Marie-Philip Poulin stood on the blue line at the Bell Centre, fighting back tears.
She had just been introduced to a world record crowd in Montreal and the fans were giving her a deafening ovation. Poulin, the best women’s hockey player in the world for almost a decade, typically gets the loudest pregame cheer, especially in her home province of Quebec. But this applause — over 20 seconds long and delivered by 21,105 people — was different.
“Honestly, I didn’t know what to do, how to react, the emotions were so high,” Poulin said. “Having the Bell Centre packed for women’s hockey … it (felt like) we finally made it.”
That April 20 game broke the all-time attendance record for women’s hockey, one of many milestones for the inaugural Professional Women’s Hockey League season. Since its launch in January 2024, the long-awaited six-team league featuring the world’s best players has largely been heralded as a success. Millions of viewers tuned in for games; attendance records were repeatedly set and broken; and demand for tickets in some markets was so high that teams have already moved into bigger venues. Just last month, the league announced that it was preparing for expansion as soon as the 2025-26 season — sooner than anticipated.
But there were bumps…
