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NBCSN to air NWHL games for the first time

The NWHL revealed in November that it would squeeze its entire 2021 season into a two-week tournament at Herb Brooks Arena in Lake Placid, NY. Now the women’s hockey league is receiving major backing from an NHL TV broadcast partner for the first time.

NBCSN announced on Tuesday that it will cover the 2021 Isobel Cup Semifinals and Final – three games total — and will air them live on Thursday, February 4 (5:30 PM, 8 PM) and Friday, February 5 (7 PM).

According to an NBCSN release, “The agreement between NBC Sports and the NWHL is a historic chapter for women’s professional hockey in the United States, marking the first-ever women’s professional hockey games to be shown live on a major national cable network in the United States.”

Most notably, the games will be aired on primetime during weekend nights of the NHL’s 2020-21 regular season.

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By Ian Oland 2 years ago

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PWHPA announce Unifor and Budweiser as sponsors of Toronto Dream Gap Tour

Last week, the PWHPA announced they will kick off The Dream Gap Tour, a series of tournament-style showcases across Canada and the United States.

The showcases are gaining momentum, as Unifor, the largest private-sector trade union in Canada was announced as the title sponsor for the Toronto leg of the showcase. Budweiser was also named the official beer of the PWHPA, the association announced in a press release.

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By Julia Karron 3 years ago

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NWHL signs three-year exclusive live-streaming deal with Twitch

Access to watch National Women’s Hockey League games just got a lot easier! On Thursday, Ian Thomas of Front Office Sports announced that the NWHL had signed a three-year exclusive live-streaming partnership with Twitch.

That deal will provide all of the NWHL’s games and programming for free globally on any device that can access the platform. The deal also marks the NWHL’s first-ever broadcast arrangement from which they will receive a rights fee.

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By Donya Abramo 3 years ago

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PWHPA announces Dream Gap Tour for upcoming season

Back in May, more than 200 of the world’s best female hockey players announced that they would not play in an American hockey league during the upcoming season. The holdout is due to the CWHL shuttering and players’ dissatisfaction with the NWHL’s business model.

Those players, under the Professional Women’s Hockey Players’ Association, have now announced a slate of tournaments and games they will play in the upcoming season. Dubbed The Dream Gap Tour, the showcases will take place in Toronto from September 20-22; Hudson, New Hampshire, from October 4–6; and Chicago, Illinois, from October 18–20.

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By Julia Karron 3 years ago

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Over 200 plus women’s hockey players are boycotting the upcoming season

With the CWHL shuttered on May 1, the NWHL is the only professional women’s hockey league left in North America.

Dissatisfied with the current state of professional hockey, over 200 professional women’s hockey players are boycotting the upcoming season until there is one unified, economically viable league that provides adequate resources to its players.

The joint statement was made on Twitter and included stars Hilary Knight, Marie-Philip Poulin, Natalie Spooner, Kendall Coyne Schofield, and Maryland’s own Haley Skarupa.

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By Julia Karron 4 years ago

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The NWHL will expand to Montreal and Toronto after CWHL folds

Sunday morning, the CWHL announced they would cease operations effective May 1, 2019. But it appears that there will be a future for pro women’s hockey in Canada.

The NWHL will expand to Toronto and Montreal starting next season, according the NWHL Commissioner Dani Rylan.

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By Julia Karron 4 years ago

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Whatever the next stage is for women’s professional hockey, I’ll be watching

During the Winter Olympics in 2018, I stayed up way past my bed time to watch the US Women’s National Hockey Team beat Canada in a shootout for their first gold medal since 1998. That game garnered 3.0 million views on NBC Sports Network and 3.7 million across all platforms. The NBCSN-only audience exceeds all but five of the network’s total NHL telecasts according to Sports Media Watch.

There is always an appetite for more hockey, and particularly women’s hockey. This year’s Clarkson Cup had 175,000 viewers, and the NWHL’s All-Star Game and Skills Competition had a combined 945,000 viewers. But early on Sunday morning, the CWHL announced they were folding after 12 seasons.

The news came as a shock to players and reporters alike, leaving the NWHL as the only paying professional women’s league in America, and forcing the hockey community to ask itself what the future of women’s hockey looks like.

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By Julia Karron 4 years ago

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Capitals players support women’s hockey: ‘It’s something that is on the rise’

Women’s hockey has been in a brighter spotlight in recent weeks with the inclusion of professional women’s players in the NHL’s All-Star weekend in San Jose, CA and the NWHL’s All-Star weekend in Nashville, TN. But women’s hockey has been thriving and growing in the USA at an impressive rate for a long time.

USA Hockey’s public registration numbers show a nearly five percent increase in women’s hockey in 2017-18, compared to only one percent increase in men’s. Men’s hockey still has larger numbers overall, but the difference in the rate of growth reflects a change in the broader nature of hockey in the USA.

We spoke with some Washington Capitals players about the importance of women’s hockey during the team’s “Hockey ‘n Heels” event.

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By Cara Bahniuk and Brennin Weiswerda 4 years ago

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#PayDecker: CCM gives Brianna Decker $25k prize money after registering fastest time on Passing Challenge

Friday night in San Jose, Kendall Coyne Schofield became the first woman to officially compete in an NHL All-Star Skills Competition, finishing one second behind the eventual winner, Connor McDavid, in the Fastest Skater.

One of the other female Olympians turned in an even better performance. Brianna Decker’s time during the demonstration of the Puck Control skills was a full second faster than the eventual winner Leon Draisaitl.

Draisaitl won $25,000 despite having registered the second-best time. Fans on Twitter took issue with that and started a hashtag insisting that the NHL #PayDecker.

The NHL has not responded but CCM Hockey stepped up by giving Decker the same prize money as Draisaitl received. The hockey equipment brand has done a lot to support and promote women’s hockey, including support for the recent partnership between the Boston Pride and the Boston Bruins.

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By Brennin Weiswerda 4 years ago

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Boston Bruins partner with NWHL’s Boston Pride to grow women’s hockey

Since the National Women’s Hockey League’s founding in 2015, three teams have partnered with their closest NHL franchises. Those partnerships include the Metropolitan Riveters with the New Jersey Devils, the Minnesota Whitecaps with the Minnesota Wild, and the Buffalo Beauts with the Buffalo Sabres.

Thursday morning, the Boston Pride became the fourth, teaming up with the Boston Bruins. The Bruins will assist the Pride financially and help grow women’s hockey in Massachusetts.

The Pride, whose roster includes Maryland native and Olympic gold medalist Haley Skarupa, will be at TD Garden tonight to support the Bruins and celebrate the new partnership.

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By Julia Karron 4 years ago

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