Culture
Ranking PWHL team names and logos: Which of the six new combos is our No. 1?
By Hailey Salvian, Shayna Goldman and Sean Gentille
We waited more than a year for proper PWHL nicknames and logos. Now that we have them, courtesy of Monday’s official unveiling, we’re not going to waste any more time.
Which of the six new combos — the Boston Fleet, Minnesota Frost, Montréal Victoire, New York Sirens, Ottawa Charge and Toronto Sceptres — is our No. 1? How do the rest measure up?
GO DEEPER
PWHL unveils team names and logos: ‘We just couldn’t be more thrilled’
The Athletic’s Hailey Salvian, Shayna Goldman and Sean Gentille teamed up for the definitive ranking.
1. Montréal Victoire
Hailey rank: 1
Sean rank: 3
Shayna rank: 1
Shayna: Everything about Montreal’s look and branding just clicks. Victoire just feels fresh relative to other names associated with Montreal hockey in the past (and present, really). It’s something that works for both French and English speakers, too. The maroon of the color scheme feels grand enough to match the energy that the name brings, and using cream over white adds a classic touch. The navy completes the look and accents the logo. I have nitpicks here or there with the rest of the teams, so the combination of the name and logo makes this an easy No. 1 for me.
Hailey: I was surprised at how much I liked Montreal, considering I wanted the league to go back to Les Canadiennes from the CWHL days. Regardless, Montreal has the best combination of name and logo, which is why it gets the edge over New York and Toronto for me. There’s more detail to appreciate in the Montreal logo specifically, with the fleur-de-lis and the hidden M toward the bottom. “Victoire” is also just a cool name to have for a team with the most clutch player in the history of the women’s game.
Sean: I almost feel bad having them at No. 3. Shayna and Hailey are correct about everything. I really appreciate the freshness of the package — if this one isn’t groundbreaking, it’s pretty close. Also, the logo looks like a diamond! Nobody else said that!
2. Toronto Sceptres
Hailey rank: 3
Sean rank: 2
Shayna rank: 2
Hailey: If you asked me immediately after the PWHL announcement, I’d probably have “Sceptres” lower than No. 3 and maybe I was just being a picky local because I can see Coca-Cola Coliseum from my apartment. But Toronto’s logo might be my favorite of the six and the name is really growing on me – if nothing else it’s certainly unique. The colors look great, and I do think a team like Toronto – with fans who dressed up as spoons and nurses last season – could have a lot of fun with this. Sarah Nurse literally has a brand with the motto “Queen Energy Only.”
Shayna: Absolutely yes to the logo and to the color scheme. The name just … I need some time with this one. The Toronto teaser tweeted out the other day made me think “Royals” or “Monarchs” was the direction here, and I think either of those would have slapped. Sceptres isn’t a bad name and it’s unique to a sports team, it just doesn’t roll off the tongue yet.
Sean: I didn’t like the nickname initially — like, at all — but it grew on me pretty quickly … if we’re grading on a curve. I don’t love a monarchy; Canadian money bothers me for this reason. Still, points for creativity, the originality of a navy-light blue-gold combo and the best logo of the bunch. It’ll sell well with Taylor Swift fans.
Hailey: I didn’t even consider that. Sean might be the biggest Swiftie of the group!
3. New York Sirens
Hailey rank: 2
Sean rank: 1
Shayna rank: 6
Sean: I’m hard to please when it comes to team names. I don’t like collective nouns (i.e., “Kraken”), but I’m also not looking for more Panthers or Vikings. That’s a small sweet spot, and nobody hit it more directly than the Sirens. The logo isn’t my favorite — something about the way the wordmark halves the Y — but I think it’ll pop as a center crest.
The main reason I have them in my top spot: I don’t think any name-logo combo is more cohesive. “Sirens” works as a reference to hockey, yes, but also Long Island Sound, and I continue to love that shade of teal, especially in concert with the New York Liberty and Gotham FC. It’s the total package.
Hailey: I was Team New York Sirens until my last-minute swerve to the Montreal bandwagon. I think the name Sirens is my favorite, but the Montreal logo was the tie-breaker in my ranking. The colors are great, and the synergy with women’s sports in the tri-state area is a nice touch. This team has a lot of potential with in-arena activations, too. Can we get a giant siren?
Shayna: I absolutely love New York leaning into teal to stay consistent with the Liberty and Gotham FC. But the name is a no from me. I know it’s probably a reference to the water, but my immediate thought was: “We get it, New York’s loud with a lot of sirens.” I actually would prefer the Sound, which was one of those original trademarks leaked last year. That made sense for a team that bounced among New York, Connecticut and New Jersey. As for the logo – remember the Superman S you probably sketched on your notebook in middle school? This feels like a dressed-up version of that.
4. Boston Fleet
Hailey rank: 4
Sean rank: 4
Shayna rank: 3
Sean: I had a pretty defined top three and bottom three — half the brands seem to be going for one thing, and half another — and Boston was the best of the second batch based largely on the logo. It helps that the letter ‘B’ looks so much like a fishhook, but credit where it’s due. I also spy a bit of a Hartford Whalers reference, if you look from the side. Is that me projecting? Perhaps. In any case, it’s fine. A little uninspired, but fine. As for the name, I don’t like “Fleet,” but I also dislike it less than the other (Anglo) collective nouns.
Hailey: While Boston is a tier below Montreal, New York and Toronto, it’s also the best of the rest for me. The logo is far superior to Ottawa and Minnesota – the details inside the B and the anchor shape – though I like the “Charge” name more than “Fleet.” I can’t imagine it’s easy developing a sports brand in a city with the Red Sox, Bruins and Celtics, but this is a nice entry.
Shayna: Boston may have one of the coolest logos here, which really boosts its ranking. The anchor-like B is just so sharp. If that W is an intentional reference to the Whalers, I like it even more as a way to celebrate New England hockey in the post-Connecticut Whale era. The name I was initially sour on, but it’s not that bad. It’s a nice nod to Boston’s history and overall being a major seaport.
5. Minnesota Frost
Hailey rank: 5
Sean rank: 5
Shayna rank: 5
Shayna: I was really rooting for the “Reign” here with the purple scheme as a nod to Prince, but this isn’t a bad direction. The Minnesota Frost is honestly a pretty sick name that makes a lot of sense for a hockey team without being too cheesy and literal. The reason they don’t rank higher isn’t because the other teams are all so incredible that it was a process of elimination. The logo just falls short and drags the entire branding down. The ‘F’ is a promising start, but feels so incomplete.
Sean: This feels more like a create-a-team template than any of the others. I guess the negative space creates a mountain, which … it’s something. Points for purple.
Hailey: More than the other teams, Minnesota feels like a victim to the legal process when it comes to naming sports teams in 2024. The Ontario Reign already exist in the AHL, and the league clearly wanted new names it could fully own. I honestly don’t dislike the Frost – or any of the names for that matter – and I love the colors, but I can’t stop thinking about the F being on a cartoon superhero. I thought it was Frozone, but he doesn’t wear purple.
6. Ottawa Charge
Hailey rank: 6
Sean rank: 6
Shayna rank: 4
Shayna: Ottawa is very middle-of-the-road for me. I think the more I look at it, the more I find flaws with it. The color scheme doesn’t reinvent the wheel, but red-yellow-white is bright and eye-catching on the ice which I can appreciate. But I second what Sean said earlier on collective nouns for team names. And the logo (plus the color scheme) is giving knock-off Calgary Flames. I do love the Flames look and logo, so it’s not necessarily a bad thing. It just isn’t my favorite!
Hailey: I honestly don’t have strong feelings about Ottawa: The name works well enough for me, and the logo is fine. The whole electric charge vibe would have been cool if Daryl Watts was still on the team. Too soon! I’m sorry!
Sean: “Go Charge Go” is going to be a great arena chant, but the rest of it looks way too close to a software company logo from, like, 1997 for my taste. Sorry.
(Images courtesy of PWHL)
“Window seat with garden view / A perfect nook to read a book / I’m lost in my Jane Austen…” sings Kristin Chenoweth in “The Girl in 14G” — what could be more ideal? Well, perhaps showing off your literary knowledge and getting a perfect score on this week’s super-size Book Review Quiz Bowl honoring the life, work and global influence of Jane Austen, who turns 250 today. In the 12 questions below, tap or click your answers to the questions. And no matter how you do, scroll on to the end, where you’ll find links to free e-book versions of her novels — and more.
On Dec. 16, 1775, a girl was born in Steventon, England — the seventh of eight children — to a clergyman and his wife. She was an avid reader, never married and died in 1817, at the age of 41. But in just those few decades, Jane Austen changed the world.
Her novels have had an outsize influence in the centuries since her death. Not only are the books themselves beloved — as sharply observed portraits of British society, revolutionary narrative projects and deliciously satisfying romances — but the stories she created have so permeated culture that people around the world care deeply about Elizabeth Bennet and Mr. Darcy, even if they’ve never actually read “Pride and Prejudice.”
With her 250th birthday this year, the Austen Industrial Complex has kicked into high gear with festivals, parades, museum exhibits, concerts and all manner of merch, ranging from the classily apt to the flamboyantly absurd. The words “Jane mania” have been used; so has “exh-Aust-ion.”
How to capture this brief life, and the blazing impact that has spread across the globe in her wake? Without further ado: a mere sampling of the wealth, wonder and weirdness Austen has brought to our lives. After all, your semiquincentennial doesn’t come around every day.
By ‘A Lady’
Austen published just four novels in her lifetime: “Sense and Sensibility” (1811), “Pride and Prejudice” (1813), “Mansfield Park” (1814) and “Emma” (1815). All of them were published anonymously, with the author credited simply as “A Lady.” (If you’re in New York, you can see this first edition for yourself at the Grolier Club through Feb. 14.)
Where the Magic Happened
Placed near a window for light, this diminutive walnut table was, according to family lore, where the author did much of her writing. It is now in the possession of the Jane Austen Society.
An Iconic Accessory
Few of Austen’s personal artifacts remain, contributing to the author’s mystique. One of them is this turquoise ring, which passed to her sister-in-law and then her niece after her death. In 2012, the ring was put up for auction and bought by the “American Idol” champion Kelly Clarkson. This caused quite a stir in England; British officials were loath to let such an important cultural artifact leave the country’s borders. Jane Austen’s House, the museum now based in the writer’s Hampshire home, launched a crowdfunding campaign to Bring the Ring Home and bought the piece from Clarkson. The real ring now lives at the museum; the singer has a replica.
Austen Onscreen
Since 1940, when Austen had a bit of a moment and Greer Garson and Laurence Olivier starred in MGM’s rather liberally reinterpreted “Pride and Prejudice,” there have been more than 20 international adaptations of Austen’s work made for film and TV (to say nothing of radio). From the sublime (Emma Thompson’s Oscar-winning “Sense and Sensibility”) to the ridiculous (the wholly gratuitous 2022 remake of “Persuasion”), the high waists, flickering firelight and double weddings continue to provide an endless stream of debate fodder — and work for a queen’s regiment of British stars.
Jane Goes X-Rated
The rumors are true: XXX Austen is a thing. “Jane Austen Kama Sutra,” “Pride and Promiscuity: The Lost Sex Scenes of Jane Austen” and enough slash fic and amateur porn to fill Bath’s Assembly Rooms are just the start. Purists may never recover.
A Lady Unmasked
Austen’s final two completed novels, “Northanger Abbey” and “Persuasion,” were published after her death. Her brother Henry, who oversaw their publication, took the opportunity to give his sister the recognition he felt she deserved, revealing the true identity of the “Lady” behind “Pride and Prejudice,” “Emma,” etc. in a biographical note. “The following pages are the production of a pen which has already contributed in no small degree to the entertainment of the public,” he wrote, extolling his sister’s imagination, good humor and love of dancing. Still, “no accumulation of fame would have induced her, had she lived, to affix her name to any productions of her pen.”
Wearable Tributes
It is a truth universally acknowledged that a Jane Austen fan wants to find other Jane Austen fans, and what better way to advertise your membership in that all-inclusive club than with a bit of merch — from the subtle and classy to the gloriously obscene.
The Austen Literary Universe
On the page, there is no end to the adventures Austen and her characters have been on. There are Jane Austen mysteries, Jane Austen vampire series, Jane Austen fantasy adventures, Jane Austen Y.A. novels and, of course, Jane Austen romances, which transpose her plots to a remote Maine inn, a Greenwich Village penthouse and the Bay Area Indian American community, to name just a few. You can read about Austen-inspired zombie hunters, time-traveling hockey players, Long Island matchmakers and reality TV stars, or imagine further adventures for some of your favorite characters. (Even the obsequious Mr. Collins gets his day in the sun.)
A Botanical Homage
Created in 2017 to mark the 200th anniversary of Austen’s death, the “Jane Austen” rose is characterized by its intense orange color and light, sweet perfume. It is bushy, healthy and easy to grow.
Aunt Jane
Hoping to cement his beloved aunt’s legacy, Austen’s nephew James Edward Austen-Leigh published this biography — a rather rosy portrait based on interviews with family members — five decades after her death. The book is notable not only as the source (biased though it may be) of many of the scant facts we know about her life, but also for the watercolor portrait by James Andrews that serves as its frontispiece. Based on a sketch by Cassandra, this depiction of Jane is softer and far more winsome than the original: Whether that is due to a lack of skill on her sister’s part or overly enthusiastic artistic license on Andrews’s, this is the version of Austen most familiar to people today.
Cultural Currency
In 2017, the Bank of England released a new 10-pound note featuring Andrews’s portrait of Austen, as well as a line from “Pride and Prejudice”: “I declare after all there is no enjoyment like reading!” Austen is the third woman — other than the queen — to be featured on British currency, and the only one currently in circulation.
In the Trenches
During World War I and World War II, British soldiers were given copies of Austen’s works. In his 1924 story “The Janeites,” Rudyard Kipling invoked the grotesque contrasts — and the strange comfort — to be found in escaping to Austen’s well-ordered world amid the horrors of trench warfare. As one character observes, “There’s no one to touch Jane when you’re in a tight place.”
Baby Janes
You’re never too young to learn to love Austen — or that one’s good opinion, once lost, may be lost forever.
The Austen Industrial Complex
Maybe you’ve not so much as seen a Jane Austen meme, let alone read one of her novels. No matter! Need a Jane Austen finger puppet? Lego? Magnetic poetry set? Lingerie? Nameplate necklace? Plush book pillow? License plate frame? Bath bomb? Socks? Dog sweater? Whiskey glass? Tarot deck? Of course you do! And you’re in luck: What a time to be alive.
Around the Globe
Austen’s novels have been translated into more than 40 languages, including Polish, Finnish, Chinese and Farsi. There are active chapters of the Jane Austen Society, her 21st-century fan club, throughout the world.
Playable Persuasions
In Austen’s era, no afternoon tea was complete without a rousing round of whist, a trick-taking card game played in two teams of two. But should you not be up on your Regency amusements, you can find plenty of contemporary puzzles and games with which to fill a few pleasant hours, whether you’re piecing together her most beloved characters or using your cunning and wiles to land your very own Mr. Darcy.
#SoJaneAusten
The wild power of the internet means that many Austen moments have taken on lives of their own, from Colin Firth’s sopping wet shirt and Matthew Macfadyen’s flexing hand to Mr. Collins’s ode to superlative spuds and Mr. Knightley’s dramatic floor flop. The memes are fun, yes, but they also speak to the universality of Austen’s writing: More than two centuries after her books were published, the characters and stories she created are as relatable as ever.
Bonnets Fit for a Bennett
For this summer’s Grand Regency Costumed Promenade in Bath, England — as well as the myriad picnics, balls, house parties, dinners, luncheons, teas and fetes that marked the anniversary — seamstresses, milliners, mantua makers and costume warehouses did a brisk business, attiring the faithful in authentic Regency finery. And that’s a commitment: A bespoke, historically accurate bonnet can easily run to hundreds of dollars.
Most Ardently, Jane
Austen was prolific correspondent, believed to have written thousands of letters in her lifetime, many to her sister, Cassandra. But in an act that has frustrated biographers for centuries, upon Jane’s death, Cassandra protected her sister’s privacy — and reputation? — by burning almost all of them, leaving only about 160 intact, many heavily redacted. But what survives is filled with pithy one-liners. To wit: “I do not want people to be very agreeable, as it saves me the trouble of liking them a great deal.”
Stage and Sensibility
Austen’s works have been adapted numerous times for the stage. Some plays (and musicals) hew closely to the original text, while others — such as Emily Breeze’s comedic riff on “Pride and Prejudice,” “Are the Bennet Girls OK?”, which is running at New York City’s West End Theater through Dec. 21 — use creative license to explore ideas of gender, romance and rage through a contemporary lens.
Austen 101
Austen remains a reliable fount of academic scholarship; recent conference papers have focused on the author’s enduring global reach, the work’s relationship to modern intersectionality, digital humanities and “Jane Austen on the Cheap.” And as one professor told our colleague Sarah Lyall of the Austen amateur scholarship hive, “Woe betide the academic who doesn’t take them seriously.”
W.W.J.D.
When facing problems — of etiquette, romance, domestic or professional turmoil — sometimes the only thing to do is ask: What would Jane do?
A famous poet once observed that it is difficult to get the news from poems. The weather is a different story. April showers, summer sunshine and — maybe especially — the chill of winter provide an endless supply of moods and metaphors. Poets like to practice a double meteorology, looking out at the water and up at the sky for evidence of interior conditions of feeling.
The inner and outer forecasts don’t always match up. This short poem by Louise Glück starts out cold and stays that way for most of its 11 lines.
And then it bursts into flame.
“Early December in Croton-on-Hudson” comes from Glück’s debut collection, “Firstborn,” which was published in 1968. She wrote the poems in it between the ages of 18 and 23, but they bear many of the hallmarks of her mature style, including an approach to personal matters — sex, love, illness, family life — that is at once uncompromising and elusive. She doesn’t flinch. She also doesn’t explain.
Here, for example, Glück assembles fragments of experience that imply — but also obscure — a larger narrative. It’s almost as if a short story, or even a novel, had been smashed like a glass Christmas ornament, leaving the reader to infer the sphere from the shards.
We know there was a couple with a flat tire, and that a year later at least one of them still has feelings for the other. It’s hard not to wonder if they’re still together, or where they were going with those Christmas presents.
To some extent, those questions can be addressed with the help of biographical clues. The version of “Early December in Croton-on-Hudson” that appeared in The Atlantic in 1967 was dedicated to Charles Hertz, a Columbia University graduate student who was Glück’s first husband. They divorced a few years later. Glück, who died in 2023, was never shy about putting her life into her work.
But the poem we are reading now is not just the record of a passion that has long since cooled. More than 50 years after “Firstborn,” on the occasion of receiving the Nobel Prize for literature, Glück celebrated the “intimate, seductive, often furtive or clandestine” relations between poets and their readers. Recalling her childhood discovery of William Blake and Emily Dickinson, she declared her lifelong ardor for “poems to which the listener or reader makes an essential contribution, as recipient of a confidence or an outcry, sometimes as co-conspirator.”
That’s the kind of poem she wrote.
“Confidence” can have two meanings, both of which apply to “Early December in Croton-on-Hudson.” Reading it, you are privy to a secret, something meant for your ears only. You are also in the presence of an assertive, self-possessed voice.
Where there is power, there’s also risk. To give voice to desire — to whisper or cry “I want you” — is to issue a challenge and admit vulnerability. It’s a declaration of conquest and a promise of surrender.
What happens next? That’s up to you.
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