (especially youth hockey teams) are better rule followers than men, but every single time the jumbotron said “Make Noise,” the X erupted on cue. There is a ton of potential to continue to design a unique in-arena PWHL experience. The game-ops person had to be licking their chops watching such an excited and willing participant of an audience.
Sure, it was opening day, but there’s something special happening here with the PWHL atmosphere. It’s a more festive crowd, it feels more like an event. Maybe it was just leftovers from New Year’s Eve, but it felt to me like with the right marketing you could take what the PWHL has bottled and mix in a little Saint Paul Saints marketing magic, some Harry and T Swift unconditional love, and make these games glittery, and joyous, in a way that even Minnesota hockey fans (who attend far too many hockey games already) would appreciate and notice the difference. Long way of saying, there’s some there . . .there. And the league would be smart to find ways to encourage the feather boa of it all, whatever that looks like going forward.
Dub #3—Stars of Tomorrow
You would have had to be dead inside not to get the chills at least a few times on Saturday watching the many girl’s youth teams in attendance jumping up and down in the stands and on the jumbotron. The building was filled-to-the-gills with female youth hockey players from all over the State and beyond (e.g. Denver).
These female youth players and teams will be a renewable resource for the PWHL going forward, and they’ll be wise to figure out how best to make them a founding partner of the league. Perhaps suites at the X are donated to youth hockey teams, regardless, the PWHL should make sure all PWHL games have just as strong a youth hockey representation as they did Saturday afternoon at the opener. Simply put, the PWHL should do everything in its power to make it easy for youth hockey teams to be in the building for every PWHL game.
Dub #4—It Helps to Have a Gangster
Grace Zumwinkle is far too humble to appreciate what she did on Saturday. I wasn’t the only one in attendance staring at the record-breaking crowd, who got a bit nervous thinking to themselves, “Minnesota really needs to win this game.”
You only get one chance to make a first impression, and Hollywood couldn’t have written a better script than to have a Minnesota kid, and a former Gopher score a hat trick in the home opener.
Let’s not kid ourselves, there is a “one of us” factor to us Minnesotans. Seeing those hats litter the ice and having a Minnesota girl be the one to take this moment and grab it, was Disney-caliber good stuff. So much so that listening to the crowd cheer on our team without a name, “MIN—NE —SOT — A!” was the perfect rallying cry as one of our own asserted her dominance on the ice. I’ll admit there was even a moment or two where this lifelong marketing guy thought to himself, maybe they don’t need a name. . .Team Minnesota seems to have room for us all! Great players get better in big moments, and having Zummy be the one to help Minnesota earn their first home win felt like we were all redesigning the state flag together all over again. Actually, is it too late to get Zummy on the flag, or at least a postage stamp? Who can we email about this?
Dub #5—The Perfect Goal Song
One of the weird things for a lifelong Minnesota hockey fan going to their first professional women’s game at the X, the same place the Wild play, is you’re bound to compare everything to that experience. You want to know if they’re going to do “Let’s Play Hockey!” at the start of the game (No). You want to know if the mini donut stand will be open? What will the merch situation be like? You’ll ask who dropped the ceremonial first puck? None other than the Mayor of Winnesota, Lindsay Whelan, and the Lynx’s Diamond Miller. Well played.
Yes, longtime hockey fans will notice anything that’s different. “Hey, look the refs have purple stripes on their sleeves not orange!” The only meaningful rule change is that in the PWHL if a team scores shorthanded it ends the powerplay. So, there’s a juicy point of difference if you need to look smart in front of your buddies at the bar.
But the main difference that jumped out to me on Saturday afternoon was that Team Minnesota absolutely nailed their goal song with Queen’s “Don’t Stop Me Now.”
Thanks to Zumwinkle’s first-ever PWHL hat trick, most fans in attendance would know all the lyrics to this killer goal song by the time they left the X on Saturday. Choosing Queen, and specifically that song is right on so many levels, and let’s take the lyrics to heart when it comes to PWHL hockey for the foreseeable future, let’s all listen to Freddy—don’t stop them now.
“Don’t Stop Me Now,” is an amazing goal song that also gives us Minnesotans some homework. Saturday was amazing, it was special, but it also was a novelty. It was a “first,” which the world and social media loves. They key going forward is to support the PWHL on the regular. To embrace women’s hockey consistently. To attend multiple games, to watch them on Bally’s, and to talk about them at the bar. “Don’t Stop Me Now” has both swagger, and a built-in request for support. So, yes, let’s all do everything we can to help the P Dub continue to collect Dubs on the scoreboard and in the world.
As a parent of a female hockey player and former coach, the one thing I couldn’t help but think as I enjoyed this special day on Saturday, was that this should have happened a long time ago. Whether it was the Olympic delays, or waiting for NHL support, or the dueling women’s leagues–it doesn’t matter, because women’s hockey now has its shot. And based on what I experienced on Saturday, it’s going to stick.
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