Womans Hockey

[DLIGHTNING 0]

I am an equipment manager in the NWHL , Pro womans hockey in Canada , I practice twice a week with these ladies and I have the most respect for their abilities and detication to the game.

The leauge consists of Olympic Players and college players comming off scholarships.

www.nwhl.com

[Netminder32 32]

Kewl job...

Different game...

I've played a little women's hockey myself. :D Being as my wife plays, I've had the opportunity to play with some of the ladies on occassion and coached her team for a couple seasons.

The Lady Devils

Definitely not the same level your ladies are at BTW...

Fortunately my wife moved on to a different league this season (little higher level of play) so all I have to do now is watch.

Which NWHL team are you with DLIGHTNING?

[DLIGHTNING 0]

Yep , the 1st place :-) Durham Lightning

Check out www.nwhl.com

[Chadd 916]

Yep , the 1st place :-) Durham Lightning

Check out www.nwhl.com

That link doesn't go anywhere for me, try.ca instead of .com

[Miike 1]

I think its www.nwhlhockey.com

[Chadd 916]

I think its www.nwhlhockey.com

same site as www.nwhl.ca

[DLIGHTNING 0]

Thanks for the correction.

[Quintin 16]

It's really entertaining. I watched the 2005 IIHF Women's International Championship. Shame the crowd capacity sucks/ed.

[Edge 0]

My mom used to play in a women's league. Seems just like men's league but they have more fun. There are some VERY good women out there.

[MissConduct 1]

I like playing with the men better, like my hubby stated above I've tried one league and am onto my 2nd women's league.. but I'd prefer to play pickup with the men the rest of my career.. lol

[mack 44]

I'm sorry, I think it's all a huge oxymoron.

[ponty 0]

Womens hockey? All I know when I play against them is they always go after me on the boards :)

Must be the height or lack-there-of ... but who the heck am I to try to stop them :)

[JCYC5 0]

I play in a MIXED GENDER team (Although we are called "Women's Ice Hockey Organisation" or WIHO)...

SOme of the ladies are far more rough and pushy than me! Many of our opponent have had their ass handed to them by our girls :P

[beaucoup_fish 0]

I wish they would allow body contact at the higher levels. I'd love to see some butch level a more dainty female player.

[delpiero81 0]

Seen some games of national womens team on tv last year.

Bad thing for my ego... :lol:

They were shooting, skating, etc. way harder than me...

Ok they are professionals, but anyway i was really surprised, very entertaining hockey!

Sadly in my area no women teams for comparison... but it may be a good thing for my ego! :lol:

[DLIGHTNING 0]

They have a passion for the game that some guys don't have.

And the goalies , don't even go there , I pracitce with them twice a week

[Deathmoves 0]

I have only ever been to one Female Hockey game. Cardiff Vs Sheffield, It was alright. It wasnt the gr8est game of hockey i have ever seen but by far it wasnt the worst. Both teams wanted the win! U could tell, the crowd was going nuts.

[Crazy Otto 0]

I'm a hockey dad - my 17-year-old daughter is a HS senior who plays boys HS varsity and girls travel, and is going to Boston College next year (MSH regulars might remember my earlier posts).

A couple of thoughts: a lot of girls playing hockey (at least in the U.S.) have to go through a lot and make sacrifices in order to play at a high level. My kid drives 250 miles (round trip) to practice twice a week with her girls team. And there is another girl on the team who has to travel even farther. I wonder how many boys would do that. The college games never draw the kind of crowds that the men's college hockey teams get. And for many, their options to play after college are pretty limited. There are women's senior leagues out there but other than that they can only play competitively in men's leagues.

Their games are intensely competitive but differ from the boys game in part because of the rules differences and also physical differences. There is much more emphasis on passing and skating. One thing I notice is that only a few of the girls possess the wicked slapper that can overpower a goalie. If there is no traffic in front of the net on a shot from the point, the advantage usually goes to the goalie. Most of the goals are scored in close or on tips and rebounds.

[thejackal 46]

None of the girls I've played against have that good a shot. A girl on my team last years plays 18U (or something like that) for Team Quebec. She had a pretty good slapper but coudn't get it away fast enough when she played HS games with us.

[NuggyBuggy 0]

There is much more emphasis on passing and skating.

There may be relatively more emphasis on passing and skating, but obviously the level of passing and skating in women's hockey is far lower than it is in the equivalent level of men's hockey. Just watch the men and women's games at the national level. Some Canadian national team games, the level of passing was so errant I was embarassed to be watching on TV. Forget slappers, it seems like the women have trouble raising the puck on wristers. The skill level disparity is so great that I cannot bear to watch it.

Having said that my brother has played pond hockey with Hayley Wickenheiser and some girls from the national team, along with a guy who played OHL (Oshawa Generals), and apparently Wickenheiser was clearly the best player on the ice. Mind you, this was non-contact/no-equipment shinny, the OHL is not even close to national level, this guy was probably depth on the Generals, and she is one of the best women in the world, but I was still surprised to find out she could be competitive.

[DLIGHTNING 0]

I like playing with the men better, like my hubby stated above I've tried one league and am onto my 2nd women's league.. but I'd prefer to play pickup with the men the rest of my career.. lol

Miss, what level were you playing at ? You should try a higher level possibly.

[DLIGHTNING 0]

There is much more emphasis on passing and skating.

There may be relatively more emphasis on passing and skating, but obviously the level of passing and skating in women's hockey is far lower than it is in the equivalent level of men's hockey. Just watch the men and women's games at the national level. Some Canadian national team games, the level of passing was so errant I was embarassed to be watching on TV. Forget slappers, it seems like the women have trouble raising the puck on wristers. The skill level disparity is so great that I cannot bear to watch it.

Having said that my brother has played pond hockey with Hayley Wickenheiser and some girls from the national team, along with a guy who played OHL (Oshawa Generals), and apparently Wickenheiser was clearly the best player on the ice. Mind you, this was non-contact/no-equipment shinny, the OHL is not even close to national level, this guy was probably depth on the Generals, and she is one of the best women in the world, but I was still surprised to find out she could be competitive.

This may be the case , but they play a different game than the Men do. The games have a fair bit of rough stuff to say the least.

The league is fairly small so we have ladies from all over North America and now 2 from China. Most of these ladies have degrees from major US schools yet choose to work part time and play hockey. One of my close freinds plays for Toronto, she works in Boston and has a degree from Harvard.

They don't get paid anything for playing and sponsorship is very hard to get !

[Crazy Otto 0]

There is much more emphasis on passing and skating.

There may be relatively more emphasis on passing and skating, but obviously the level of passing and skating in women's hockey is far lower than it is in the equivalent level of men's hockey. Just watch the men and women's games at the national level. Some Canadian national team games, the level of passing was so errant I was embarassed to be watching on TV. Forget slappers, it seems like the women have trouble raising the puck on wristers. The skill level disparity is so great that I cannot bear to watch it.

Having said that my brother has played pond hockey with Hayley Wickenheiser and some girls from the national team, along with a guy who played OHL (Oshawa Generals), and apparently Wickenheiser was clearly the best player on the ice. Mind you, this was non-contact/no-equipment shinny, the OHL is not even close to national level, this guy was probably depth on the Generals, and she is one of the best women in the world, but I was still surprised to find out she could be competitive.

Don't know what levels of hockey you're used to watching. My daughter's U19 girls travel team routinely beats boys HS teams in non-checking scrimmages. They pass and skate much better. There is a lot more teamwork and the boys teams have trouble keeping up.

As I said, most of the girls don't have the big slapper, but they've used the radar machine to measure 'em and a few of them do get it into the 75 mph range. Not overpowering, but effective. As for wristers, they're all pretty good. I suspect that the comparison between the Canadian men's and women's is pretty stark just because at the elite level, the men are sooo good.

[hip check 0]

I've practiced and scrimmaged with the UWO girls team twice. They work hard in practice and games, play a better positional game and pass more than guys. They follow direction and the game-plan better than guys do as well. Maybe more team oriented?

Different style or type of play than guys, but good to watch. I think the overall physical size/strength issue comes into play as well. What would the shots be like if women used a 6-7oz. puck instead? (to more closely match there 'relative' strength?)

[Smith 0]

I got to watch the US Woman's team pratice and thought they where really good, untill I read this Click