Toronto’s PWHL team aims for winning culture
• Sarah Nurse will take a reminder of her first year in the PWHL into the off-season in the form of a splint on her left hand.
But there will be other reminders, plenty of them a lot more positive than a broken index finger.
Those positive memories and franchise-establishing steps that were taken were the overriding memories of a season that fell just short for PWHL Toronto. But it’s a group that refused to only see the end result as a Year 1 takeaway.
Nurse actually broke the finger in the final game of the regular season against Minnesota and then played the entire five-game series with it in a splint. Nurse said she should be fully healed in six weeks, the finger at least.
Getting over a best-of-five series loss after being up 2-0 might take a little longer.
“We had such high expectations of ourselves,” Nurse said as the team conducted its exit interviews and final media interviews. “We wanted to win a championship in the end and we weren’t afraid to say that at all.”
“I look at how hard it is in any sport to be a first place team, so I’m proud we were able to check that box off the list, but going into playoffs that was a whole different atmosphere. I don’t think many of us had played in a five-game series. I’ve done three before but never five. I don’t know how they do seven in the NHL, but it was just completely different.
“Obviously, we didn’t get the result we wanted but the results and the outcome don’t necessarily define the season and I think that is something we have stood true by and that we’ve understood and known coming from a national team perspective. Sometimes the best team doesn’t win at the end of it and that’s OK because we have a lot of things we can be proud of.”
High on that list for Nurse, Blayre Turnbull, Renata Fast and Jocelyne Larocque — all members of PWHL Toronto’s leadership team — is the foundation that has been laid for the generations of players to come.
There’s a way PWHL Toronto plays and conducts itself and this group fully expects that will be the way for years to come, even after some of them depart.
“I think that is what I am most proud of as the leader and someone who has a lot of experience playing hockey and being on a lot of different teams,” Turnbull said. “I am so proud of the foundation that we set here in Toronto. Just to think about the culture and the environment and the buy-in we got from all of our players and staff. It was just incredible to be a part of and I know moving forward, this franchise will succeed and the success will have a lot to do with everything we did this year.”
Larocque said her fondest memory of the season will probably be the closeness and togetherness the entire leadership team helped create within their locker-room.
“The amount of players that said this was the best team they have ever been a part of made me feel so proud,” Larocque said. “And I agree with them. It’s such a great team. The way everyone felt included, everyone felt they could be themselves and was proud to wear that Toronto jersey.”
The reality of the situation is though that this team will not be back together as is a year from now. The dynamics of the league, from the contract lengths to the incoming talent in the draft, mean change is a certainty.
“There will be change,” Fast said, “but I am looking forward to the group that we put together.
“Our staff did an incredible job putting first the type of player and person that they want and I know they will do the same for Year 2,” she said. “Now that we know what the season feels like and the demands it takes, I think we will be more prepared especially even for playoffs. Just knowing how playoffs work and momentum shifts and stuff like that.”
There were plenty of highs for this team ranging from selling out Scotiabank Arena for a then record crowd for women’s hockey game and then being part of the Bell Centre game that took that attendance number a step further. Those two games were easily the most often selected when players were asked their personal highlights of the year.
“Playing at the Bell Centre is an easy (choice),” said Nurse. “To break the worldwide record for attendance? That was monumental.”
Training camp is a little less than five months away, but the itch to get back is already there. Year 1 was special and significant for many reasons, but this group will not be fully satisfied until they win it all.
I AM SO PROUD OF THE FOUNDATION THAT WE SET HERE IN TORONTO. JUST TO THINK ABOUT THE CULTURE AND THE ENVIRONMENT AND THE BUY-IN WE GOT FROM ALL OF OUR PLAYERS AND STAFF.