Professional Women’s Hockey League officially kicks off in Toronto

New Year’s Day marked a new era of women’s hockey, as the Professional Women’s Hockey League officially dropped the puck on their inaugural game in Toronto.

Toronto and New York went head to head in front of a sold out crowd at what used to be Maple Leafs Garden– now the Mattamy Athletic Centre — to mark a fresh start in women’s hockey.

Today’s game marked the first of the P.W.H.L., a six-team league backed by American billionaire Mark Walter — with teams in Toronto, New York, Ottawa, Montreal, Boston and Minnesota — featuring more than 150 players representing 12 countries.

Announced just six months ago, the league had set themselves a firm deadline to start January 1st — so teams currently have no nicknames or logos and are only referred to by the city they play.

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Former pro and hockey hall of famer Jayna Hefford serves as chairperson for the league says while a lot of work has gone into getting the league off the ground, a lot more still needs to be done.

“You know it’s not lost on that we have a lot of work to do. You know today is a great celebration for this, but it doesn’t end here,” Hefford said.

“We’ve got an incredible amount of work to do as we go through this season. But what a way to kick it off today.”

In a rare move, the league has partnered with three canadian broadcast networks, with the CBC, TSN & SportsNet all broadcasting games including Monday’s season opener.

And while today marked the inaugural game of the P.W.H.L., with many more to come, league officials are already calling this year a success.

Long time sports executive and current L.A. Dodgers president and part owner Stan Kasten serves on the advisory board — alongside other sports executives including tennis legend Billie Jean King.

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Kasten believes, based on the talent of the players, the league will be successful.

“If we put our games on and they are the level that we believe they are… the other stuff… the business stuff will come along because we have the support staff that we need, we have the funding that we need, as long as the product is what I know it to we’re a success already,” Kasten

While it may be too early to know or even measure what success would look for the league, fans of all ages in the crowd in Toronto on Monday were already feeling inspired.

One fan said she started playing hockey when she was five years old and never in a million years thought women would be able to come out here and get paid to do a game that we all love.

Teams will play a 24-game regular season — with plans to expand to 32 next year — with the top four teams making the playoffs set for May.