Boston Fleet @ Toronto Sceptres
2 pm at Coca-Cola Coliseum
Watch/Stream on CBC and NESN

The game should be available on the PWHL YouTube channel in the US, as well as on CBC Gem in Canada.

Them

Boston revamped their team like all six PWHL teams did in the offseason. They now have quite a European flavour.

Hailey Salvian
The Boston Fleet have signed Amanda Pelkey, Shay Maloney, and Klára Peslarová.

Reserve players: Jillian Dempsey, Kelly Babstock and Olivia Zafuto.

Hailey Salvian has some other projected rosters on Twitter.

Boston is beginning the season with three goalies on the roster. They struggled last season until the push for the playoffs but they scored the least goals of any team, worse than the fairly hapless New York team. They added Lexie Adzija and Susanna Tapani at the deadline last year, and they've continued to add up front in this offseason. They've also overhauled their defence somewhat.

Things to look for: will they have a more effective offence, and how much can the league's worst power play improve? Their other big weakness last year was the vast gap between Emma Söderberg's performance in net and Aerin Frankle's. Söderberg had the worst Save % in the league last year. And to orient yourself to PWHL scales, that was .900 in eight games. Frankle had .929 in 18 games.

Notably in preseason, Klara Peslarová played in parts of two games, the only goalie to do so. So I think Boston has some unanswered questions about who is in net and how much they'll play.

Us

Toronto announced their roster yesterday:

As expected Natalie Spooner will open the season on LTIR, no word at this time on an expected return from knee surgery. Megan Carter is also injured with an unspecified lower-body injury. She was drafted 12th overall in the summer and is a shutdown defender out of Northeastern.

New contracts were signed with Lauren Bernard, Noemi Neubauerová, Anneke Rankila, Rylind MacKinnon and the returning Kaitlin Willoughby. Three players who were on the team last year have been signed to reserve contracts. Reserve players can practice with the team, but have to be signed to a short-term contract to play in games.

Toronto also revamped the hockey operations department. Lauriane Rougeau, a Toronto defender last season, moves to Hockey Operations Manager upon her retirement. Daniel Tkaczuk, former coach in the AHL, and Vicky Shunohara, head coach of the Varsity Blues are both consulting with the team.

Like Boston, Toronto is starting the season with three goalies on the roster, one new to the team. Raygan Kirk was drafted in 2024 42nd overall. She was the Frozen Four MVP with Ohio State, and even as a goalie that accomplished had spent some seasons barely playing. She needs to play, and the Scepters, along with all the PWHL teams, need to find a mechanism to make that happen if she isn't going to play a majority of the backup starts.

There are a lot of new Scepters skaters to get to know:

Izzy Daniel, drafted 18th overall was the best scorer at Cornell, won the Patty Kazmaier and worked on analysis of NHL and NFL stats as part of her college work. She is considered to be a hard and greasy player, and should fit in on the Scepters very well.

Julia Gosling, Team Canada hero, was drafted sixth overall with Toronto's first-round pick. She is a talented forward who has a chippiness to her game.

Anneke Rankila neé Linser was taken with pick number 36 and considers herself to be a blue-collar, shot-blocking, physical player. She is American, but has played in Swedish pro hockey where she scored a lot of goals for a grinder.

Noemi Neubauerová was drafted 30th overall and is a veteran of pro hockey in Sweden after playing in the NCAA. She also played in Switzerland this fall before training camp started.

Also new to the Scepters are Daryl Watts and Emma Woods. Watts led Ottawa in goals last season while Woods was with New York after playing with the Toronto Six in the PHF for several years.

Lauren Bernard, an undrafted defender, was signed from Ohio State, and she is a rookie pro coming off a very good NCAA career.

Rylind MacKinnon, also undrafted, was signed from UBC USports where her team won several championships in their division. She is also a rookie to the pro game.

The Sceptres have been improved immensely by these additions, but the core of the team: Sarah Nurse, Kristen Campbell, Renata Fast & Jocelyne Larocque, Emma Maltais, Blayre Turnbull and Hannah Miller are here to try to win it all again this year. Natalie Spooner will arrive at some point to get the band back together.

Let's start by beating Boston.

Go Sceptres Go!

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