PWHL showcases physicality of women's game, with full approval from players

Extremely physical.

That's how Montreal head coach and former professional player Kori Cheverie described the game play after her team completed three Professional Women's Hockey League (PWHL) exhibition games in Utica, N.Y., last month.

The games still showed off speed and skill, which have long been hallmarks of women's hockey. But it was obvious early on that they were not going to be called the same way as a game at the international level.

"That's just women's hockey," New York forward Jill Saulnier told Mainstreet Halifax host Jeff Douglas earlier this week, after her team won the first PWHL game 4-0 against Toronto. "I feel like a lot of the arguments and a lot of the kind of water off the duck's back that we brush away is that, 'Oh, it's not physical. You can't fight. You can't hit.'

"I can pretty much for sure tell you that there is hitting in women's hockey now. There were bodies flying all over the place. I was flying all over the place."

Women's hockey has always been a physical sport, but officiating hasn't allowed it consistently.

Things will be different in the PWHL, and that's by design. As Hefford and the Professional Women's Hockey Players' Association (PWHPA) started to build a vision of what an ideal league might look like over the past few years, it was clear the players wanted a more physical game.

"They train incredibly hard," Hefford said in an interview this week. "They're strong, they're fit and they want to be able to play with some physicality."

The PWHL rulebook, which was released on Monday, says body checking is allowed "when there is a clear intention of playing the puck or attempting to 'gain possession' of the puck."

The message given to the officials, who are primarily drawn from the