What to expect from the Ottawa Charge in Year 2 of the PWHL

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The wait, in its entirety, will be 209 days.

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That’s how long it will be between games for the PWHL’s Ottawa franchise, now known as the Ottawa Charge, from the time the team’s playoff hopes were dashed with a 5-2 loss to PWHL Toronto at the Mattamy Athletic Centre in the final regular game of Season 1 to the curtain lifter on Season 2 this Saturday evening in Laval.

That’s a long wait after your lifelong dream of becoming a pro has been realized and then prematurely interrupted.

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That’s a long wait for redemption, after falling short by three points of a playoff spot in the six-team PWHL.

To say that the Charge is anxious to get going again is an understatement.

What does the new Charge roster look like?

Earlier this week the Charge waived three players: Goalie Alexandra Lehmann, defender Madeline Wethington, and forward Andrey-Anne Veillette.

That leaves 26 players on the roster, which will be trimmed by three players announced on Friday.

Below is the list of 26, with the asterisk indicating the 11 new players.

Forwards:

Emily Clark

Shiann Darkangelo

*Taylor House (camp invite)

Gabbie Hughes

Brianne Jenner

*Rebecca Leslie (free agent)

*Mannon McMahon (fifth-round draft pick)

*Anna Meixner (sixth-round draft pick)

Kateřina Mrázová

Hayley Scamurra

*Danielle Serdachny (first-round draft pick)

Natalie Snodgrass

Tereza Vanišová

*Alexa Vasko (camp invite)

Defenders:

*Jessica Adolfsson (camp invite)

Ashton Bell

Zoe Boyd

Savannah Harmon

Sam Isbell

*Stephanie Markowski (fourth-round draft pick)

Jincy Roese

*Ronja Savolainen (second-round draft pick)

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Aneta Tejralova

Goaltenders:

Emerance Maschmeyer

*Gwyneth Phillips (third-round draft pick)

*Logan Angers (free agent)

Like all coaches, Carla MacLeod immensely dislikes cutting players.

But she also has been on the other side of the table, and knows what it’s like to have your dream crushed.

It’s all part of the business.

“It’s awful,” said MacLeod. “At the end of the day, we’re human and they’re human and it’s not easy. But as an athlete, you know what you’re signing up for. There’s a chance you’ll make it, and there’s a chance you won’t. And as a coach, I know what I’ve signed up for, that if we’re going to create a team there’s going to be this phase that we have to go through. So the human in you, it hurts. You’re really hurting somebody’s dream and their goal to play in this league, and I can appreciate why that goal is so substantial, but also recognize that’s the requirement and part of the process.

“I’ve been around for the good news and bad news stories. I’ve been an athlete, waiting for that moment and waiting for the answer, and I’ve been told I’ve made it, I’ve been told I haven’t. So I’m certainly cognizant of their emotions and how nervous many of them were. It’s just part of that process that you have to go through, and you try to be as in tune with them as people, and hopefully at the end of the day, where the hurt is there, the experience was still positive.”

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How has Ottawa improved from last season?

The same ways as the rest of the PWHL.

“I just think, with every single year and new players coming in, the level of play just increases … the competitiveness of it,” said Charge assistant coach Haley Irwin. “The players now, when they go to school, they have a goal after, right? It’s to play professional hockey. So I think just the speed of the game and the physicality are two really big things that have already been like, wow, we’re faster than last year.”

The Charge outshot their opponents most nights last season and had 62 goals, which was second-most in the league, but they also gave up 63, also second-most.

As a result, their regulation time record was 8-9 and their overtime record was 1-6.

In an effort to improve, they added players that are “hard to play against,” specifically on the blue line, and took well-rounded forward Danielle Serdachny with the second pick overall.

“Danny is a great player,” said Irwin. “She has the ability to make plays and to score goals. I think our we have a lot of depth up front and those players last year were getting those chances. Now you just need to bury them. So just continuing on, don’t get nervous because we weren’t scoring, just build on what we were doing because we had the opportunities.”

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How to watch the season opener?

The Charge kick off their second season on Saturday, at 5 p.m., against the Montreal Victoire at Place Bell in Laval.

If you aren’t planning on getting tickets at the 10,062-seat facility with the Olympic-size ice surface, the game will be televised on TSN1 and RDS1.

The teams faced each other in last year’s season opener on Jan. 2, 2024 in front of 8,318 at TD Place. Ann-Sophie Bettez beat Emerance Maschmeyer at 1:04 of overtime to give Montreal a 3-2 victory. Hayley Scamurra scored the historic first goal for Ottawa, while Katerina Mrazova had the other.

“I think you’d be remiss to walk into an evening like tonight and be worried about the scoreboard,” MacLeod said at the time. “It wasn’t going to be about the result tonight, it was going to be about the experience, and we just had an experience that I’m not sure you could ever duplicate. If it happens again, and we get to fill a barn again, we’re going to be pretty lucky because that fan base was like nothing I’ve ever seen.”

Montreal defeated Ottawa 6-3 in last week’s mini-camp final at the Verdun Auditorium.

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“I think we played really well against them,” said Rebecca Leslie, the Ottawa-born forward signed as a free agent by the Charge in the off-season. “Obviously, we were ironing out our game plan last weekend, but I think our team is so skilled. The  one thing I’ve noticed is our defenceman move the puck so well. They’re such good skating defenceman, and it’s nice to see. I think we’re going to be a really fast team and a team that’s hard to play against. I think we match up well against Montreal, and I think it’s going to be a really good game.”

What else is new in Year 2?

The length of the season, for one.

Each team now has a 30-game schedule, instead of 24.

There’s also some new rules that include:

— A major and game misconduct will be the default penalty for an illegal check to the head, unless the officials determine the hit was accidental or the head wasn’t the principal point of contact.

— Players will receive a major and game misconduct for head butting, hair pulling, and grabbing an opponent’s chin strap, facial or throat protection.

— There will be an offensive zone faceoff if a shot in the attacking zone is deflected out of play. Coaches can challenge a delay of game for the puck going over the glass, but the team is assessed an additional penalty for delay of game if the challenge is lost.

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Most interesting is the new “No Escape Rule.”

Players on the ice when their team is called for a penalty must stay out until after the ensuing face-off.

That could lead teams to start a penalty kill with tired players, or with three forwards and a defender, until they can either change on the fly or at the next whistle.

“I think it’s great,” said MacLeod. “It makes you think differently about that moment, and how do you navigate it, how do you manage it. Everyone has to know how to penalty kill. I can appreciate what the league is trying to do. They’re generating offence.”

The new rule will have a larger effect in the second period, when players have a longer skate to get to the bench from their own end.

“It certainly can be a tough variable to navigate,” said MacLeod. “I think that rule is a fun one. I think the Jail Break Rule (where a team frees its penalized player by scoring a shorthanded goal) is a fun one. All of a sudden, special teams carry a little bit of a different look for us in our league and I like that.”

What is it is like waiting for the first puck drop of the regular season?

“I feel just like a kid on Christmas,” said Leslie. “You’re so excited for the regular season, to play some games, for me, you to play for this new team. I take a lot of pride in representing Ottawa and we’re just so excited to play in games. Practices are fun, but to play in a game, that’s the most fun part.”

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