Story of the Week

NEW JERSEY DEVILS ENTER FIRST OF ITS KIND AGREEMENT AND FORM MULTI-YEAR STRATEGIC PARTNERSHIP WITH THE NWHL’S RIVETERS
Devils Will Invest in a Women’s Hockey Franchise - The New York Times
NHL partnership a step in the right direction for the NWHL - espnW
NWHL Partnership With NHL's New Jersey Devils Aims To Boost Profile Of Women's Hockey - Forbes

The story of the week was a no-brainer. The New Jersey Devils partnership with the newly renamed Metropolitan Riveters, while not entirely unique, is certainly a very big deal.  Prior to this announcement, I wasn’t entirely convinced the NWHL was going to survive the season.

As is a constant theme with the NWHL, we don’t know hard numbers of the investment, and the numbers we do know are a bit weird:

Additionally, a $150 package includes lower level tickets to the Devils game and a season ticket membership to all Riveters games this season.

So a lower level ticket for the Devils part of the Devils-Riveters doubleheader — which themselves seem to retail for more than $150 — plus a Riveters season ticket package, which normally costs $150 alone. That math makes sense to someone, I’m sure. On the other hand, there’s this from the Forbes article:

“Many of our season-ticket holders called and said, ‘Hey, I want to buy my Riveters season tickets.’ What we want to do is magnify that small example of what's happened in the (first) 24 hours to our base of people that have been to Devils games. You're talking about a million-some people over the last 35 years of the team that we can actually tap into and draw them into this experience in a way that's different than the Riveters could have done on their own.”

And that’s the crux of it. More than free rent at the Barnabas Health Hockey House (which, from how some of the articles read, may not actually be new), and any other injection of cash the Devils’ owners may or may not be providing, what this partnership provides to the NWHL is an audience.

This is the unique aspect of it. While Calgary, Montréal, and Toronto promote their CWHL partners to varying degrees,  this agreement encompasses actual written guarantees that New Jersey will actively promote the Riveters on multiple platforms, including during their own games, and airing Riveters games on their own digital platform. This is really awesome, so much so that Annie will swallow her complaints about how “Metropolitan” is an adjective, not a proper noun.

It’s similar to why our women’s hockey coverage hasn’t migrated to The Ice Garden. While a women’s hockey community is a great thing for people who are already interested, it’s a fairly narrow audience. You make women’s hockey not only easy to access but hard to forget for NHL fans (hi guys!), and more of them are likely to check it out.  Whether or not it’s the start of a trend for the NWHL as a whole only time will tell. Ideally, this would add pressure to teams like the Bruins and Sabres to support women’s pro hockey, although based on the Bruins’ past responses that might be wishful thinking. For the Riveters and tri-state hockey fans, though, this is nothing but a win.

NWHL

Buffalo Beauts Media Day Draws Attention to Their Innate Chemistry
One thing that was abundantly clear about the 2017-18 Buffalo Beauts at their Media Day practice is their cohesiveness.

The Bruins should follow the Devils’ lead and invest in women’s hockey - Stanley Cup of Chowder
Deep pockets, available facilities and a wealth of local interest make this a perfect partnership.

International hockey

Canada’s National Women’s Team to wrap Olympic face-off against U.S.A. in Edmonton
TSN and RDS, the official broadcasters of Hockey Canada, will carry all six games of the Canada-U.S.A. series; check local listings for details.

Midget AAA Storm fall to Team Canada | Daily Herald Tribune
Team Canada’s women’s Olympic hockey team came back from a two-goal deficit to beat the AAA Storm men 5-3 at Revolution Place on Friday.

Kuwait women’s national ice hockey team to make international debut in Bangkok - Other - Arab world | Sport360
New Kuwaiti ice hockey ladies' team considered pioneers in the region.

A Female Hasek: Klára Peslarová, Team Czech Republic Goalie
Giving every appearance that she is the female equivalent of Czech legend Dominik Hasek, Klára Peslarová is the best female goaltender in Czech history.

Two victories against Germany for the women's national team - swisshockeynews.ch
The Swiss women's national team is on the right track with their preparation for the Olympic Games

Ambitious islanders
Centred on the largest of its 6,757 islands, showcasing the women's game of all ages has been in the spotlight this week on the autonomous territory of Aland.

Growing game in Mexico City
Sport has the power to heal and bring communities together. In a small way, the World Girls’ Ice Hockey Weekend event in Mexico City on Saturday showed how true that is.

CWHL

With modest paycheque in hand, Canadian Women's Hockey League players dream of 'living wage' - Montreal - CBC News
This year, for the first time in its 11-year history, the Canadian Women's Hockey League will offer its players a paycheque. But they still need day jobs to make ends meet.

Tara Watchorn retires from CWHL - The Ice Garden
Veteran defender leaves league after five years and one Clarkson Cup championship

Former Mercyhurst star Janiga enjoying life, hockey in China
Mercyhurst University graduate Emily Janiga moved halfway around the world to continue her hockey career. But the opportunity also has changed her outlook on life.

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Can Jamie Lee Rattray lead her team to victory?

NCAA

Div I Polls: USCHO | Ice Garden

10 greatest women's ECAC freshman seasons since 2010
Six of the conference's member schools are represented on this list of the 10 most impressive women's ECAC freshman seasons in the current calendar decade.

GOAL BY GOAL: #3 BC Women’s Hockey Opens With 4-3 Win Over #4 Minnesota-Duluth - BC Interruption
The Eagles start the season off right

NCAA Women’s Hockey Committee Chair Clarifies D-I/D-II Tournament Selection Issues - BC Interruption
Teams will be sweating on Selection Sunday

Hockey East weekend roundup - The Ice Garden
Huskies, Catamounts, Black Bears, oh my!

Friars Vanquished by an Abby. Quinnipiac Wins 1-0. – DFP Sports
Providence is a team to watch this season, and Quinnipiac’s had a rough start of it. They won the second half of their series on Saturday.

U Sports

U SPORTS - Standings

Canada West: Five Players to Watch - The Ice Garden
Not sure who to keep an eye on as Canada West gets underway? We’ve got you covered.

Women’s hockey raring for OUA glory | The Journal
The women’s hockey team’s 2016-17 campaign was a wild ride.

European league hockey

EIHL (England) Ice-hockey: Streatham Storm put in positive display in Elite League bow
Storm started the match true to their name, swarming the Guildford goal in the first two shifts and showing little sign of nerves at the step up after their promotion from the Premier League last season.

WHL (Russia) Women’s Hockey Update: October 9th, 2017 | CONWAY'S RUSSIAN HOCKEY BLOG
Both the senior and under-18 Russian women’s national teams saw action this past week, and the last couple of days witnessed the celebrations of the IIHF’s World Girls’ Ice Hockey Weekend.  In addition, there was a very important player-signing in the Women’s Hockey League, and even bigger news than that.

Reaching across Russia
Russia’s Women’s Hockey League got right behind this year’s World Girls’ Ice Hockey Weekend, with all seven teams staging events across Russia to mark the occasion.

Women's HockeyCanadian Women's Hockey League (CWHL)