Sports
The art of hitting in women’s hockey: How are PWHL players adapting to a more physical game?
The Professional Women’s Hockey League, hoping to educate players on the art of taking a hit, brought in a big name.
Ex-NHL player Ryan Getzlaf was one of his generation’s best combinations of skill and physicality. He was an elite playmaking center — who won a Stanley Cup and two Olympic gold medals — and a punishing 6-foot-3, 220-pound presence.
The former Anaheim Ducks captain now works in the NHL’s department of player safety, which hands out suspensions or fines for on-ice incidents in the league. It was in that capacity that he spoke to PWHL players during the league’s November preseason camps.
Since the launch of the PWHL in January, women’s hockey has become more physical than ever before. And while the increased contact has largely been celebrated — by both players and fans — there have been some concerns about injuries and ambiguity about how to interpret the PWHL’s rulebook. Getzlaf’s goal was to teach players how to better protect themselves on the ice.
“Through no fault of their own, a lot of them never played contact hockey before, so they’re learning a whole new set of rules and a whole new style of play,” Getzlaf told The Athletic. “(The league) saw the benefit for me to go in and talk about spacing on the ice, how to use your body properly along the boards (when) defending against contact, as opposed to putting yourself in some tough spots.”
Over 1,157 NHL games, Ryan Getzlaf was no stranger to making and taking hits. (Bruce Bennett / Getty Images)
Women’s hockey has been played the same way for decades. But now athletes are having to adjust to a new style of play once they hit the professional ranks. Navigating that change is going to take time for many players, league officials and executives.
“It’s unprecedented to have your first professional game be the first time you’re allowed to be physical,” said Toronto Sceptres coach Troy Ryan. “You’re going from 0 to 100.”
Physicality has been a hot topic in women’s hockey for years, especially among players.
In April 2023, The Athletic conducted an anonymous poll in which the majority of players said that if they could change one rule in women’s hockey, it would be to allow more contact.
According to the International Ice Hockey Federation rulebook, “bodychecking” in women’s hockey is allowed when there is a clear intent to play the puck. What that typically meant in practice, however, was players being penalized for making contact. That has made women’s hockey conspicuously different from the NHL, where hitting — and fighting — is very much a part of the game.
Women’s hockey players have long believed they should be able to get away with more contact, particularly at the net front and along the boards — not so much in open ice, where hits get more dangerous.
Before the PWHL launched, league leaders were deciding what PWHL games should look like; making the games more physical was an easy change.
“The players want this,” said Jayna Hefford, the PWHL’s senior vice president of hockey operations, who played 17 years for the Canadian women’s national team. “We think it’s a great brand of hockey. (The players) are strong, they’re fast, they can play this way.”
The PWHL’s initial rules around bodychecking were written similar to the IIHF’s — where gaining possession of the puck was a requirement to make contact — but it was clear early on that the interpretation of the rules and the way games were officiated was going to be different. There were more hits on the boards, and more contact was allowed in puck battles.
There were injuries last season, but according to Hefford, the number of injuries did not hit an alarming level. If at any point the increased physicality was creating more injuries, the league’s chief medical officer, Tina Atkinson, was instructed to flag her concerns with hockey operations. Over a number of check-ins, Hefford said that was never the case.
But there was inconsistency in how games were called last season. And for many players, the increase in contact was a first in their career.
Some players grew up playing boys hockey, where bodychecking is introduced at the under-14 level. Those players would have learned how to absorb contact, or how to throw a good hit — albeit years ago, especially for veteran players. Bodychecking has never been permitted in youth girls hockey, which means those skills are not typically taught.
“We’re figuring it out as players,” said Toronto defender Renata Fast. “There’s going to be bad hits because players are learning how to play physically. Not only are you learning how to take a hit, you’re learning how to give it and there’s going to be instances of doing it at the wrong time.
“I think for our league it’s been a work in progress.”
Defenders like the Sceptres’ Renata Fast can now add physicality to their arsenal, but it’s a learning process. (Troy Parla / Getty Images)
That work has taken on a few different forms.
Before the start of the 2024-25 season, the PWHL announced several rule clarifications regarding bodychecking.
The rulebook now more clearly states that bodychecking is permitted when players are moving in the same direction and that hitting an opponent straight on — with “opposite-directional force” — is prohibited. The league also introduced strict guidelines around head contact; any illegal checks to the head will result in a major penalty and a game misconduct, pending a video review.
Hefford said the league sent out multiple educational videos to officials, players and team staff on things like boarding (which many around the league found to be inconsistently penalized last season), hits to the head and bodychecking, with examples on what is permitted and what should be penalized heading into the season.
“We’re all adapting to this new standard,” said Hefford. “After season one, we felt the need to really try to clarify where those lines are.”
Getzlaf was brought in to help players better protect themselves on the ice for the times when an opponent might cross those very lines the league is trying to make less blurred. He hosted two short video sessions in Toronto and Montreal, where the league’s six teams were split up for preseason.
The main areas of concern Getzlaf identified in clips was player awareness and positioning. With no contact in women’s hockey for so long, players were accustomed to turning their backs to opponents along the walls to protect the puck. Now, that could put a player in a vulnerable position.
“If somebody is coming to make a hit and you turn your back at the last second, you’re going into the boards head-first,” Getzlaf explained. “Those are certain things we have to get out of the game.”
Getzlaf also told players he’d like to see them stop either five feet from the boards, or right up against them.
“When you’re standing at three feet, you can go in pretty hard on your head,” he said. “If you get closer to the boards, your shoulders and the boards can absorb some of the hit and it allows you to be safer.”
The importance of being more aware of their surroundings on the ice — and where contact might be coming from — was perhaps the biggest takeaway for players.
“It was interesting to have someone with an outside perspective and I totally agree with it,” said Minnesota forward Taylor Heise. “In this league (players sometimes) get away with being complacently not aware of what’s going on. Whereas in the NHL, your life is at stake at that point. You’re not going to turn and not know where you’re going because you’re going to get your ass laid out.”
Player awareness on the ice was a big takeaway for the Minnesota Frost’s Taylor Heise. (Michael Chisholm / Getty Images)
Some teams had already taken the onus on themselves to help teach players how to safely get hit. The Ottawa Charge brought in former NHL defender Marc Methot to run a hitting clinic ahead of the inaugural season. Minnesota coach Ken Klee, who played 934 games in the NHL, instructed players himself.
“I don’t want anyone to get hurt,” Klee said. “I’m more concerned with can we absorb checks, can we get out of the way, can we protect ourselves, rather than us being the big bad (Philadelphia) Flyers.”
And while protecting yourself is important, Klee has also emphasized to players the lines that should not be crossed, particularly when it comes to dangerous boarding penalties, which are called when a player hits an opponent violently into the boards.
“If you see numbers (on the back of their jersey) you have to let up,” he said. “If you see numbers, you can’t go finish them and say it’s on her because she didn’t look.”
At a recent Toronto Sceptres practice, Ryan spent most of the skate working with players on angling while on the defensive side of the puck. Having a good angle, he said, is critical for proper defensive positioning, but it also allows for safer contact versus going straight at an opponent.
“I want physicality. I think it’s a big part of the game, but I don’t want it to be reckless,” he said. “It’s our job to make as many adjustments as we can to get athletes ready for physical play – it’s no different than helping an athlete get ready for our power play or penalty kill.”
With more contact looming, many players took a different approach to training in the summer to prepare for the 2024-25 season.
Around 20 PWHL players spent the summer at Shield Athletics — a facility in Burlington, Ont., 35 miles from downtown Toronto — with a more holistic training plan that included rehab, mobility, strength training and on-ice sessions.
“Last year opened a lot of players’ and trainers’ eyes into all those little rehab exercises that needed to be implemented in our programming,” said Fast.
At Shield, players spent several weeks working on their mobility and any nagging injuries or weaknesses in their body before moving onto any heavy lifting.
“If you’re not dealing with these minor weaknesses, when there’s contact, all of a sudden they catch up to you and they catch up to you very fast,” said Shield founder Brandon Coccimiglio, who worked with the PWHL players.
In the gym, players focused on building strength more than they’d done in previous offseasons, especially in their upper body. On the ice, Coccimiglio ran drills that simulated the kind of in-game contact situations players are most likely to be in, like escaping pressure while carrying the puck or taking a hit and making a pass.
“When you build that confidence in that body with that athlete,” Coccimiglio said, “all of a sudden they’re going into the boards and it’s not even fazing them.”
Despite all the adjustments, there have already been controversial hits this season.
Fast was boarded hard in Toronto’s first game of the season. Sarah Fillier, the No. 1 pick in this year’s draft, was needlessly hit into New York’s open bench door in a game against Boston. Last week, Minnesota defender Maggie Flaherty was suspended for two games after what the league’s player safety committee called an “unsafe and dangerous” hit on Boston forward Alina Müller.
Flaherty was initially given a major penalty and game misconduct for an illegal hit to the head, which was downgraded to a minor after a video review. The officials believed Müller’s own stick hit her in the head, not Flaherty.
But the league still handed down a suspension for multiple infractions: a north-south hit with no intent to play the puck, an extended elbow and avoidable head contact.
“We just went over this with players,” said Hefford, who is on the player safety committee. “All of those things cannot be part of the game. And we wanted to make sure we didn’t allow any sort of gray area.”
The hope for many stakeholders in the women’s game is that some form of body contact is introduced at lower levels so players are more prepared as they move up the ranks and eventually get to professional hockey. Nobody wants dangerous bodychecks in girls youth hockey. Instead, the focus would be on teaching players how to use their body safely and how to defend against contact. That way, when they get to the PWHL, it’s a more seamless transition into contact hockey.
“I think it has to be addressed at younger ages,” said Coccimiglio, who said he’s been working with some youth female hockey players on controlled contact scenarios. “The game is getting more physical and they have to be prepared for that.”
While it’s still a work in progress, most players ultimately see this increased physicality as a good thing for the game.
“It allows for the game to be played at a higher level,” said Fast. “It brings more fan engagement. There’s a lot of benefits to it.”
(Illustration: Dan Goldfarb / The Athletic. Photos: Chris Young / The Canadian Press via AP, Bailey Hillesheim Icon Sportswire via Getty)
Sports
Women’s pro soccer player faces teammates’ rebuke after calling on league to adopt clear gender standards
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A National Women’s Soccer League club has grown divided after one of its players called on the league to “adopt gender standards” to protect the integrity of the organization and grow the sport.
Elizabeth Eddy’s column appeared in the New York Post last week and she asked, “How do we preserve women’s rights and competitive fairness while fostering meaningful inclusion?”
Angel City FC defender Elizabeth Eddy (44) during the second half against Bay FC at PayPal Park on July 26, 2024. (Darren Yamashita/USA TODAY Sports)
Eddy wrote that controversies in swimming and track and field have shed light that women’s professional soccer lacks standards when it comes to intersex and transgender athletes. She wrote that the NWSL “must adopt a clear standard,” adding that only players born with ovaries should be allowed to play, following the standard in the Women’s Super League in the United Kingdom, or the league should adopt an SRY gene test, like World Athletics and World Boxing.
“Fairness and inclusion are core American values. Reasonable people can disagree about where to draw lines, but avoiding the conversation altogether by shutting out diverse views does not serve us. In fact, we owe it to current and future female athletes to solve this,” the 11-year veteran wrote.
But Eddy’s column didn’t sit well with her own teammates.
Sarah Gorden and Angelina Anderson both offered a scathing rebuke of Eddy.
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Angel City FC defender Sarah Gorden (11) kicks the ball against Chicago Stars during the first half of a match at SeatGeek Stadium on Nov. 2, 2025. (Melissa Tamez/Imagn Images)
“That article does not speak for this team in this locker room. I’ve had a lot of (conversations) with my teammates in the past few days and they are hurt and they are harmed by the article, and also, they are disgusted by some of the things that were said in the article and it’s really important for me to say that,” Gorden said on Friday.
“We don’t agree with the things written for a plethora of reasons, but mostly the undertones come across as transphobic and racist as well. The article calls for genetic testing on certain players and it has a photo of an African player as a headline. That’s very harmful, and to me, it’s inherently racist because to single out this community based on them looking or being different is absolutely a problem. As a mixed woman, with a Black family, I’m devastated by the undertones of this article.
Anderson talked about what she believed the club stood for.
“For me personally when I think of LA, and I think of Angel City, I think of a place that was founded upon inclusivity and love for all people – that’s what our locker room is, that what our staff is, that’s what our fan base is. Angel City is a place for everyone. It always will be. That’s how it was from the beginning, that’s how it will always be. Period,” she said.
Angel City FC goalkeeper Angelina Anderson (19) watches the play during the first half against Racing Louisville FC at Lynn Family Stadium on Sept. 27, 2025. (EM Dash/Imagn Images)
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“I think this situation, there’s an element of timing to it where this feels like another really big challenge that we have to go through as a team on top of an already really challenging year. And it’s definitely not the note that we as a group want to end on, and so I just want everyone to know that we’re doing our best in the locker room to preserve respect and belonging on this team and we look forward to ending the season on as positive of a note as possible.”
The NWSL reacted to Eddy’s column, too. The league told The Athletic it was “committed to working directly with the NWSL Players Association on any changes to our league policies.”
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There was so much more to this comeback than the monotony of it all.
Sure, Charlisse Leger-Walker had to teach her quadriceps muscle to fire again, the UCLA point guard sitting in her room connecting her mind to her body so that her thigh would tense up, strengthening it just a bit more.
She had to learn how to walk again, run again, jump again, often rising two hours before her teammates so that she could get the work in on the anti-gravity machine and other weight training devices that would put her one step closer to playing again after a devastating knee injury.
Focusing on all those muscle groups eventually left the graduate transfer feeling stronger than ever. She spent so much time on her shooting, hoisting one three-pointer after another, that she developed the most consistency on her touch she’s felt during a decorated career in which she was an All-Pac-12 player at Washington State before going down on that terrible late January day inside Pauley Pavilion.
Washington State guard Charlisse Leger-Walker shoots during a game against Washington on Dec. 11, 2022, in Seattle. Leger-Walker has transferred to UCLA and is poised for a big season after recovering from an injury.
(Stephen Brashear/AP)
Maybe the biggest benefit of being sidelined for almost 1½ seasons came in her new grasp of the game. Watching from the bench allowed her to develop a more nuanced understanding of coach Cori Close’s system and which spots on the court gave each teammate a higher chance of scoring.
“I knew coming back this season,” Leger-Walker said, “that’s going to be a big part of my role on the team is making sure people are in the best positions to succeed and really understanding how I can make the individual pieces of our team come together better collectively.”
The long-awaited payoff starts Monday night at the Honda Center.
A team already filled with talent could overflow upon the return of a player who intends to help put it all together during what the third-ranked Bruins hope is a championship run beginning with their season opener against San Diego State.
It’s conceivable that Close could have four All-Big Ten players by season’s end in Leger-Walker, center Lauren Betts and guards Kiki Rice and Gianna Kneepkens. Leger-Walker gives UCLA another elite point guard and veteran presence alongside Rice, their games complementing one another instead of providing redundancy.
“One’s more of a downhill driver, going to put pressure on the defense with her aggression and off the bounce,” Close said of Rice, “the other is more of a surveyor, pass-first kind of point guard, and isn’t that great that they’re both on our team?”
Leger-Walker tormented her coach before she joined her cause, helping seventh-seeded Washington State make an improbable run in the 2023 Pac-12 tournament. Dominating across the board with 23 points, seven rebounds and three assists, Leger-Walker helped the Cougars hold off the Bruins in the championship.
“She sort of took over the game,” Close said. “It was Charlisse Leger-Walker’s world, and we were just living in it.”
Nearly a year later, having scored 17 points in 19 minutes with her team on the way to another victory over the Bruins, the 5-foot-10 guard crumpled to the Pauley Pavilion court in the third quarter. She briefly rose to test her injured knee before giving up, the pain unbearable.
It was a torn anterior cruciate ligament. Her season was over.
The timing was especially cruel given that she had been scheduled to play for the New Zealand national team the next week, helping the Tall Ferns try to qualify for the 2024 Olympics in something of a family tradition. Her mother, Leanne Walker, had played point guard for their home nation in the 2000 and 2004 Summer Games, but with Charlisse sidelined the Tall Ferns failed to qualify in 2024.
“There were a lot of disappointing things in that moment,” Charlisse said, “involving more than just the injury itself.”
With one season of eligibility remaining, Leger-Walker sought an upgrade — with encouragement from Washington State coach Kamie Ethridge, who realized that her star player had maximized her potential with a team that didn’t have realistic national title aspirations.
What happened next remains a playful dispute between Leger-Walker and her new coach.
Pouncing on the opportunity to pursue Leger-Walker once she entered the transfer portal, Close said she had trouble getting the point guard to return her messages. Informed of her coach’s claim with Close standing nearby at Big Ten media day, Leger-Walker expressed mock exasperation.
“Oh my gosh, that’s her biggest thing,” Leger-Walker said. “I did — you can check the text message receipts.”
As Close broke into laughter, Leger-Walker added, “I did. Maybe it was a couple of hours later, but I definitely returned her messages. She exaggerates that.”
Once she agreed to become a Bruin, the sidelined star became a de facto coach, not only learning about her teammates’ tendencies but also encouraging them during practices and games.
By last February, having completed her lengthy rehabilitation, Leger-Walker faced a difficult decision: Should she return to help the Bruins contend for a national title or wait to come back for a full season?
She chose the latter path, making everyone grateful for the extended opportunity to play together long before she dazzled with 11 assists and only two turnovers in a recent scrimmage.
Said Rice: “To now be able to be in the backcourt with her, to learn from her, she’s brought a lot of new things.”
Said Betts: “I mean, everybody knows she’s like one of the best guards in the entire country.”
Of course, being surrounded by so many skilled teammates could make things incredibly easy for the Bruins’ new ballhandler. Leger-Walker knows there will be moments when she can almost reflexively help her team.
Just get the ball to Kneepkens beyond the three-point line, where her shots are a coin flip.
“That’s probably an assist,” Leger-Walker said.
Just throw a lob to Betts in the post, where she makes almost everything.
“That’s probably an assist,” Leger-Walker said.
Labeled one of the best passing guards that her coach has ever seen, Leger-Walker has been primed for this moment. The monotony over, those muscles firing again, it’s time to start winning.
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Hugh Freeze made one final walk off the field on Saturday night following the loss to Kentucky, as the student section loudly chanted ‘Fire Freeze.’’ The students got their wish, Auburn has fired its head coach, according to multiple sources.
The embarrassing loss to Kentucky, where Auburn scored just three points in the 10-3 loss, was the final straw for Freeze. He left the athletic department and boosters with no other option, as the Tigers fell to 1-5 in the SEC.
Auburn head coach Hugh Freeze walks off the field after a loss to Kentucky in an NCAA college football game, Saturday, Nov. 1, 2025, in Auburn, Alabama. (AP Photo/Butch Dill)
Defensive coordinator D.J. Durkin will serve as the Tigers’ interim head coach, as Auburn travels to Vanderbilt on Saturday, before playing Mercer and Alabama to close out the 2025 season.
Auburn will owe Hugh Freeze roughly $15.5 million for the remaining years on his contract, according to sources. There were no negotiations regarding the buyout.
For a coach that promised big things for the Auburn program, Freeze ended up sounding like a used-car salesman over the past four years on the Plains. After every loss, for some reason, he’d keep coming back to the “We’re close” phrase that would send Auburn fans into a full-blown frenzy.
In the end, the offensive guru has put Auburn in a worse position than when it started. Most would think the Bryan Harsin era was bad, but the Tigers have been stuck in neutral for years, with hope fading after every loss suffered in excruciating fashion.
Auburn coach Hugh Freeze reacts on the sidelines after his team scored a touchdown against Arkansas during the first half of an NCAA college football game Saturday, Oct. 25, 2025, in Fayetteville, Arkansas. (AP Photo/Michael Woods)
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Whether it was the Georgia game, or the close loss to Missouri, the 2025 season has been a disaster. And when the fans turn on you, it’s over. So, one would question why it took John Cohen so long to make a decision. Did the administration actually think a win over Arkansas was going to turn things around?
No, it just bought them more time to make a decision that should’ve been taken care of two weeks ago.
If you thought about heading to Nashville next weekend to play Vanderbilt against the unofficial ‘Governor’ of Auburn in Diego Pavia was a smart move, I’d imagine fans are relieved to know that the decision was made in the early hours of Sunday morning.
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This entire situation was beyond repair, and no amount of NIL funding was going to fix it. Auburn boosters had given enough, with a return on investment non-existent.
Now, Auburn joins the likes of LSU, Florida and Arkansas in looking for a new head coach. There will be plenty of questions centered around which job is better, but the Tigers are realistically third on that list right now.
Kentucky head coach Mark Stoops talks with Auburn head coach Hugh Freeze before an NCAA college football game, Saturday, Nov. 1, 2025, in Auburn, Alabama. (AP Photo/Butch Dill)
The support is there, along with plenty of influential ‘money folks’ ready to throw NIL funding at the next head coach to keep players from leaving, along with finding quick-fixes in the transfer portal. There was no way Auburn could wait until the end of the season to make this move. Sure, fans will continue showing up, and you can bet the Tigers will have a strong showing at Vanderbilt next week in terms of fan support.
But, Freeze looked like a coach who was lost for words, knowing that it was the final time he’d be sitting at a podium with the Auburn logo flanking him.
Now, we wait to see where the Tigers turn next, and they have plenty of company across college football.
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