This week on The IX Sports Podcast, host Maya Smith is joined by the Ice Garden’s NCAA beat reporter Emma Sullivan to talk about college hockey.
But first, before Sullivan joined the show, Smith took a few minutes to introduce listeners to the new Vancouver Goldeneyes jerseys that were released this week.
The new jerseys for the Seattle Torrent are expected to release in the next few weeks prior to the start of the PWHL season.
Then, Sullivan joined the show to discuss NCAA hockey.
“As you know, the PWHL draft last spring had arguably one of the deepest talent pools that we’ve seen from the NCAA so far in the PWHL, especially with that top five that included Caroline Harvey, the reigning Olympic MVP, Laila Edwards, Tessa Janecke, Abbey Murphy — all players that have gone viral on the internet at some point or another and have played with the senior national team for the U.S. for a long time now,” Sullivan said. “And so what we’re seeing a lot this year is that changing of the guard for a lot of these teams.”
For example, Sullivan said that the Penn State Nittany Lions now look “beatable” in a way they have not since before Janecke was on the team. The University of Connecticut has struggled without Tia Chan, who Sullivan called “the linchpin of every success that they have had in the last five years.”
Smith said that there have been similar shake-ups during PWHL expansion, when big names get shuffled around and teams have to come up with new lines.
“There were a few players in the PWHL who were like fourth or third line players, not getting a lot of ice time — they go and they take a bigger role in an expansion team, and they are way better than anybody thought they were going to be,” Smith said.
Tune in to the episode to hear more about college hockey, a little bit about national team rosters, and some information about rule changes that will impact the PWHL.
Make sure to subscribe to The IX Sports Podcast for in-depth coverage of women’s soccer, hockey and basketball; and tune in each weekday morning for a quick overview of the biggest headlines on Women’s Sports Daily, like WNBA news and PWHL expansion updates.
