Time has great virtues. Among other things, he can teach, heal, console. This is probably what Danièle Sauvageau, Kori Cheverie and the players of the Montreal team of the Professional Women’s Hockey League (LPHF) are counting on to forget the outcome of their first season, without losing sight of all the moments exhilarating experiences they experienced along the way.
A good sixty hours had passed since Susanna Tapani’s decisive goal which allowed the Boston team to sweep the semi-final series three of five on Tuesday, thanks to three victories in overtime, when the general director of the Montreal club met the media on Friday.
This meeting with journalists took place in the atrium of the Verdun Auditorium, the same place where the Montreal team had started to take shape in September. A moment that Sauvageau had obviously not forgotten.
The first thing that comes to mind as I sit here are two very special moments. It was when we introduced you to our three players who had made the decision to sign with us
related Sauvageau, speaking of future captain Marie-Philip Poulin, goalkeeper Ann-Renée Desbiens and attacker Laura Stacey, who were also sitting next to him, just like Cheverie.
Then there was the announcement of [l’embauche de] Kori, and close behind, is the place where we met our players last November for the first time. Today, I feel like those two or three moments happened many moons ago. But at the same time, I feel like we would take a few more weeks out of this season.
The CEO is obviously not the only representative of the club to have expressed such a desire. Poulin, Desbiens and several other players met in the locker room a few minutes earlier admitted in turn that the heartbreaking defeat had not yet been assimilated or digested.
It still hurts, admitted Poulin. Want to, don’t want, we are all competitive, we want to make it to the end. At the beginning of the year, we mentioned that we want to win a championship. Great things take time. The organization we have here, I think we have what it takes, eventually.
Desbiens, who broke down and shed a few tears while thanking the team’s supporters on Tuesday, gave a speech similar to that of her teammate on Friday.
We put a lot of pressure on ourselves, we always want to do better, we can always do better. It’s not the end of the season we wanted, we would have liked to win that first trophy, we couldn’t do it, that was our goal. We’re going to look at what worked, what didn’t work, what things need to be changed and we’re going to improve from there.
Throughout his speech, Sauvageau wanted to thank the league leaders, the fans who were there and also the media.
Sauvageau obviously did not fail to thank those she called the actresses
or the players.
players this year. Only seven players played all 24parts. We also used five reserve players”,”text”:”We used 29 players this year. Only seven players played the 24 games. We also used five reserve players”}}”>We used 29 players this year. Only seven players played all 24 games. We also used five reserve players
underlined Sauvageau, while specifying that 60 matches/players were missed, including the series, due to injuries.
These women, these athletes, gave their all on the ice, gave their all off the ice, and I will be forever grateful to them for all the work and effort they put in in such a short time. time
she continued.
Three good meetings
Sauvageau’s record also allowed him to look back more precisely on the last three matches that his team played.
In my eyes, a defeat or a victory is multifactorial. We can take a performance on paper and say that the team that should have won, according to the statistics, is this team or that team.
It’s still paradoxical, a hockey season, she later added, because when we look at these said statistics, among the three best games of our year were the last three.
We were first in the playoffs for what we call expected goals. We were 6th during the season in terms of shots on goal, and we are 1st in the playoffs, 1st in power play. We scored in each of our matches [en avantage numérique], no other team has done this. The opponent took advantage of our mistakes, and we were less capable of doing so.
I believe, fundamentally, that the same performance could have won us three games. That being said, the Boston team played three excellent games and with a goaltender [Aerin Frankel] who was very present
also declared Sauvageau.
The general manager obviously could not avoid questions about the use of certain players compared to others. She said very little about this.
If we look at the ice time of both teams, we have roughly the same number of players on both sides who have played more than 30 minutes. There are some of our players who played a lot more than others, we’re talking about maybe ten minutes. There have been numerical advantages, there are contexts. The players who have perhaps played less, there are perhaps elements of answers which will remain between us.
Overall, taking into account the whole picture, Sauvageau said she was very satisfied with what the players managed to do with the leadership of Kori and her team
.
But above all, Sauvageau ended, on Friday, a season that she describes as extraordinary.
Over time, this is what we will remember. And over time, we will find the energy and all the passion to say: see you next season!
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