PWHL Toronto's need to get better is much more than just talk
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Name another team that goes into an opposing arena, comes away with a 6-2 win that seals home-ice advantage for the first round and moves them back into first place overall and comes out of it talking about how they can get better.
In a nutshell, that is a very big reason Toronto PWHL is where they are today.
Granted, Sunday’s domination came over a New York team that had already been mathematically eliminated from playoff contention. But a New York win would have guaranteed this struggling franchise the first-overall pick in June’s draft and a franchise-altering talent in Georgetown native Sarah Fillier.
New York still had plenty more than just pride to play for.
But Toronto was having none of it. They know what they’ll be facing come playoff time and what it’s going to take to finish off this dream season as the first-ever PWHL champions.
And to hear both head coach Troy Ryan and red-hot sniper Sarah Nurse tell it afterward, Sunday’s performance, while good enough in a regular-season scenario, won’t cut it come playoff time.
The team, from Ryan on down, sets a very high bar for itself, knowing what it’s going to take once the playoffs start.
One way or the other, Toronto is going to have to win a pair of five-game series against two of Ottawa, Minnesota and Montreal, assuming Boston doesn’t pull off the incredible and push one of those three out of contention.
Ottawa has owned Toronto this year, winning three of the four meetings to date, the lone team in the PWHL to have a head-to-head advantage against Toronto. That record speaks for itself.
Toronto plays Minnesota just four times with the fourth and final regular-season matchup coming Wednesday at Mattamy Athletic Centre. To date, Toronto has won two of the three meetings between the two clubs, but Minnesota is built similarly to Toronto, with a few high-end scorers in Kendall Coyne Schofield, Taylor Heise and Grace Zumwinkle, some tough veteran leadership in Kelly Pannek and Lee Stecklein, who anchors their D corps along with Toronto native Sophie Jaques.
Throw in the goaltending excellence from either Nicole Hensley or Maddie Rooney and you have a near-mirror image of Toronto’s strengths.
Then there’s Montreal.
Based strictly on results, Toronto has handled Montreal better than any team in the PWHL, winning all five contests with them, one in a shootout early in the season in Verdun.
But the overall sense being around this Toronto team for most of the year is Montreal is the opponent that scares Toronto the most.
It’s for good reason, too.
From GM Gina Kingsbury to head coach Ryan and throughout the lineup dotted with Canadian national women’s team players, this group has seen the capabilities in big games by the likes of Montreal goalkeeper Ann-Renee Desbiens and Captain Clutch Marie-Philip Poulin.
They also are well-acquainted with talents like Kristin O’Neill, and Laura Stacey and Erin Ambrose, all of whom were part of Canada’s recent win at the IIHF Women’s World Hockey Championships.
The Toronto braintrust and the bulk of its roster have seen Desbiens just refuse to be beaten in big games, so they know that’s waiting for them and they’ve all experienced how Poulin can almost single-handedly decided a game on her own. She’s just that kind of once-in-a-lifetime talent.
So, regardless of who they face in the playoffs, there is danger lurking in every opponent. Therefore, that need to get to another level — it’s at the root of the lack of satisfaction with a win as dominant as Sunday’s 6-2 victory.
“Goal-wise it was nice to score, what did we have, six?” Ryan asked after the game. “But there were parts of the game that I liked and parts of the game we can be much better at. At this point in the year, I don’t believe that is a performance that will give us success in the playoffs. But, at this point right now, for the game that it was, we will take the results.”
And if want to chalk that up to just coach-speak, consider what his leading goal scorer on the night, Sarah Nurse, had to say about the game.
“I think there were things we want to clean up,” Nurse said after her three-goal night bumped her season-total to 10. “We are gearing up for playoffs right now so I think our mindset and our mentality have to emulate that. Going into a playoff series, I don’t think the way we played today will set us up for the most success.”
Many teams have talked this kind of talk in the past, particularly heading into playoffs. PWHL Toronto has consistently been following it since Day 1.
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