Nurse, Maltais reflect on PWHL's 1st year, gear up for new season

Toronto Sceptres forwards Sarah Nurse and Emma Maltais sat down with theScore ahead of the 2024-25 PWHL season to chat about the league's first year, the long road to get to this point, the excitement about the new campaign, and more.

This interview has been edited for length and clarity.

theScore: How is the feeling before this season opener different from last year?

Maltais: I think, as players, we feel a little bit more comfortable. Last year, there was so much new going on all the time - and not to say it's still not new - but we're a little bit more comfortable with all the events, all the excitement. I also think fans know what to expect a little bit more. They know how exciting the games will be.

I feel like there's almost more excitement around this season than there was last season. It's really cool that we're gonna be able to play in Coca-Cola (Coliseum) this year, that's another change. It's exciting that we grew out of Mattamy (Athletic Centre) almost, in a way. It was great to play in that facility, but I think using the momentum we had from season No. 1 into season No. 2 will be a great change for us.

theScore: How exciting and invigorating is it to move into a bigger arena already?

Nurse: I was actually at a Marlies game the other day. It was the first time I've ever been to Coca-Cola (Coliseum) as a fan, and I saw Sceptres jerseys in the stands. I was like, "Wow, everybody's getting ready for us to be in this building." It's pretty cool. I think the electricity that we felt last year in the playoffs is definitely going to carry over. There's so much excitement; I'm so glad that so many more people were able to get tickets because it seems to be the hottest ticket in town.

Mattamy was such a historic, special venue for us. To be able to start our season and really our organization, our franchise there, and to say we outgrew that in year No. 1 is a good problem to have. So, we're very thankful for them and their support, but we're excited to go to Coca-Cola (Coliseum).

Maltais: Although it isn't as big as a Scotiabank (Arena) or Bell Centre, it has that feeling where the fans are on top of you, almost. It's a little bit more intimate than the big, massive crowd, right? I think that was really cool. Also, like, we walked right through the concourse - it's pretty unique. That uniqueness kinda connects to what our league stands for. So I think, in a way, I'm just excited to connect with fans like that again.

theScore: The week building up to the first game last season was very hectic, very emotional. Has the past year better prepared you for the first game this season?

Nurse: I just think it's so different. You look at last year, we had a six-week training camp. So, it felt like forever leading into the first game of the season.

When you look at this year, we have like two weeks together. We have to pick a team, learn the X's and O's, gain chemistry with each other. Then, obviously, come out and do amazing media activations. We've become these public figures.

To have a brand like Royale do an art installation at the Eaton Centre, to be a part of history, has been amazing. I think those are some really big changes coming into year No. 2.

theScore: Who were the players who inspired you coming up through your career and as a kid?

Nurse: I remember growing up, I leaned heavily into the NHL players. So, I loved Jarome Iginla, I loved Mats Sundin. Something that's always incredible to me is when I get to be in places with Jayna (Hefford) because she was such an icon, a figure, an incredible hockey player. The fact that she's a part of this new PWHL (as senior vice president of hockey operations) and I get to do these things with her is incredible because she's somebody who we all looked up to. We watched 2014, and all her Olympics before that. So, it's just cool because she's so humble, and to just be around a presence like that is pretty awesome.

Maltais: Honestly, I'm really lucky to get to play with a lot of my idols. I remember watching Marie-Philip Poulin, Natalie Spooner, two in particular, and wanting to just be exactly like them. To be able to get to be a part of this with them, it's really, really cool.

Now, young girls and boys get the opportunity to see not just the Team Canada players and USA players on a big stage. And that's what's so cool about a piece of artwork like this. It's all six teams, using sticks from all the inaugural players. Before, it was such a small subset, and now it's so much more. I'm just lucky I get to play with some of the ones I got to look up to all along.

theScore: Most of the league's firsts are behind you. Is it almost refreshing going into a season where the focus is so much more on the actual on-ice product?

Nurse: I think in Toronto, it's interesting because when things are going well, people know about it, and when things are going bad, people know about it. And they'll let you hear about it.

I think it's definitely refreshing. We've been wanting to get to this point for so long. We love talking about being inspirations for the next generation. We love, love, love that we have that opportunity, but to be able to talk about a power play, to talk about how we're doing as a team, whatever it is, it's something we've wanted to do for so long because that's what professional athletes do. They play their sport, they talk about their sport.

theScore: What did you learn last year, and how can you apply that coming into this season?

Maltais: It's a bit refreshing coming into this season knowing what to expect, knowing the schedule. I really had to have a big adjustment going from college to pro. It was an adjustment for everyone, right? Like, none of us have really experienced being a professional hockey player. The travel, what it means to take care of your body with this heavy schedule. So, just for me, I learned a lot about simply being a professional athlete and I'm looking forward to using what I learned last season for this season.

theScore: Did you have a better ability to look back and appreciate what the first season meant over the offseason, considering how quickly everything happened in year No. 1?

Maltais: In Toronto, we were really lucky. I feel like we had a lot of opportunities to experience some of those big firsts. I'm not gonna lie, the Scotiabank (Arena) game, it was hard to digest what was happening. But then we got to play in the Bell Centre game. Every time you're a little bit more comfortable, a little bit more used to the attention and performing on that big of a stage.

I think this offseason was a big learning curve, too. It was a longer offseason than normal, but using last year as motivation, and using what we learned last season to hopefully start the season off a little bit hotter than we did last year.

Nurse: It was fun to actually look forward to having a season. We'd been doing the Dream Gap Tour for so long, and it was incredible, but it was just so different. We didn't know where we were gonna be one weekend to the next. The big adjustment for a lot of us who didn't come (straight) from college like Emma was the fact that hockey was our profession, not just a hobby.

I laugh, like my brother (Isaac Nurse), he's playing in the ECHL right now in Florida. We'd usually just take a weekend and go to Florida and go watch him play, but I can't do that because I'm a professional hockey player. To switch that mindset of like, "No, this is my job, this is my day in, day out," I really started that this offseason so that I could take it into the season because becoming a pro, that's a new way of thinking, that's a new way of life for all of us - staff included as well. So, going into the season, I'm really excited because I think we have a better starting point.

theScore: Sarah, looking back to 2019 when the PWHPA was formed, how did your hopes and dreams of what a league could look like compare to what we saw in the PWHL's first year?

Nurse: I think it exceeded expectations. We had this, like, bare bones idea of what we wanted, and then we had like the ultimate goal - charter planes, things like that. And I think there was this in-between part that we couldn't really formulate back then, and we understood we had to start from somewhere.

The place that we started from was way further along than we actually thought we would. The level of professionalism from the player standpoint, from a fan standpoint, I hope from the media's standpoint, was absolutely amazing. I look at season No. 2, just starting with the media day that we did as a league a few months ago, they doubled the budget. They wanna make everything as nice, professional, seamless as possible. I'm really proud of where we started, but I'm even prouder of where we continue to go.

theScore: Emma, what did the years between the CWHL folding and the PWHL starting look like for you while you were playing at Ohio State?

Maltais: Before, if you weren't playing for Team Canada or Team USA, then you didn't really have a reason to be as motivated as the top-end players that had that attainable goal. Those years for me were focused on making Team Canada; that was my goal.

It was really my first experience when I was centralized to see the work that these women were putting in towards creating something for us, and I think for me, I just feel the utmost gratitude for my position, because I stepped out of college into this wonderful league. I was blessed.

I don't think people realize the amount of work that was put in to create this. People think it happened overnight, people think it happened in the snap of a finger. Which it looked like with how seamless it was, but the amount of work I got to witness really made me feel grateful to be a part of it from the beginning.

theScore: Both of you are very active on social media. Why is that something you've embraced, and how does it allow you to connect with fans?

Nurse: (Emma and I) overlap, but we're very different people. She's so high energy, so funny, and I think I'm a little more reserved. But I think it's been cool because I just believe when you're authentic and you're genuine, you find your people, and your people are what mean the most to you and make you want to come back and create content and be on social media. To be able to connect with fans, at the end of the day, is not only gonna help build your personal brand, but it's gonna help the league grow. And that's what's the most important thing.

Maltais: I think also, encouraging young women to be themselves at a young age is a big reason as to why I am the way I am on social media. I like to think I'm very similar on social media as I am when you meet me in person, and I think that's what I want young kids to be comfortable doing. I think a lot of the time in high school, even in college, there's a lot of pressure to be something you're not, so I think just celebrating who we are as individuals is something that I wanna put through my social media as best I can.

theScore: What level of hockey are we going to see this season? It feels like we're in store for another big step up in terms of the product on the ice.

Nurse: After our first practice as a team, our leadership group spoke and we were like, "That was the best practice we've had in two years." And to have that on day No. 1, I think we really set the stage and set the tone for how we wanna play, and the team that we wanna be, and the habits and the details that we wanna bring every single day. Not only for games but for practices as well.

To step into the season, to set that standard, to hold ourselves accountable, we have a standard of excellence we want to hold, and we want to carry that throughout the season.