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On Wednesday night, Montreal’s Professional Women’s Hockey League team is expected to draw about six times fewer spectators than last Saturday. It has nothing to do with the heartbreaking overtime loss to Toronto, and it’s not because the Montreal club is experiencing a sudden and unexpected drop in popularity. It is, quite simply, a question of capacity.
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For Cheverie and the players in attendance — Marie-Philip Poulin, Laura Stacey, Kristin O’Neill and Erin Ambrose enjoyed a day off — it was a return to some sort of normalcy, in no way demotivating after all the excitement on Saturday.
“The three rinks are so special,” Cheverie said, including Place Bell, where Montreal has played four of its games this season.
“People and other teams come here to Verdun and can’t believe how loud this arena is. For its size, it exudes power. I’m excited to be back here. It’s pretty, it’s welcoming, it’s quaint, it’s a cool place.”
The Verdun Auditorium, as defender Catherine Daoust called it, is the “home” of the Montreal team. It’s where they hold their practices and where six of the team’s 12 home games will have been played during the regular season.
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“We really feel like we’re being embraced by the fans, Daoust said.”
While waiting to play in front of another full house of about 3,200 spectators in what will be the team’s last home game of the regular season, Daoust and goaltender Ann-Renée Desbiens didn’t hesitate to look back on Saturday. It was a day that the two players and Cheverie took turns describing as unforgettable.
“To be able, for a Quebecer, to fill the Bell Centre, to receive a standing ovation like the one I got, like ‘Pou’ (Poulin) had, like the players had, the whole team together, it’s really special,” Desbiens said.
“You dream of those moments when you’re young. To put on the Canadiens jersey, to play at the Bell Centre, a seventh game, something like that. But now that we’re able to do it with our own girls’ league, it’s really special. And for the little girls to be able to see that it’s possible for us to chant their names at the Bell Centre, that it’s possible to have so many people supporting them, it’s really a magical moment for women’s hockey,” the goalie added.
For her part, Daoust knew she was in for an emotional day.
“When we played Scotiabank Arena (home of the Toronto Maple Leafs on Feb. 16), we got a little bit of a taste of what it was like to play in front of so many people. The Bell Centre is at another level. And how they did that, the whole atmosphere, with the lights, the crowd that was incredible. I think it exceeded my expectations.”
“It’s not a game you can forget easily,” Cheverie said. “It was pretty nice and certainly very emotional. If we can have more games like that, it will be fantastic.”
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