PWHL players look to showcase women's game at NHL all-star weekend

NHL players don't typically bring their "A" game to all-star weekend. It's a chance to relax, have fun and take part in some light competition.

But it's not that way for the women's hockey players who'll be taking part in the all-star festivities this weekend.

No time to take their foot off the gas. They'll be on the ice proving themselves under the NHL's spotlight.

"The reality is you have to," Montreal captain Marie-Philip Poulin said earlier this month. "We can't take it off, because at the end of the day, people will always have the opinion that if we don't give our best, women's hockey isn't good."

Poulin and 23 other players from the new Professional Women's Hockey League will compete in a 20-minute three-on-three showcase Thursday at Scotiabank Arena in Toronto to kick off the three-day NHL all-star festivities.

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Montreal defender Erin Ambrose is excited to take the ice and enjoy some three-on-three action, but isn't losing sight of the fact the players are there to grow the women's game and promote the PWHL in its inaugural season.

"Any time that our game kind of gets put out there, we're still trying to prove ourselves," Ambrose said. "It's a frustrating thing as a female athlete, but it's kind of where we're at right now in the world.

"So we'll enjoy it, we'll have a ton of fun with it, but we also know why we're there."

The PWHL is off to a record-setting start since opening Jan. 1.

The league's first game between New York and Toronto at Mattamy Athletic Centre on New Year's Day reached 2.9 million Canadian viewers.

During its inaugural week, the PWHL set attendance records for women's professional hockey games twice as 8,318 fans filled TD Place Arena in