Latest / Raising the Game: Covering WNBA, NWSL, PWHL & More / Episode 21 | Caitlin Clark's Back Is a Red Flag, Montreal Wins the Walter Cup, Utah Stays Unbeaten

Transcript

Episode 21 | Caitlin Clark's Back Is a Red Flag, Montreal Wins the Walter Cup, Utah Stays Unbeaten · Raising the Game: Covering WNBA, NWSL, PWHL & More

• 0:00
  One of the commentators said that Natasha Howard was looking
• 0:05
  really good, that she really learned to play fast because she
• 0:07
  played alongside Caitlin Clark for the last couple.
• 0:11
  Years. No.
• 0:13
  Caitlin Clark did. Not teach.
• 0:14
  Natasha Howard. How to play?
• 0:24
  Hi, I'm Caitlin. Hi, I'm Alex.
• 0:26
  And this is Raising the Game, a women's sports podcast covering
• 0:29
  prime time performances, the business behind the athletes and
• 0:33
  leagues, and what the growth of women's sports means for the
• 0:36
  next generation of women's athletes.
• 0:38
  We're back. We are back.
• 0:41
  We've got kind of a a similar thing we've had the last few
• 0:44
  weeks here. Yeah, updates across all.
• 0:46
  Yeah, PWH leagues and WSL and WNBA today.
• 0:51
  Yeah, yeah, it's it's been a warm 1 today.
• 0:55
  We were out all day. If you can't tell if you're
• 0:58
  watching the video, we are. If we're a little glitchy, it's
• 1:01
  because we spent, I don't know, 24 total hours.
• 1:07
  Over the weekend Moving Dirt 6000.
• 1:09
  Pounds of sod. Something like that.
• 1:11
  We're going to try and hold it together today.
• 1:13
  We'll do our best. Before we get into headlines,
• 1:22
  what are your favorite things? Yeah, let's do it.
• 1:24
  All right. And I said things.
• 1:26
  I just realized it's supposed to be things.
• 1:28
  Yeah. It's true.
• 1:29
  It's always things. It's always things.
• 1:32
  I was struggling a little bit with this, to be honest, because
• 1:36
  again, we kind of were focused on a lot of other things this
• 1:40
  weekend. I was super excited to see Mal
• 1:44
  Swanson score. Yep, another one.
• 1:46
  Goal coming back from parental leave after having her daughter
• 1:51
  Josie last fall. So that's her, it's her second
• 1:55
  game back. We'll talk about it a little bit
• 1:57
  later, but really exciting to see.
• 2:00
  I, I'm like, I'm like cautiously optimistic about the links.
• 2:07
  OK, Yeah. We were.
• 2:10
  Yeah, we. Were talking about that earlier.
• 2:13
  Things seem to be gelling, right?
• 2:16
  Cheryl's cooking. Yeah, in the kitchen.
• 2:19
  She's making it work. Yeah, we got a lot of stuff
• 2:20
  working right there. Yeah.
• 2:21
  And I think kind of going back to what I said, I don't know how
• 2:26
  many episodes ago I said first five to 10 games, we'll kind of
• 2:29
  see where we where we are. And I think we're in a good spot
• 2:32
  right now. Yeah.
• 2:33
  And we're, I mean, just for every team thinking about that
• 2:37
  timeline that Alex laid out, we're about six games.
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  Into the season. Roughly, some teams have played
• 2:44
  more or a little bit less than that, but we're coming up on
• 2:48
  that window and Commissioners Cup.
• 2:51
  Starts in June. 1st, June 1st, yeah.
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  So that's coming up here. We'll talk a we can outline a
• 2:55
  little bit about that in our WNBA segment.
• 2:58
  I think my favorite thing is I have to steal what you said
• 3:01
  tonight at dinner for your favorite thing.
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  And that was being able to just be outside all weekend working
• 3:08
  on the yard while the girls got to just hang out next to the
• 3:12
  pool. It's an inflatable pool.
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  We don't have an actual pool. Just let's set that standard,
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  just hanging out by the pool laughing and giggling and and
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  having a good time. So I thought it was a good
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  weekend. Excuse me, You might get a lot
• 3:25
  of that. Yeah.
• 3:27
  Yeah, it was that was it was really special.
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  We had perfect weather here in, in in Minnesota.
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  So nice to get a lot of work done.
• 3:36
  Yeah, ton of work. All right.
• 3:38
  Should we dig into this? Let's do it.
• 3:40
  Let's hit the headlines. Montreal Victoire win the Walter
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  Cup with an emphatic 4 nil victory in game four, becoming
• 3:47
  the first Canadian team to win the championship.
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  We will talk all about this, all about it in our PWHL segment.
• 3:55
  All four PWHL expansion teams name their GMs coaching
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  vacancies still to be filled. We'll also talk a little bit
• 4:02
  about. This a lot of it to talk about,
• 4:03
  Yeah. Atlanta Dream move to the top of
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  the WNBA standings, followed closely by the Indiana Fever,
• 4:10
  Las Vegas Aces and Minnesota Lynx.
• 4:14
  The WNBA and WNBPA officially signed the extended version of
• 4:18
  the new collective bargaining agreement set to be in effect
• 4:21
  for seven seasons through the 2032 season.
• 4:24
  To be clear, the like extended version is not new terms or
• 4:28
  anything like that. It's just the fully fleshed out
• 4:31
  version of what they agreed upon back in March.
• 4:33
  So it's there's nothing new. I do want to remind our
• 4:37
  listeners though that there is that this goes for seven
• 4:40
  seasons. There is a mutual opt out clause
• 4:42
  after six, which is what they let the players association
• 4:48
  leveraged to negotiate this. Last time I always thought it
• 4:52
  was weird that they can just start playing without it being
• 4:55
  like fully signed like. Yeah, yeah.
• 4:57
  Kind of weird, but. I think, I mean they agreed to
• 5:00
  the terms, right? In the NWSL, Utah Royals sit
• 5:04
  atop the table as we wrap match Week 9.
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  Extend their unbeaten streak to 9 games.
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  I, I like don't understand how no one can score on them.
• 5:18
  No one can score on them. This also comes at the hands of
• 5:23
  losses by both Portland and San Diego over the weekend or over
• 5:29
  the course of the week. So I think, Oh no, over the
• 5:31
  weekend. So I think that picture would
• 5:34
  have looked a little different on the table, but we'll talk a
• 5:36
  little bit about them in our NWSL segment.
• 5:40
  Mal Swanson is back, baby. New mom scores in her and only
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  her second game back from leave delivers Chicago a much needed
• 5:47
  victory over Bay FC. They are no longer the last
• 5:51
  place. Team, they're going to start
• 5:53
  maybe making their way back up. The ladder here you said, I
• 5:56
  think you said it last week. You were like, maybe she can
• 5:59
  turn it around for them, But we were also like, but that's they
• 6:02
  need more help than just that. Yeah, they do.
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  Who knows, maybe maybe she's the the missing piece.
• 6:08
  Washington Spirit and Gotham FC played in the CONCACAF W
• 6:13
  Championship over the weekend, with both WNWSL clubs falling to
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  Liga MX Feminine sides. There were a lot of
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  abbreviations, leagues, everything in that one.
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  Yeah, so there's a there's a tournament between the club
• 6:30
  teams from the Mexico and the United States.
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  I'm not sure if there's other nations involved like a Costa
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  Rica or anything like that, but they play each other in these
• 6:45
  tournaments. And I kept looking at NWSL
• 6:48
  schedule being like, where's Washington?
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  Where's Gotham? Well it turns out they were
• 6:52
  playing these tournament games. So in the midweek Washington won
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  a game against Pachuca and Gotham lost to Clube America.
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  And so then that set up a first place game on on this past
• 7:07
  Saturday I think between Washington and Clube America.
• 7:11
  3rd place game between Gotham and Pachuca.
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  So Gotham lost to Clue America then lost to Pachuca.
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  And frankly, I was thinking about this like Gotham is I'll,
• 7:23
  I'll talk about it a little bit later, but like they're kind of
• 7:25
  giving a little bit of like what happened to them last.
• 7:28
  Season which? I'll elaborate on and then
• 7:30
  Washington lost in this like thrilling 53 back and forth tilt
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  with Clueba manica. This is also crazy.
• 7:41
  They Kluba Medica just won a week ago the Liga Mix Feminio
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  championship, like the league championship and then they
• 7:52
  turned around and did this and won the CONCACAF championship.
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  So they are in. Yeah, they're, they're in a good
• 7:57
  spot there and. We're actually going to hear
• 7:58
  about how much people like to watch them in just a second.
• 8:01
  Barcelona wins UEFA Champions League final four nil over
• 8:04
  Olympic Leonis in front of a sellout crowd of 28,000 in Oslo,
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  Sweden. Yeah, this was farewell tour
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  game, I guess, for Lindsay Heaps, for Oleonese.
• 8:19
  She's set to return to the States, the NWSL play for her
• 8:23
  home team in Denver, But not the way I think she, yeah, wanted to
• 8:28
  go out. Probably not the way that
• 8:30
  anybody on Leonese wanted to go out, but Barsa show once again
• 8:35
  that they are tops in the world. There was a really good video of
• 8:38
  Kelly O'Hara going over to Lindsay at that after the end of
• 8:42
  that game and like, giving her a hug and got a little emotional
• 8:46
  there. Yeah.
• 8:48
  Tough week for the No one watches women's sports crowd
• 8:50
  with these numbers coming in. In the Frauen Bundesliga, Union
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  Berlin, which that might sound familiar to you because we've
• 8:59
  talked about the men's side of Union Berlin and Marie Luis ETA
• 9:03
  coaching them to some victories at the end of the season, but
• 9:08
  their women's side breaks the single season attendance record
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  for the league. So we talk a lot here on the pod
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  about the growth of the global game or the growth of games in
• 9:20
  women's sports globally, I should say.
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  Soccer's already very global, don't get me wrong.
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  And so it's cool to see in these leagues elsewhere that there
• 9:29
  might be some of these trends that we're seeing here in the
• 9:32
  United States. Another International League for
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  us like I just mentioned for Kluba Medica, so they played
• 9:41
  Monterey in that championship game for Lego Makes female final
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  27,000 people in attendance for that game and 6.8 million
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  viewers. And I actually learned that the
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  league makes feminine is the most watched TV viewership wise
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  women's Football League in the world.
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  So more watched than the NWSL, more watched than the WSL.
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  You wouldn't think it, but I think it's because it's a it's.
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  A It's a big culture thing there.
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  So that is awesome to see. And then in the WSL this one
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  blew my mind. Arsenal's women boast average
• 10:28
  attendance of almost 34,000 people.
• 10:32
  This is higher than 8 Premier League men's teams, Premier
• 10:38
  League teams. I don't think it was right.
• 10:40
  And so that's like one of the top leagues, if not the top
• 10:43
  league to be playing professional football and in the
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  world. And the fact that they're
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  topping the average tenants numbers for eight of those clubs
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  is pretty wild. They actually rank 13th across.
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  All men's. And women's football attendances
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  across England, so pretty impressive for Arsenal.
• 11:03
  They do play their games in the the men's stadium.
• 11:07
  They don't have an alternate women's stadium too, so that's
• 11:10
  pretty cool to see. Women's tennis stars like Ariana
• 11:13
  Sabalenka and Coco Goff limited their media availability ahead
• 11:16
  of the start of the French Open in protest over association
• 11:20
  shares of revenue. Yeah.
• 11:22
  So the French Open pays out 15% of their revenues to the
• 11:27
  players, men's and women's or the percentage is roughly hasn't
• 11:33
  changed. Yeah, while both the WTA and the
• 11:37
  ATP take 22% of the revenues. And the beef that the players
• 11:41
  have is the growth in revenues of the tournament is not
• 11:47
  proportional to the share that they're now getting.
• 11:50
  And you have these associations getting more revenue than they
• 11:52
  are. So I wanna be really clear, this
• 11:55
  one is not a like guys versus girls.
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  It's not a gender thing. It's a up versus.
• 12:00
  Yes, up versus down. Down type of thing.
• 12:03
  Who this really effects are those players who are lower
• 12:06
  ranked who aren't going as far in the tournament.
• 12:09
  They are getting far less a share, right.
• 12:12
  It's not really impacting Adina Sabalenka or Coco Goff because
• 12:16
  they tend to get further, They're going to get more
• 12:17
  winnings, but the kind of middle of the pack and and below type
• 12:23
  of folk. Yeah, England's women's rugby
• 12:27
  team, the Red Roses, won their 5th Grand Slam title, extending
• 12:32
  their 38th consecutive match winning streak.
• 12:36
  Yeah, they become the first rugby team, men's or women's, to
• 12:40
  win both World Championships and the Six Nations in the same
• 12:44
  year. And the attendance at the
• 12:46
  Guinness Women's Six Nations tournament almost doubled from
• 12:50
  2025 up to almost 280,000 for the overall tournament this
• 12:55
  year. So.
• 12:56
  That's awesome. Yeah, Yeah.
• 12:59
  All right. All right, I think it feels like
• 13:02
  so long ago that the PWHL Walter Cup finals were over, but it was
• 13:06
  just last week, was it? When was it?
• 13:11
  Thursday. Yeah, Thursday night.
• 13:12
  Yeah, it's been such a long weekend, but we're gonna we're
• 13:15
  gonna talk about it again here. We got a little bit of a review
• 13:19
  here. Yeah, first of all, I think
• 13:22
  kudos, Montreal, Victoire are the winners.
• 13:26
  We said in the last episode for sure, and potentially in
• 13:29
  previous episodes, like they were the best team in the
• 13:32
  regular season. And I do think they kind of had
• 13:35
  the IT factor throughout the playoffs, right.
• 13:38
  We had to face them, Defrost had to face them and they just, you
• 13:43
  could tell that they had a like a team ethos and a philosophy
• 13:49
  and then a game plan and how they were going to come out on
• 13:52
  the ice each time and they executed.
• 13:55
  Yeah, I think we said, and I think we said it last week, like
• 13:58
  we really wanted Ottawa to win out of that finals just for the
• 14:03
  the storyline story, right. But I think we both said that it
• 14:08
  was clear part way through the season that Montreal was the
• 14:11
  better team all all season. So couple of things to note from
• 14:17
  that win and a little bit from the series here.
• 14:19
  So Marie Filipulan was named the Ilana Kloss playoff MVP.
• 14:27
  Very deserved. This is the one trophy that MPP
• 14:31
  had not yet added to her trophy cabinet.
• 14:34
  And so this feels and this also feels a little storybook in the
• 14:38
  way of like they lost in the Olympics.
• 14:41
  She's probably a little bit later in her career now she she
• 14:46
  could probably keep playing, but like she's battling injury.
• 14:49
  She's the captain of the team. She's captain clutch.
• 14:52
  She showed that multiple times in the playoffs, scoring
• 14:54
  game-winning goals for the for the Victoire.
• 14:58
  And just like you can see, I know watching like you can sense
• 15:03
  the team goes with her, right? So kudos to her.
• 15:09
  Fantastic, you know, career that she's built.
• 15:12
  We do hope to see more, but who knows what that injury's like
• 15:16
  and kind of where she's at with that.
• 15:18
  I have to call out Abby Rock, mostly because she's she scored
• 15:23
  a goal in one of the games with her head.
• 15:26
  Off her face mask. Literally off her face mask, but
• 15:28
  she scored a beauty of a backhand dangled a couple
• 15:33
  players came off the the far boards and just like in the in
• 15:37
  game four, in the championship game, it would it seal it kind
• 15:41
  of sealed the game. It would took the game from 1
• 15:42
  zero to 2 zero and like all the momentum shifted to Montreal at
• 15:47
  that. Point I have a stat that she
• 15:49
  would, I believe she was the second person after Taylor
• 15:51
  Heisey to have two multi goal post season games.
• 15:55
  Oh amazing, I definitely thought you were going to say like the
• 15:58
  second person to score off their face mask.
• 16:01
  Not, not quite. They keep track of those things
• 16:04
  and then they call her the Wall Of Montreal.
• 16:08
  Andre Renee Dibian, I don't know what else to say, really.
• 16:15
  She you couldn't score on her. Yeah, it was impossible.
• 16:18
  I nothing was going in. I mean, nothing did go in, but
• 16:22
  it couldn't. It just it wouldn't go in.
• 16:24
  Yeah, and she had some of the most.
• 16:28
  Now, I'll talk about Gwyneth Phillips here in a minute, so
• 16:30
  don't get it twisted. She's also incredible, but ARD
• 16:34
  had some of the most athletic like acrobatic saves.
• 16:39
  She's fantastic with her glove. It just was like she she played
• 16:44
  so and she was huge for them and and a couple of moments where it
• 16:48
  was really critical for her to be making a save right.
• 16:52
  And that's what you need. That's what you need.
• 16:56
  Well, I give congratulations to the Victois.
• 16:59
  I loved the heart and the battle from the charge they they truly
• 17:04
  embodied kind of that like underdog.
• 17:06
  Spirit, never give up. So a couple storylines from this
• 17:12
  Rebecca Leslie, she's the hometown girl scores the game
• 17:15
  winner in overtime in game three to make the series 21 and kind
• 17:20
  of keep Ottawa alive. That was like goosebumps, tears,
• 17:24
  like all the things right. And then I met, I just mentioned
• 17:28
  her, but Gwyneth Phillips, she she stood on her head too, and
• 17:34
  she became the first attendee to hit 1000 saves in one season in
• 17:40
  the PWHL. And I think like what's so
• 17:44
  speaking as somebody who plays like a a netminder right
• 17:48
  position, what's so hard is you have to be so locked in to do to
• 17:56
  keep keep the puck out, keep the foul out right.
• 17:59
  And the moment you're not, that's the difference between
• 18:04
  winning and losing. Everybody else on the field gets
• 18:08
  to kind of have like oopsies and somebody else is kind of there,
• 18:11
  you have an oopsie and like they score, right.
• 18:15
  Yeah. And just also like the the
• 18:18
  mindset to let something in and then turn around and have to
• 18:22
  like be back on it. Right.
• 18:23
  I tell my keepers all the time, you got to have like the memory
• 18:26
  of the goldfish, like the Ted Bosso thing, right?
• 18:30
  The other thing I think of with Phillips is we had talked in the
• 18:33
  Boston series about how many shots she faced.
• 18:36
  And it is just especially in hockey, I think, because like,
• 18:40
  sight lines are so obscured, the pucks so small, when you're
• 18:45
  facing that many shots and you're not able to get a break,
• 18:49
  you're like, that's so hard. Like eventually you're gonna
• 18:54
  fatigue on that. So that's that.
• 18:57
  She was incredible. She was great.
• 18:59
  Happened to kind of lost your weight in that moment.
• 19:02
  So just wanna finish out here related to the charge.
• 19:09
  Their fans are amazing. One thing that I noticed
• 19:14
  watching the final game was it seemed like no one left and
• 19:21
  their team lost 4 to 0. So like you had a lot of
• 19:24
  opportunity to leave early and I just like I love the passion
• 19:28
  from true fans of sport who want to be there to like all all of
• 19:33
  those. A lot of those people are
• 19:34
  probably Canadians going like here's our Canada's first
• 19:38
  trophy, right. And just like honoring that
• 19:41
  understanding the other players like Mari, Feli, Poulan, yeah,
• 19:45
  Stacy, like kind of these like goats of Canadian women's hockey
• 19:49
  are on the on the ice and they're gonna stay and like.
• 19:52
  Yeah, it was truly a win for Canada.
• 19:54
  Like. 100 percent, 100%. So just to put some numbers
• 19:58
  behind that. This is a really fascinating
• 20:01
  stat. So 48% of the entire postseason
• 20:06
  in person crowd saw a game in Canadian Tire Center.
• 20:11
  So three different series, right?
• 20:14
  And they were the low seed in both.
• 20:17
  Their. Series So the Charge fans loved
• 20:21
  their hockey. They had 53,000 total fans come
• 20:25
  through Canadian Tire center doors, 13K average for the games
• 20:28
  that they hosted. They had a record finals crowd
• 20:32
  with almost 17,000 people at that game and the charge went
• 20:36
  three and one at home. Unfortunately, the one.
• 20:40
  Yeah, the one was the most important one, Yeah.
• 20:42
  To win, but just a shout out, I think it just speaks to that
• 20:47
  atmosphere. I think it's so fun, I'm sure
• 20:49
  for the players, but it's fun as fans to see that and feels
• 20:53
  really good as we're heading into this new kind of frontier
• 20:57
  of expansion that we'll talk about in a second.
• 21:00
  Two other things to call out and then I'll kick it over to you
• 21:03
  for these postseason award nominee is Hayley Skamara of the
• 21:07
  Montreal Victois. Becomes the first player to win
• 21:10
  Olympic gold and a Walter Cup in the same year.
• 21:12
  So she's part of Team USA, part of the Montreal Victois.
• 21:16
  And then Maggie Flaherty, who for Frost fans, if that sounds
• 21:22
  familiar to you, it's because she became the first player to
• 21:26
  win 3 Walter Cups. You're going to want to get her.
• 21:30
  She's going to be one of the highest on that.
• 21:32
  Yeah, protective. Or whatever, whatever.
• 21:36
  I need that person on my. I know somehow she and she.
• 21:39
  And it's not like she's just like hanging out on the team.
• 21:42
  She scored some really critical goals for the Victoria, both
• 21:45
  against the Frost and the Charge.
• 21:47
  So she's a contributor. She scored some key goals for
• 21:50
  the Frost when they won their championships.
• 21:52
  She's somebody you want on your. Yeah, I have one more fun fact.
• 21:57
  MPP and Renee Debian, Laura Stacey and Erin Ambrose all
• 22:01
  joined the Three Times Gold Club, which is winning an
• 22:05
  Olympic gold medal, a World championship and now the Walter
• 22:08
  Cup. So I don't remember someone had
• 22:11
  done it just oh, you have the one for the Yeah, you just said
• 22:15
  the one about the this season. But those all joined it based on
• 22:19
  former years where they've gotten their gold medals.
• 22:22
  Amazing. Love it.
• 22:23
  I love. It all right post season award
• 22:25
  nominees, we've got a few of the position player nominees here.
• 22:31
  Are we going to do a little who we think should win these?
• 22:34
  All right forward of the year we have Taylor, Heisey, Brienne
• 22:38
  Jenner and Kelly Panic. I know shade on Jenner but I
• 22:44
  feel like this is between Panic and and Heisey like.
• 22:49
  So for me, for me, I have to go with Heisey.
• 22:57
  I'm sure you're going to go with Panic.
• 22:59
  I just feel like there was a moment in Minnesota season where
• 23:03
  they were kind of on the ropes. Yep.
• 23:08
  And it was kind of right after the right after the Olympics, we
• 23:13
  came back, we got our butt spanked by.
• 23:15
  Montreal or nothing? Right.
• 23:18
  And then all of a sudden Taylor Heisey started to become, as we
• 23:22
  said about Barbara Banda last week, like kind of inevitable.
• 23:25
  Yeah, yeah, she started to score like a goal, a game was kind of
• 23:28
  the clip she was rolling at and maybe a multi point games.
• 23:33
  And I feel like that sort of production, while she wasn't the
• 23:37
  highest, she was the second leading scorer in the league.
• 23:39
  But the timing of that, yeah, what I think was really critical
• 23:45
  for the Frost season. I definitely didn't say Kelly
• 23:47
  Panic. And I think it's, I think what
• 23:51
  you just said, it almost gives Heidi the better case for it.
• 23:54
  But Kelly Panic is just like this.
• 23:58
  She's more of a vibe that with that backs it up with the stats,
• 24:01
  right? I she's like, I can't even know
• 24:03
  what is it? What do you call it?
• 24:04
  It's like this, like something that's always just there on the
• 24:07
  ice, that's just always pushing it and like.
• 24:11
  Yeah, she's she, she sets the tone for the Frost, right?
• 24:14
  When she's on the ice, she's she's known more as a defensive
• 24:18
  forward, right? That's kind of what her brand
• 24:20
  is. And then this year, all of a
• 24:21
  sudden the offense started happening like that.
• 24:23
  We talked about that on a previous episode, like she had
• 24:27
  20 more goals this season than she's ever had in a single
• 24:30
  season or something ridiculous. So I can totally see like her
• 24:36
  leadership comes through. She's sort of this just like
• 24:40
  like, you know, presence or or like it.
• 24:45
  She like permeates the the team energy on the ice, right.
• 24:50
  So I could see that. Yeah, yeah.
• 24:54
  I won't say anything. I think that's we'll go with
• 24:56
  that. We'll go with that Defender of
• 24:58
  the Year. We have Sophie, Jacques Jakes,
• 25:02
  Megan Keller and Haley win. The stat I have here is that
• 25:06
  Sophie has is the first to put up to 20 point seasons as a
• 25:13
  defender. Yes.
• 25:14
  Do you know which team she did that with first?
• 25:17
  Was it us? Minnesota, and This is why we
• 25:22
  need expansion. Something's in the water.
• 25:26
  I see that stat line and I raise you Megan Keller, all right,
• 25:31
  because captaining arguably the second best team in the league,
• 25:35
  at times the best team in the league.
• 25:39
  She also Sophie Jakes had an incredible individual
• 25:44
  performance, but that didn't translate into that's true wins
• 25:48
  for Toronto. And so I just and obviously
• 25:53
  Megan Keller and Haley win are both on the Boston fleet.
• 25:55
  I just think like Keller's leadership, her ability to step
• 26:01
  up in those moments, which is why she's the captain, right?
• 26:06
  And I also might be like a little bit like rose colored
• 26:09
  glasses, 'cause she scored that amazing game-winning goal in the
• 26:12
  Olympics. But I just think like her
• 26:14
  ability to read a moment, step in and do what's necessary as a
• 26:19
  defender is so key and so critical to Boston's success
• 26:23
  this year. All right, let's move it on to
• 26:27
  goaltender of the year. I think we just give it to all
• 26:30
  three equally. How do you think like cutting
• 26:33
  thirds? They all get the same amount.
• 26:35
  Of 1 the same yeah, everyone gets the same.
• 26:37
  Make 3 of the trophies. So we've got Anna Adevian of the
• 26:40
  Montreal Victoire, Aaron Frankel of the Boston Fleet and Gwyneth
• 26:43
  Phillips. We've talked about all three of
• 26:46
  these so much, I don't know how you pick I.
• 26:51
  Honestly don't know how you pick I mean.
• 26:53
  Except for on Renee won the whole thing.
• 26:56
  Yeah. Like that's the only
• 26:58
  differentiator. And like, the only downside on
• 27:00
  the Frankel is that she had that small mist, that little mistake
• 27:03
  that led to a goal in in the playoffs.
• 27:06
  Like I, I do think a couple episodes ago I was doing some
• 27:09
  research on like their regular season stats and I think like
• 27:12
  Frankel came out as like the leading goaltender coming out of
• 27:16
  the regular season. She had a slightly, it was
• 27:19
  either like a the lower goals against average, but Renee had a
• 27:24
  higher save percentage. Like there was like they were
• 27:27
  trading stats back and forth and so like those two were so close.
• 27:32
  Phillips again, I, I do feel like Phillips is like a playoff
• 27:37
  goaltender. Like she, she wasn't, she was
• 27:42
  good in the regular season, but not great.
• 27:44
  And then you put her in the playoffs.
• 27:45
  She is like like new level unlocked.
• 27:49
  So I I feel like I got to give it to the wall in Montreal.
• 27:55
  I would not be surprised that any of them, whoever they choose
• 27:59
  here, Coach of the Year, Corey Chevery, Carla Mcloyd, McLeod,
• 28:05
  Mcleod's all right. And Chris, is it spar?
• 28:09
  You know, I actually. We didn't look up that
• 28:11
  pronunciation. We're sorry for it, Chris.
• 28:14
  So Montreal's head coach, the Ottawa Charge head coach and the
• 28:17
  Boston head coach. I already voted on Instagram and
• 28:22
  I voted for Carla. OK, who'd you vote for, Corey?
• 28:26
  Oh, OK, let. Me make my case, OK, Couple
• 28:34
  things. One, Carla was battling breast
• 28:38
  cancer all season long, went away for treatment.
• 28:41
  She has coached up her staff and her team well enough to be able
• 28:46
  to say, hey, go take care of you.
• 28:49
  And during that time, they were able to qualify for the
• 28:53
  playoffs. They were not in playoff
• 28:54
  contention at the time that she left, so they were on their way
• 28:58
  up. They were able to maintain the
• 29:00
  ship at the same time. I I'm not given like the sob
• 29:05
  story for the win, right. That's a really interesting
• 29:09
  wrinkle to it. But I talked about this last
• 29:12
  week. But she has this like steadiness
• 29:16
  in her coaching that just keeps the team grounded, keeps them
• 29:19
  focused, keeps them like from going up and down that I just
• 29:26
  there's a there's a it's like a Genesee quoi there that like is
• 29:32
  is unmatched, right, Obviously Corey Chevre they.
• 29:38
  Won. There was a, there was a
• 29:40
  article, I think it was, I don't remember when it came out about,
• 29:43
  about Corey Chevre. That was I think she, she tries
• 29:48
  to keep it kind of more light and practice and more friendly
• 29:51
  and things like that. And then game day hits and she
• 29:54
  is like, we're no longer friends, which sounds kind of
• 29:58
  weird, but is more of like this, more of like this.
• 30:01
  We can all get along, have fun, do the things we need to do.
• 30:04
  And then on game day, it's I'm now the person that's going to
• 30:07
  be calling the shots. And I think it's really
• 30:09
  interesting to have that dynamic on a team where it's like, you
• 30:13
  can you can enjoy what you're doing while you're doing it.
• 30:16
  And then you know that she's gonna turn on that hat and be
• 30:19
  like with lock in and do the thing that needs to be done.
• 30:22
  Yeah, that's really interesting. It's funny 'cause she doesn't
• 30:25
  give off that vibe like when you see her on the bench during the
• 30:29
  game or when she's in the like mid game interviews, she kind of
• 30:32
  gives off like similar to Carla honestly, like this very like
• 30:35
  steady even feel. I'm not getting too high, I'm
• 30:38
  not getting too low. So it's interesting to think
• 30:42
  about like she's just hardline with the players, but that's
• 30:46
  cool. I feel like we both made good.
• 30:47
  Classes. Yeah, I think we did.
• 30:48
  Watch CRISPR when? We're just gonna get these all
• 30:52
  wrong. Well, I it would be a mistake.
• 30:59
  Yes. To not have one of the two
• 31:02
  final, yes. And the women, yes, not because
• 31:06
  they're women, but like, it just would be a mistake.
• 31:10
  OK, All right, let's talk expansion.
• 31:14
  A little bit of drama on the socials around some of this
• 31:17
  stuff. Definitely.
• 31:19
  So just we, we talked a little bit about this last week and I
• 31:23
  found a really good article that kind of outlined some interviews
• 31:30
  with Amy Spear, who's the president of I think operations
• 31:34
  for the PWHL, but she's very high up in the decision making
• 31:39
  process. And it was interesting to hear
• 31:44
  this articulated so clearly as to why takeover tour cities were
• 31:50
  not like an inevitability on expansion teams.
• 31:54
  And so it wasn't the only barometer.
• 31:58
  In fact, it wasn't really a barometer.
• 32:00
  It was sort of like a oh, like this could work, but it wasn't a
• 32:05
  necessity and I think we talked about that last week.
• 32:10
  The Takeover tour also will continue despite the fact that
• 32:13
  the league now has no plans to expand for the near future,
• 32:17
  right? They wanted to get to 12 teams.
• 32:18
  That was always the goal. I think there's a question of,
• 32:22
  and we actually talk about this in a little bit, but like could
• 32:25
  they have slowed the roll on that a little?
• 32:27
  And they've tested the markets a little more.
• 32:30
  And then Detroit and Hamilton, which were both Takeover tour
• 32:32
  cities, But we'll talk about why they chose not to do that in
• 32:36
  just a second. Two big barriers.
• 32:39
  We've highlighted these here already, but revenue and venue
• 32:44
  sharing. So either sharing of either of
• 32:47
  those or both of those. So the example we talked about
• 32:50
  last week with Calgary was a venue issue.
• 32:53
  They have three, they have an NHL team, an AHL team and AWHL
• 32:59
  team, which are both like semi pro or whatever teams in Canada.
• 33:04
  And the, the GM or whatever was like, we just can't.
• 33:08
  And we're not even putting a bit up, right.
• 33:11
  But they're hosting Takeover tour games and they asked like,
• 33:14
  hey, we can do 1 or two of these a season, but we can't feel the
• 33:18
  whole hockey season. On the flip side, you had cities
• 33:24
  like Washington, DC and Edmonton and Quebec City where they
• 33:30
  wanted a share of the revenue. And the PWHL, as we've discussed
• 33:33
  here, is not ready for that and may never be ready for that.
• 33:38
  But like that is not part of what they were offering.
• 33:41
  And then scheduling was also an issue what I heard read in this
• 33:46
  article, excuse me, from in Denver and in Dallas.
• 33:49
  Yeah, I do think that the revenue share was also an issue
• 33:53
  in Denver, but that wasn't enumerated in this article.
• 33:56
  I think in Denver or Dallas in particular, you have the one
• 34:00
  professional hockey team, but then like Ball Arena in Denver.
• 34:04
  I was gonna say does that. Have does basketball?
• 34:06
  Imagine then you got concerts. Avalanche.
• 34:08
  Avalanche are in Nuggets right now.
• 34:10
  Nuggets are still. No, they were out.
• 34:12
  Oh, they were out. OK, well, yeah, they're.
• 34:13
  But they were playing. The ABS were in the playoffs.
• 34:16
  The The Nuggets were in the playoffs against the
• 34:20
  Timberwolves, Remember, we beat them.
• 34:21
  And then if you had another team that was still playing like you,
• 34:27
  just. And we talked about those like
• 34:29
  back night, back-to-back games would not be good.
• 34:32
  Player safety starts to become an issue when you can't have the
• 34:35
  appropriate scheduling. Especially with the PWHL being
• 34:38
  3rd on the list there for whatever games.
• 34:40
  Exactly. So and actually that's I want to
• 34:44
  mention one more thing on the scheduling was the PWHL actually
• 34:47
  stipulated that for these teams and I'll talk about this in just
• 34:51
  a second. The teams that did get expansion
• 34:53
  teams, the PWHL wants some decision making rights on
• 34:59
  schedule, primarily when there is a double header between the
• 35:02
  PWHL and the NHL team, they want to play first.
• 35:07
  And so these teams, these cities, we're willing to do
• 35:11
  that. So we already know about San
• 35:14
  Jose, We know about all the teams, right?
• 35:16
  But in San Jose, they are gonna play in SAP Center where the
• 35:19
  Sharks play, Detroit is gonna play in Little Caesars Arena
• 35:22
  where the Red Wings play, Las Vegas will play in T-Mobile
• 35:26
  Arena where the Golden Knights play, and then Hamilton will
• 35:29
  play in TD Coliseum. Hamilton now doesn't have an NHL
• 35:33
  team, but they have an AHL team. It's a big venue.
• 35:38
  It's actually where, well, they've done Takeover Tour
• 35:41
  games. I think it's.
• 35:42
  Like 16,000 or so at least. So those cities were all and
• 35:48
  those those, excuse me, I should say those NHL teams were all
• 35:51
  willing to embrace kind of the the asks of the league.
• 35:59
  And then you think about like the final rationale for where
• 36:04
  they picked a lot of it is driven off of trying to secure
• 36:07
  this US broadcast. They need that.
• 36:08
  They need that broadcast revenue.
• 36:10
  And so two things had to be true in order for that to potentially
• 36:14
  come to fruition is 1, you need an overloaded U.S. market.
• 36:20
  I think 7:00 and 5:00 is a perfectly fine split.
• 36:23
  That's not like out of bounds of being way out of balance, right?
• 36:28
  And you absolutely had to add to the West Coast.
• 36:31
  You couldn't keep Seattle and Vancouver out there with
• 36:34
  Minnesota the next closest team. Yeah, we had, I mean, we, we had
• 36:38
  a quote from someone at the PWHLA couple weeks ago that we
• 36:42
  talked about how they said they're ahead of schedule with
• 36:44
  the revenue. Yeah, they're very close to
• 36:47
  being in the black, I think. And so you're not going to try
• 36:51
  and chase, you can't chase out a broadcast deal with less US
• 36:56
  teams at all. Yeah.
• 36:57
  No, and that broadcast deal is the difference.
• 37:00
  When you're smelling the black, you're like, we we gotta do
• 37:04
  this. So that was sort of a little bit
• 37:10
  of like a, a put we'll we'll kind of wrap on like why those
• 37:15
  expansion teams were chosen. And now we're going to be moving
• 37:18
  into how are we going to be constructing these?
• 37:21
  Teams. And we know a little bit about
• 37:23
  how they are running the expansion process, which is
• 37:26
  going to kick off here on June 2nd.
• 37:28
  That's when protected players start to get announced or
• 37:32
  whatever. But what's also critical is
• 37:35
  naming your. General Manager.
• 37:37
  So each team now has named their general manager.
• 37:41
  Most of these teams get to have head coaches, but obviously this
• 37:45
  is becoming important first step.
• 37:47
  So I'm gonna talk through each of these.
• 37:49
  It's really interesting. And I think something to listen
• 37:51
  for is like the the experience that each of these GMs are
• 37:56
  bringing to the table. Yeah, we have kind of like a
• 38:00
  two, yes, like 2, absolutely and one you're like okay,
• 38:03
  interesting, where where's this coming from?
• 38:05
  But but then with the city, it makes sense.
• 38:07
  Yes, exactly. So for Hamilton, ON, we have
• 38:12
  Megan Duggan. She is a US woman's hockey, a
• 38:17
  national hockey team star, so basically came into the national
• 38:22
  team in 2007. She captained the team from 2014
• 38:25
  until her retirement in 2020. She is a seven time world
• 38:31
  champion and a two time Olympic gold or one, excuse me, one time
• 38:35
  Olympic gold medalist in 2018. She is coming off of five years
• 38:41
  actually with the New Jersey Devils in the NHL as a director
• 38:46
  for player development, which is really cool.
• 38:48
  Like, yeah, that's that basically deciding rosters and,
• 38:53
  and how players are gonna progress through your system,
• 38:56
  right? Especially in the NHL when they
• 38:58
  like draft them and then they go.
• 39:00
  Yeah, do do whatever they do. She also has played a part as
• 39:06
  the PWHL has been born in their special excuse me, on their
• 39:12
  player safety committee and as a special consultant to hockey
• 39:15
  operations. This is like perfect credentials
• 39:19
  for a GMII literally have on my nose.
• 39:21
  It just says credentials. No it just says hockey person
• 39:25
  like like this. This person eat, breathes,
• 39:29
  drinks hockey, right? Highly, highly successful as a
• 39:33
  player went to the University of Wisconsin.
• 39:37
  There you go mention that and then highly successful in a like
• 39:42
  kind of converting the her play and experience into a
• 39:45
  professional career post post playing time, right.
• 39:50
  So now we moved to Detroit. So we have Megan Duggan in
• 39:54
  Hamilton. We moved to Detroit, we have
• 39:57
  Menon realm. I had to look.
• 39:59
  Up how to pronounce. That she is French Canadian.
• 40:03
  She played on the Canadian National team.
• 40:06
  Very interesting. Very fun story this.
• 40:08
  Is great. So she's a two time women's
• 40:10
  world gold medalist, she's an Olympic silver medalist and she
• 40:18
  is the first woman to play in an NHL game.
• 40:21
  So Menon Realm was a goaltender and she played for the Tampa Bay
• 40:26
  Lightning as a goaltender in the NHL.
• 40:30
  She also was the first woman to sign a professional hockey
• 40:33
  contract. So way, way back when there were
• 40:36
  the first leagues. It's kind of the precursors, the
• 40:39
  PWHL, She signed a contract. So you have deep legacy here on
• 40:47
  sort of the playing career, understanding both, like how you
• 40:52
  know different leagues might work with your experience in the
• 40:54
  NHL. And so kind of a trailblazer
• 40:57
  too. And I feel like that's so
• 40:59
  important. Yeah, I don't, I don't remember
• 41:01
  if it was during like the playoffs, during like
• 41:03
  intermissions or whatever. I think the PWHL has put out
• 41:06
  like sort of like a mini documentary that they were
• 41:09
  playing in between things about her.
• 41:11
  And it was really cool to see like, you know, how she got
• 41:14
  selected and for for the, the lightning and, and did all that
• 41:18
  and it was really fun so. Yeah.
• 41:19
  So I think cool to see is you've got, you know, now we've got dug
• 41:23
  in like hockey pedigree, blah, blah, blah.
• 41:26
  Realm has this like really unique trailblazing story.
• 41:30
  And then in Las Vegas, we have Dominique Didia and she joins
• 41:36
  from CCA Sports where she launched the women's hockey
• 41:40
  department. She served as a Co head working
• 41:43
  closely with athletes on representation, marketing and
• 41:47
  career development. So she's a marketing head.
• 41:50
  She's a marketing head. She did play hockey.
• 41:52
  I looked that up. She played at Trinity College,
• 41:56
  but I don't think her career went much beyond that.
• 41:59
  Now you might be like, but then you're like Vegas.
• 42:04
  Makes sense? Like where that that feels like
• 42:09
  it fits perfectly. And we talked last week about
• 42:13
  how Vegas is experiencing the most rapid growth in girls.
• 42:17
  Hockey. And so you think about her
• 42:20
  experience as a like kind of career development marketing.
• 42:25
  Representation. Like it, it really kind of fits.
• 42:29
  Feels weird, but it fits. And then for San Jose, this was
• 42:36
  like a little controversial and this starts to segue us.
• 42:41
  Into our coaching. Changes, but Troy Ryan, who was
• 42:45
  the head coach for the Canadian women's national team and
• 42:49
  coached the Toronto Scepters in the PWHL, has moved on from
• 42:53
  Toronto and will be heading to San Jose and will become the
• 42:58
  first both GM and head coach. Oh, OK, You're gonna do both,
• 43:05
  huh? Well, Cheryl does.
• 43:06
  I was gonna say who he think he is.
• 43:07
  Cheryl. Cheryl.
• 43:08
  Reeve, he thinks he's Cheryl Reeve.
• 43:11
  So Troy Ryan, I think he was the inaugural PWHL season coach of
• 43:16
  the year. He's had some the scepters made
• 43:18
  the play offs the first two years there.
• 43:22
  I don't know if he has any like ties to the area somehow or if
• 43:26
  it was just like they were offering and he wanted both
• 43:29
  jobs, but I think he is one of a a few that I'm gonna be watching
• 43:35
  2 for some coaching carousel changes So Troy Ryan leaves
• 43:42
  Toronto, Seattle also. Fires Steve.
• 43:45
  O'Rourke. And so now we have 4 head
• 43:49
  coaching vacancies. Well, five head coaching
• 43:51
  vacancies. Out of 12.
• 43:53
  Out of 12, so almost half. And so we've been talking a lot
• 43:58
  about the players filling in. Now it's like, yeah, who are
• 44:02
  these coaches? Going to be.
• 44:04
  Are there assistant coaches that are like Next up like?
• 44:07
  That happens where we're at. The the second is, yeah, you
• 44:11
  want some coaches input on some of all all of this, right?
• 44:15
  So I have a feeling that this week we're.
• 44:17
  Going to see a lot of. Movement we might see a lot of
• 44:19
  coach coaches announced for these teams.
• 44:22
  So really interesting for us to to pay attention to there and
• 44:28
  then just to like, you know, we've talked coaching changes,
• 44:31
  whatever. We've talked about the players
• 44:33
  coming in and this draft. And like, I was reading an
• 44:35
  article kind of after Montreal had won and they were
• 44:39
  interviewing a couple of the players and they were like, this
• 44:42
  is we're just like really trying to soak this in because like,
• 44:45
  this won't be our team this year.
• 44:47
  And we think about that as an athlete, if you know, if you've
• 44:51
  ever been a part of a team sport, like going and achieving
• 44:54
  something with a team and like all the work that goes into
• 44:57
  growing that chemistry and now that is you're going to have to
• 45:00
  rebuild again. And they?
• 45:02
  Just rebuilt last season. Especially when it feels so good
• 45:05
  to, like when you finally find that chemistry and achieve,
• 45:08
  start to achieve, yeah, it just doesn't feel great.
• 45:11
  So it brings me to wrap this section segment up, right.
• 45:15
  I think one of the other reasons like broadcast deal, great.
• 45:19
  But I think one of the other reasons that they opted to move
• 45:23
  forward but just do the four teams, Yep, is like we just did
• 45:28
  2 expansion teams last year, we're going to go disrupt this
• 45:31
  again. If you had done 2 again and then
• 45:33
  two again, you do risk alienating kind of the fans in
• 45:38
  popularity if you're constantly turning over those players.
• 45:41
  We're supposed to buy a jersey when the team's changing
• 45:44
  constantly. Right.
• 45:45
  And you have maybe no little or no consistency on the ice.
• 45:48
  So my hope is this is kind of the last thing next season will
• 45:53
  be really interesting to watch. And then I think we'll start to
• 45:56
  see it settle in. All right.
• 46:00
  We definitely will have more on the PWHL.
• 46:02
  It's we're not done yet here. Yes.
• 46:05
  All right, let's kick into the W MB AI.
• 46:09
  Think we're going to do just a little bit of kind of UPS, downs
• 46:13
  over the past week and I think we're going to also talk about
• 46:18
  ups and downs, just ups and downs, just ups and downs.
• 46:22
  All right, let's start off Kelsey Plum.
• 46:26
  Was this was it yesterday? Saturday?
• 46:29
  What day? Is that?
• 46:30
  Yeah, what? It was a long weekend, but
• 46:32
  Kelsey Plum versus the Aces in a big win for the Sparks. 38
• 46:37
  points on 70.6% shooting, 9 assists.
• 46:43
  This was also a night that the Aces they.
• 46:48
  Really need to stop celebrating. Their stuff they have.
• 46:50
  They have. Their record is four and two.
• 46:52
  It's O and two. When celebrating their
• 46:54
  championship ring night, they lost.
• 46:56
  I got. It I hope that's the end of it
• 46:58
  for them. Yeah, they're hoping that too.
• 47:00
  So that was that was my first up here.
• 47:03
  I am just like, I'm so happy to see KP have a great game like
• 47:07
  this. She's so capable of this.
• 47:09
  Like if. You go look up her play in
• 47:13
  college. She she was nutty in college.
• 47:18
  So it's good to see her kind of charge forward.
• 47:21
  And she's not doing this against the slouch team either.
• 47:23
  She's doing this against defending champions, as we all
• 47:26
  know now. And her former team.
• 47:28
  And her former team where she's won championships.
• 47:31
  So I love seeing that. I do hope that it wasn't a like
• 47:35
  blip on the radar. I don't think she needs 38 every
• 47:38
  single night. I hope not.
• 47:39
  They need to start. Producing elsewhere.
• 47:41
  Around her but like fun to see. All right, my up Natasha Howard
• 47:47
  of the Minnesota Lynx now. She's been a surprise for me.
• 47:50
  She so I wrote, coming up big for the Lynx.
• 47:53
  Because we lack depth. Yeah.
• 47:58
  At the forward and slash center spot, like we have been losing
• 48:02
  bigs left and right. Yeah, we've got Fee is still
• 48:04
  out. She is slated to be returning
• 48:06
  these next couple of weeks, so we'll see what happens.
• 48:08
  So it goes. We had Chekova go out with the
• 48:10
  ACL tear. We've got Dorka Yuhas who's
• 48:13
  still out with a foot injury that she's sustained in the I
• 48:16
  think the championship game of the European league.
• 48:19
  And so, you know, we've basically got Tash down there,
• 48:23
  we've got NIA Coffey kind of like trying to help out if she's
• 48:27
  an undersized forward. And then we've got, you know,
• 48:33
  Hoff, I can't think of her first name right now, like
• 48:36
  developmental player who's getting like significant minutes
• 48:39
  down there if if Tasha gets into any kind of foul trouble.
• 48:43
  So this is Natasha's 13th season.
• 48:48
  She's won 3 championships in her WNBA first, so she's like a
• 48:52
  proven winner, but she is right now having one of the best
• 48:56
  starts to her career in that those thirteen seasons.
• 48:58
  So she's averaging 17 points per game, about 8 rebounds and four
• 49:02
  assists, which I think is huge. She's able to play a lot of
• 49:05
  minutes too, which is really a challenge in this new era of
• 49:09
  refereeing that's happening. Now we talked about last week
• 49:12
  with the the whistles and the stoppage.
• 49:15
  Now, something that was interesting and when.
• 49:21
  Yeah, Anyways, something that was interesting was during the
• 49:25
  broadcast of the Lynx game versus the Sky.
• 49:28
  I think when we won over the weekend, one of the commentators
• 49:34
  said that Natasha Howard was looking really good, that she
• 49:37
  really learned to play fast because she played alongside
• 49:40
  Caitlin Clark for the last couple years.
• 49:46
  No. Caitlin Clark did not teach.
• 49:48
  Natasha. Howard, how to play?
• 49:49
  She's been doing this. 13 seasons.
• 49:53
  I, I, I I just reject that. Yeah, for sure.
• 50:00
  Space. All right.
• 50:02
  All right, let's move on. We're gonna, we're gonna throw
• 50:06
  it back to someone who used to play for the Lynx.
• 50:08
  Latisha Heideman had a massive. She tied her career best 24
• 50:14
  points. This was this yesterday again,
• 50:17
  don't know, long weekend, 9785 win against the Washington
• 50:21
  Mystics. And this is on the second
• 50:25
  straight that the storm I've had without Belonga.
• 50:27
  Yeah. I saw Dom sitting there on the
• 50:29
  bench she got her glasses on in. Concussion protocol.
• 50:32
  So yeah, I just, I, it was fun to watch her just.
• 50:35
  Go off. Go off, have a night.
• 50:38
  She deserves all the success in the world.
• 50:40
  Just she's so great. She's she's one of the best out
• 50:43
  there from a as a human, as a human, Yeah, 100.
• 50:46
  Percent. Very fun to see.
• 50:48
  I love seeing her lighted up and she's very capable too.
• 50:51
  She can score she's and she's got that.
• 50:53
  She's a lefty. So like I think it throws people
• 50:55
  off. Fun to see.
• 50:57
  And then my last my rounding out our UPS, I'll say I've got the
• 51:02
  Dallas Wings. Right and.
• 51:04
  I just saw something before we got on, like to record here that
• 51:08
  is gonna like throw a little. So I believe our clip on Jose
• 51:15
  Fernandez's comments around the team being selfish just went out
• 51:18
  today. I did it.
• 51:19
  We. Just we just posted this.
• 51:22
  I'm wondering if that actually like did something to the team
• 51:25
  because they've won three of their last four since he said
• 51:29
  that. So when they lost to the Lynx,
• 51:31
  he was like, we got selfishness in the locker.
• 51:33
  Room. Maybe he does know his team.
• 51:35
  OK, I got let me just let me get there.
• 51:39
  So like I said, 1/3 of their last four, they're sixth in the
• 51:43
  league overall. They are fourth in the West.
• 51:46
  So like the West is kind of the the West in the east now have
• 51:49
  kind of flipped from what I said last week.
• 51:51
  Literally AZ Fudd number one overall draft pick is starting
• 51:58
  to find her group thing. I think she's getting more
• 52:01
  minutes. She's starting to play a little
• 52:02
  bit more. She had an exceptional
• 52:05
  performance against the Liberty yesterday.
• 52:08
  Yes, she set the record for a rookie for made three pointers
• 52:12
  in 1/4. She went five of seven.
• 52:16
  OK. From three, six of twelve
• 52:18
  overall in the game, 24 points. All right.
• 52:22
  In the game, yeah. Not in the five.
• 52:24
  Of seven, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah.
• 52:25
  Trying to do them back there. So that is fun to see and I
• 52:28
  think I went back and looked looks like she's kind of been
• 52:33
  like, you know, around like 12, eight points a game in that
• 52:36
  four-game stretch that I just mentioned.
• 52:38
  Now in the post game press conference after the Liberty
• 52:43
  game, Jose Fernandez was asked, so when are you moving AZ into
• 52:48
  the starting lineup? I don't think he likes being
• 52:51
  asked that question. Oh my gosh.
• 52:52
  He was like, is that important to you?
• 52:59
  What is going on? With this guy.
• 53:00
  Wow, OK. So I can appreciate it.
• 53:03
  It probably gets annoying. I'm sure he's asked it every
• 53:05
  single time. And like she does actually the
• 53:09
  when I've seen her play, she does kind of come across as like
• 53:13
  needing some time to marinate in the league a little bit.
• 53:18
  But I also don't know if that's just because she's not getting
• 53:20
  consistent plane. She did she did stuff Stewie, I
• 53:24
  saw that. Did you see that?
• 53:25
  And that's the name that's the name of her dog yes, that is the
• 53:27
  name of Aziz dog. So that was great.
• 53:32
  All right, let's move it on to downs.
• 53:36
  I'm going there will not be enough context in the clip
• 53:39
  that's going to get clipped of this for me to not get attacked.
• 53:45
  So Caitlin Clark had in the midweek game, it was like an
• 53:50
  hour, maybe 2 is generous. I think that they said that she
• 53:55
  is going to be out with a back injury.
• 53:59
  For those of you that don't know, injury is required to be
• 54:01
  submitted by 5:00 PM the day before a game.
• 54:06
  And so this was an hour, hour or two before the game.
• 54:11
  They got warned by the WNBA the. Fever is.
• 54:15
  The Fever got warned, their coach came out and said that
• 54:20
  this was a strategic management decision, which basically means
• 54:25
  load management, which if you are saying that an hour before
• 54:30
  the game, is it really strategic?
• 54:36
  I mean we can go a lot of different ways with this.
• 54:39
  I think that trying to be very careful with my words here, it's
• 54:47
  either you're going to have a load management protocol for
• 54:49
  someone who has potentially A lingering issue and at that
• 54:52
  point it's like, why are we continuing?
• 54:55
  Like is she ready to actually play?
• 54:58
  There's been a lot of talk about her having to go in at half and
• 55:02
  get adjusted or get massages. And so I think for the fans,
• 55:07
  it's like a couple of things. Is she hurt or is she not?
• 55:12
  And it's not up, You know, we don't need to know that would we
• 55:14
  don't get to know that. But also kind of the the
• 55:17
  notification part of it is this is for the fans.
• 55:20
  They need to know is she gonna play the next game?
• 55:23
  And some of them are thinking should I show up because the
• 55:25
  main reason I bought this ticket was to see the superstar, right?
• 55:29
  Yeah, I mean, and you saw that if you watched that game,
• 55:33
  they're they didn't have as good of a attendance turn out, I
• 55:36
  think at Gainbridge as they would have had she been playing.
• 55:41
  Now where I go with this is a she didn't, she didn't practice
• 55:45
  on Tuesday. And that's not like weird like
• 55:47
  players skip practice all the time, I'm sure for these similar
• 55:51
  reasons, right. We're managing something we're
• 55:55
  like, we were like 5 games into the season.
• 55:58
  And if we're already managing load at that point, I think it
• 56:01
  gets to your, what I think what something that you're trying to
• 56:04
  get at is like, are we actually addressing the issue if it's an
• 56:09
  issue for Galen, right. And I say that as somebody who
• 56:14
  does really care about player safety and player disability.
• 56:20
  I don't care what you think. Caitlin Clark is very, very good
• 56:24
  for the WNBA. And she is very, very good when
• 56:29
  she's playing. She's good when she's not
• 56:31
  because she does bring eyes. Right, right, wrong or
• 56:34
  indifferent. She brings a lot of eyes.
• 56:36
  But overall, I want to be able to see her on the court.
• 56:44
  So I don't. I, I if there's actually an
• 56:47
  issue here. I don't.
• 56:49
  Get to the root of it. And like, like, let's actually
• 56:51
  solve it for her, right, And help her out now.
• 56:54
  You know, she's coming off the groin injury last year and
• 56:57
  played about half the season. What have you came back?
• 57:01
  Like, to me, if I was an athletic trainer, which I'm not,
• 57:05
  if I was a coach and we're already talking, like, I'm not
• 57:09
  sure if I can go, like, play a game or even play like, some
• 57:13
  minutes. It's weird, right?
• 57:16
  Yeah, and there's like a whole bunch of, like, conspiracy
• 57:18
  theories flying around out there around what's going on here.
• 57:22
  Again, she tracks a lot of eyeballs and a lot of comments.
• 57:25
  But I would. I want to see Caitlin healthy.
• 57:29
  Yeah, right. Yeah, at the end of the day,
• 57:31
  yeah. All right.
• 57:34
  This is more of just a confirmation.
• 57:36
  You were at the game last Sunday where Rickia Jackson went down.
• 57:41
  I got confirmation that it is a torn ACL.
• 57:44
  She'll be out for the rest of the season.
• 57:46
  So sad. You know, she was.
• 57:48
  Well, we have 18 points per game through four games.
• 57:51
  She dropped a 29 piece on May 15th.
• 57:54
  And Chicago is 3 and one at the time of that injury and now is
• 57:58
  3/3 and three. And they lost their last two or
• 58:02
  so speeding Minnesota. Yeah, big loss for them.
• 58:06
  We, I think when we recorded, we weren't quite sure if it was ACL
• 58:10
  yet because I hadn't quite announced it.
• 58:11
  So just more of a more of a confirmation on that front.
• 58:14
  And I mean, it is a down right. Like she was like you were
• 58:17
  saying she was playing really well.
• 58:20
  I think she had real potential to kind of be sort of that the
• 58:25
  star on on Chicago. They they've got some players
• 58:30
  out with injury who are just coming back.
• 58:32
  I think I saw Skylar Diggins and Azeray Stevens were back in the
• 58:36
  line up over the weekend. But we'll see how they go over
• 58:40
  there. All right and then my Maya down
• 58:43
  was when the technical was called on page beckers for
• 58:48
  clapping her hands. I was like you got to be kidding
• 58:52
  me like what are we doing here? I in a different game, which I
• 58:59
  can use this as an example, but like I was talking about how
• 59:02
  like some of the the the Yappin the going back and forth, like
• 59:06
  getting in each other's faces like that is part of the game.
• 59:10
  It's part of the fun. It's part of the emotion of
• 59:15
  playing a competitive sport, clapping to yourself.
• 59:19
  She was like walking. Away.
• 59:20
  From players clapping to herself and the way she described it was
• 59:23
  like they were down a lot and they were starting to make a
• 59:26
  run. So she's like amped.
• 59:27
  She's like yes, I got the foul call.
• 59:30
  And then like you get a tech call on you And I, I learned
• 59:34
  that this ref in particular has called 2 technicals on page over
• 59:40
  the course of her, this one and then this one last season, I
• 59:44
  think. And that when he's on the crew
• 59:48
  that more techs get called. And so somebody was like,
• 59:51
  somebody needs to investigate this guy.
• 59:53
  Like what's going on here? I don't know his name.
• 59:55
  I don't even know anything. I'm just saying I'm throwing it
• 59:57
  out now. We're gonna turn the we're gonna
• 1:00:00
  turn the down into the up is that the tech got rescinded by
• 1:00:03
  the league. Which is great, because Paige
• 1:00:06
  apparently has a bet going on with Alicia Clarke, the long
• 1:00:10
  time vet on the Dallas Wings, that she will go the entire
• 1:00:14
  season without getting a technical.
• 1:00:15
  She was like 4 game, five games so.
• 1:00:17
  She was more bad about having potentially lost that bet, I
• 1:00:21
  think, than she was about actually getting assessed a tech
• 1:00:23
  in the game. So that was pretty funny.
• 1:00:26
  But as we continue to watch the refereeing, on more serious
• 1:00:30
  note, this was one that really stood out of like, what are we
• 1:00:33
  doing? Here, yeah, it's wild.
• 1:00:35
  Just be consistent. Yeah, and I think too, like I
• 1:00:38
  was going to say on the emotions front, like we watched the Fever
• 1:00:42
  Valkyries game, which clearly emotions were running high
• 1:00:45
  there. And there were some moments
• 1:00:47
  where I think the refs needed to step in more or they needed to.
• 1:00:52
  And they they upgraded like the the moving screen on Caitlin got
• 1:00:55
  upgraded to flagrant, which it should have.
• 1:00:58
  But they they're still, you can tell they're still like trying
• 1:01:02
  to find their. Groove.
• 1:01:03
  All right, let's move it on NWSL.
• 1:01:07
  We've got Week 9 results. We'll do a little rising and
• 1:01:12
  sliding then I think we have an interesting little topic to you
• 1:01:15
  over here. Yeah, so wrapping up Week 9,
• 1:01:20
  we'll go through our top five really quick.
• 1:01:21
  So like we mentioned in headlines, Utah sits atop the
• 1:01:24
  table, 9 games unbeaten. They had a win over the weekend
• 1:01:29
  over my Denver Summit 22 to 1. I believe Portland is in second
• 1:01:36
  place. They lost to Kansas City
• 1:01:38
  Currents 3 to 1 yesterday after a big win against Bay during the
• 1:01:42
  midweek. San Diego kind of had a little
• 1:01:45
  bit of a slighty week. They had a late draw.
• 1:01:49
  They had a draw against Houston where Houston came back late.
• 1:01:52
  We watched that game. Jane Campbell got her face
• 1:01:54
  smashed in. Like there was a lot going on in
• 1:01:56
  that game. Lots of crazy saves off the line
• 1:01:59
  too. Like Jane Campbell had that. 1
• 1:02:01
  double save. And then they lost yesterday to.
• 1:02:06
  Orlando to. Orlando, who figured out how not
• 1:02:08
  to concede a goal. And also figured how to score
• 1:02:12
  with it wasn't. Barbara Banda.
• 1:02:15
  No. It was Natalie Payne, who
• 1:02:17
  apparently like hasn't played professionally for a while and
• 1:02:20
  just got came back so good on her.
• 1:02:23
  And then you've got Washington and Gotham taking up slots four
• 1:02:26
  and five. And like I said in the
• 1:02:28
  headlines, they did not play in the NWSL this weekend 'cause
• 1:02:31
  they were busy in the CONCACAF W Championship.
• 1:02:36
  Gotham, to me just really quick is giving a little bit of like
• 1:02:42
  who they were last season. And if you remember last season,
• 1:02:47
  they like barely got into the playoffs and then they ended up
• 1:02:50
  winning the whole thing. But they got in by the skin of
• 1:02:54
  their teeth and they kind of had some like ups and downs.
• 1:02:56
  They just seem to be failing to find their rhythm.
• 1:02:58
  And with the roster they have, like shouldn't be, shouldn't be.
• 1:03:03
  So that rounds out our top five. We have started to like to do
• 1:03:09
  this like rising and sliding thing.
• 1:03:12
  And so as I watched this week, kind of monitored results and
• 1:03:17
  things like that for my risings, I've got North Carolina Courage.
• 1:03:21
  Believe it or not, they had a big win over the midweek.
• 1:03:26
  Ashley Sanchez who? If that name sounds familiar to
• 1:03:30
  you, it's because you probably have seen her play in a red.
• 1:03:33
  White blue jersey. She is quietly in second place
• 1:03:37
  for the Golden Boot. She's got 7 goals right behind.
• 1:03:40
  Bandits 8. Yeah, so she's been pretty
• 1:03:44
  unstoppable. And I was actually texting with
• 1:03:46
  one of my soccer friends who he loves women's soccer.
• 1:03:51
  I'm glad I found a kindred spirit in him.
• 1:03:53
  And he was like, man, she, like, could she be back in the mix for
• 1:03:58
  the national team? And she hasn't played since
• 1:04:02
  2023. Emma Hayes came in in 2024.
• 1:04:06
  Emma Hayes hasn't brought her into any of her camps.
• 1:04:08
  And so to me, I'm kind of like, I don't at this point, I don't
• 1:04:13
  see her coming in, but she plays attacking center mid.
• 1:04:19
  I It is possible that for this June camp, which doesn't matter,
• 1:04:26
  but they're playing in Brazil. Bring her in.
• 1:04:29
  You have Sam Coffee, who is out because she just had minor knee
• 1:04:33
  surgery, so she's been declared out.
• 1:04:35
  You don't think? I don't think we're going to
• 1:04:37
  have Katarina Mercario back. You know, who knows what else is
• 1:04:41
  going on with the midfield, right?
• 1:04:46
  But like is, has she created enough buzz to?
• 1:04:52
  Potentially. Bring her in now.
• 1:04:55
  You're putting her alongside the likes of Olivia Moultrie, who's
• 1:04:58
  also in the hunt for the Golden Boot, Jaden Shaw, who's been
• 1:05:02
  showing up well for Gotham despite what I just said about
• 1:05:05
  the team overall, right? Ali Sentinor, Like it's not
• 1:05:12
  Sophia Wilson and Mel Swanson play up top, but like there's so
• 1:05:16
  much depth of talent in that space.
• 1:05:19
  Like it kind of sucks for Sanchez a little bit it.
• 1:05:22
  Could be a spot though where you figure like, let's let's
• 1:05:24
  experiment with this and with her at this moment.
• 1:05:27
  Right. And so like it does feel like
• 1:05:30
  and she's scoring, right. And when goal scorers are
• 1:05:32
  scoring, like you kind of just like let that ride, right?
• 1:05:36
  So we will be watching for that. And we do expect that that
• 1:05:40
  roster is going to get announced very soon because those games
• 1:05:43
  are not this coming week. But.
• 1:05:45
  Next week, OK. OK.
• 1:05:49
  And then our other rising team is the Houston Dash, which I
• 1:05:54
  said was a sliding team. Last week it's our reverse
• 1:05:58
  hexes. Are coming back up.
• 1:06:00
  So they had a big, like I mentioned, the big draw against
• 1:06:03
  San Diego. This was a gritty draw, Yeah.
• 1:06:06
  They really had to pull kind of rabbit out of the hat to get
• 1:06:08
  back into that one. And then they notched a big win
• 1:06:12
  against Angel City FC. So both of those games together
• 1:06:17
  scoring goals ended their scoreless streak which I think
• 1:06:20
  was like 5 games or something like that, which is great to
• 1:06:23
  see. I haven't found information on
• 1:06:30
  Jane Campbell and when she's due to return I have to assume she's
• 1:06:35
  in concussion protocol alongside stitches and many other things.
• 1:06:39
  She literally took like a shin to her face in that San Diego
• 1:06:43
  game. And then sliding for me this
• 1:06:46
  week is Bay FC. Like I just talked about how
• 1:06:50
  they just have been hanging out in that 8th place, which puts
• 1:06:53
  you right, like kind of right around the playoff cut off and
• 1:06:57
  they now have slid back. They had a tie or excuse me, I
• 1:07:03
  think a loss to Portland, and then they lost.
• 1:07:08
  To. Chicago so you lost against like
• 1:07:11
  one of the top teams in the league.
• 1:07:12
  I think that could be forgiven. Like you're understand,
• 1:07:15
  Understood. Excuse me.
• 1:07:17
  I don't think it's as explicable to say that you lost and
• 1:07:21
  couldn't score on a team that is regularly conceding, I think
• 1:07:26
  like 2 plus goals. So that is a bummer for them.
• 1:07:30
  If you lose to Chicago, you're going to be on this list.
• 1:07:33
  Yes, but Bay FC has the benefit of being in the women's sports
• 1:07:38
  capital of the world in the Bay Area.
• 1:07:41
  Well, they have to get the hockey team started.
• 1:07:43
  But yeah, they'll get there. We'll see what happens, but they
• 1:07:46
  are definitely on my slide for sure.
• 1:07:50
  All right. Should we move?
• 1:07:52
  To Yeah, let's move it. What to what to watch?
• 1:07:55
  I tried to pick out a game per day for everyone here.
• 1:08:00
  We're going to start with the WNBA.
• 1:08:02
  We've got the Minnesota Lynx at the Chicago Sky.
• 1:08:06
  We're always playing Chicago. That's Friday, May 29th, 6:30 PM
• 1:08:11
  on ION. Saturday we've got at noon on
• 1:08:16
  League Pass near local broadcasters Seattle Storm
• 1:08:18
  versus Toronto Tempo. I think Seattle's on A, they're
• 1:08:22
  like on A2. Like I said, we'll see what
• 1:08:25
  happens here. And then on Sunday at 2:30 PM
• 1:08:29
  Central on Peacock, it's the only game of the day, Las Vegas
• 1:08:32
  Aces at your Golden State, Valkyries moving on to NWSL.
• 1:08:37
  These games were there was 2 games on Friday night.
• 1:08:40
  They were all like kind of bottom half matchups, but we
• 1:08:45
  have. 6:00 PM Orlando Pride versus Bay FC.
• 1:08:50
  OK, OK, OK. That could be important for both
• 1:08:52
  of those teams. Saturday there are three games
• 1:08:55
  starting at noon. Our pick is 3:00 PM Central
• 1:08:59
  Portland Thorns versus Utah Royals on ION.
• 1:09:02
  Top of the table. See what happens there.
• 1:09:05
  And then on Sunday, again, we have three games starting at
• 1:09:07
  noon. These are the last games before
• 1:09:09
  our month long break. That's right, so soak it up.
• 1:09:13
  6:00 PM Angel City versus North Carolina Courage on Victory
• 1:09:17
  Plus. All right, Yeah, I think I just
• 1:09:20
  want to like put a finer point on that, Like this is the end of
• 1:09:23
  NWSL play for an entire month, entire month of June.
• 1:09:27
  The only game that will happen in there for the league will be
• 1:09:31
  the Champions Cup at the end of very end of June.
• 1:09:33
  It's like June 28th between Gotham and Kansas City, last
• 1:09:38
  year's Shield winners and last year's overall tournament or
• 1:09:42
  playoff champions. Women's Elite rugby.
• 1:09:46
  Again, these are all on Women's Sports Network.
• 1:09:48
  Saturday we have the TC Gemini versus Boston Banshees at 5:00
• 1:09:52
  PM Central. Sunday, the Bay Breakers versus
• 1:09:56
  Chicago Tempest at 7:00 PM Central and the New York X Isles
• 1:10:00
  versus Denver Onyx at 1:00 PM Central.
• 1:10:02
  There you go. Women's Football Alliance,
• 1:10:08
  potentially a game we may be going to.
• 1:10:11
  I believe they're playing on Saturday night.
• 1:10:14
  I could not get the timing of this game because their website
• 1:10:16
  does not have the timing like that.
• 1:10:19
  So we will potentially update everyone on what happens at that
• 1:10:23
  game if we get good to go. And then for us local Minnesota
• 1:10:27
  folks, we have the Aurora playing Thursday versus the
• 1:10:32
  Rockford Raptors at 7:00 PM Central and Saturday versus the
• 1:10:35
  River Light at 2:00 PM Central. Those are both away games.
• 1:10:39
  I don't. I think they're on YouTube.
• 1:10:41
  I think you can catch those on YouTube or potentially Fox 9
• 1:10:44
  plus if you're local. Yeah, if you are local, check
• 1:10:48
  the schedule and try to make it out to the game at TCO Stadium
• 1:10:53
  out there in Eagan. Eagan.
• 1:10:54
  Yep. It's really, really super fun,
• 1:10:58
  very accessible. Your kids can like, run around
• 1:11:00
  on a little. Like berm there?
• 1:11:03
  Berm area, great atmosphere for sure.
• 1:11:07
  Usually the Aurora win. Yeah, we've been really good for
• 1:11:10
  the last since forever, so. Until they get to the playoffs,
• 1:11:14
  but it's a good time. So I'll just add in here.
• 1:11:17
  We also have the French Open starting to I think today
• 1:11:21
  potentially. So keeping an eye out for that.
• 1:11:24
  That's a, you know, multi week tournament over there and then
• 1:11:28
  the college softball yeah, World Series, World Series will start
• 1:11:31
  this week now that. We're through the the regionals
• 1:11:34
  or yes. Thank you, super regionals.
• 1:11:36
  So all sorts of things for you to be watching for.
• 1:11:42
  Hopefully we gave you a few things to kind of keep an eye
• 1:11:44
  out in the news for as well. And that's a wrap for today.
• 1:11:48
  Well, we got to do momentum and setbacks.
• 1:11:50
  Don't we? Oh God, I was so excited.
• 1:11:55
  Yeah. So what is what is your?
• 1:11:58
  What is your? She was already in bad girl.
• 1:12:01
  Ladies and gentlemen, what is momentum and setbacks?
• 1:12:05
  What's your momentum? Let's see.
• 1:12:15
  Oh man, I'm trying to think of what my momentum would be.
• 1:12:21
  I think right now the Utah Royals in the NWSL are, it's
• 1:12:33
  kind of like uncanny to watch them just can be so incredibly
• 1:12:37
  consistent. So I will be watching that
• 1:12:41
  Portland, Utah game very closely to see what happens there 'cause
• 1:12:46
  I think you have a really good test of the Royals and, and they
• 1:12:51
  just kind of keep continuing to belong.
• 1:12:56
  I think on the flip side right now, I on the flip side, from A
• 1:13:01
  league perspective, I'm curious to see how the Atlanta Dream do
• 1:13:05
  these next couple of weeks into the Commissioner's Cup, which
• 1:13:09
  also starts next week, to sort of see if they can keep
• 1:13:13
  solidifying that top spot. For sure my momentum, I think I
• 1:13:19
  saw the number was like 1,222,000.
• 1:13:23
  Some attendance over the 133 games with the PWHL season which
• 1:13:30
  is fantastic. Like I think it was like 9
• 1:13:32
  around 9 to 10,000 per game per game.
• 1:13:35
  Which is it? Was like 98 it's.
• 1:13:37
  Amazing. So just keep up the momentum
• 1:13:41
  there and I can't wait to see what happens with this this next
• 1:13:46
  next season. Yeah, it's weird like June is
• 1:13:49
  gonna be. It's gonna feel like maybe that
• 1:13:51
  it's like a a pause or like it's weird 'cause you're kind of
• 1:13:54
  sliding into Commissioners Cup for the West.
• 1:13:56
  The NWSL is on a break. PWHL like season is technically
• 1:14:00
  over, but you've got all the draft stuff going on for
• 1:14:03
  PWHLNWSL. You have international games
• 1:14:07
  being played and then you also sort of have this like, how are
• 1:14:11
  they kind of glomming onto the World Cup, which we're hoping to
• 1:14:15
  talk about next? Week.
• 1:14:17
  And then in the West, you do have that Commissioners Cup
• 1:14:20
  starting, but we're also going to be kind of getting to the end
• 1:14:22
  of that time sequence you were talking about, right?
• 1:14:25
  So like season really starts to shape up.
• 1:14:27
  So for sure, we better buckle up.
• 1:14:30
  Yeah, I don't know if I have a set back, man.
• 1:14:39
  I don't, I, I'm not sure if I do actually.
• 1:14:45
  I mean the NWSL going away for a month like we just talked about.
• 1:14:51
  Yeah, somehow I don't think that we're going to want for topics
• 1:14:54
  though. Yeah, I I think my set back is
• 1:15:03
  the like we've talked about this before, but the weird online
• 1:15:10
  behavior of WNBA. Basketball fans.
• 1:15:13
  Is really hard to navigate. Yeah.
• 1:15:19
  And I think the fan, I think fans are so important.
• 1:15:23
  And I realized that we're probably talking about like a
• 1:15:25
  very small subset of people, but.
• 1:15:29
  Sometimes that takes the narrative.
• 1:15:31
  Just like it does that kind of does take the narrative.
• 1:15:34
  And I think like, let's just focus on the play, on the
• 1:15:37
  players. We can focus on the qualities
• 1:15:42
  and traits that they portray on the court.
• 1:15:45
  Yep. We can talk about, you know,
• 1:15:49
  what the coaches are doing and decisions and like, debate
• 1:15:52
  whether or not that was a good one or the right one or
• 1:15:54
  whatever. But like, we don't need to like
• 1:15:56
  then just go lambaste and someone's entire family line
• 1:16:01
  because they don't agree with you.
• 1:16:03
  Yeah, yeah. Just seems it's like very
• 1:16:06
  aggressive. Yeah, it is for sure.
• 1:16:07
  So. I agree with that.
• 1:16:09
  Yeah, I don't have any. I don't have any other setbacks
• 1:16:11
  so. Yeah, I was going to say Jane
• 1:16:13
  Campbell's face. Yeah.
• 1:16:15
  That was tough. That was really tough.
• 1:16:18
  All right, RTG under score pod on Yeah, we're, we're doing this
• 1:16:24
  now I'm in now I'm in bed. RTG under score pod on
• 1:16:27
  Instagram, YouTube Raising the Game podcasts on
• 1:16:31
  substackrtgpod.com, Raising the Game podcast at gmail.com.
• 1:16:38
  Hopefully I got that one right. All of the different things.
• 1:16:41
  Check us out. And we'll see you next week.
• 1:16:44
  Bye bye.