This week on The IX Sports Podcast Hockey Edition, host Maya Smith walks listeners through a flurry of exciting PWHL updates.
Smith began by discussing the unveiling of the new PWHL jerseys, which will go on sale in the lead-up to opening weekend. Even though jerseys have been revealed, team names and logos have not.
Then Smith jumped in to discuss the newly-announced PWHL Conferences, splitting the league into an Eastern and Western Conference. Detroit, Las Vegas, San Jose, Minnesota, Seattle and Vancouver are in the Western Conference, leaving Boston, New York, Toronto, Hamilton, Ottawa and Montréal in the Eastern Conference.
“Teams will play 30 games in the season. 18 will be against inter-conference rivals, and 12 will be against non-conference teams. So I think this is a good balance because fans will still see their team play every team, and there’s a good balance in that way. But you also do get the benefit of not having to travel all the way to the East for weeks at a time, like Vancouver and Seattle had last year,” Smith explained.
The PWHL will also hold 24 Takeover Tour games this year — a number that Smith said was too high.
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The playoff format is also changing. In the past, there have been four total teams in the playoffs. Now there will be eight teams, four from each conference, going to the playoffs. The first round will be a best of three series, and then the last two rounds will be best of five.
“Interestingly, kind of buried in the news release about this, they will continue to do … whoever finishes first in the conference can choose their opponent again from within their own conference,” Smith said.
To close out the episodes, on the Future Considerations segment, Smith walked through some of the training camp roster invites that were revealed this week. Tune in to the episode to hear all about them!
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.
