“It’s just so promising that the league continues to make money every year, that the team salary caps continue to go up every year,” said Mike Bridges, a local fan who brought his wife and seven-year-old daughter to KeyBank Center on Sunday. “So it’s here to stay. We couldn’t be more excited.”
Bridges and his wife help coach their daughter’s hockey team. For girls like her, a successful women’s league can be a beacon of opportunity.
“It’s everything to us – just the fact that this is an option now for any young female hockey player with dreams,” Bridges said. “That they can put the poster on the wall and know that, if they’re really determined and serious about it, it’s an option to become a professional hockey player. And to be paid to do what you love. It’s phenomenal. In the past, a female hockey player, their career was over at college – that was it.
“Our job (as coaches and parents) is really about exposing her to more and more parts of the game, and just ensuring that she has a lifelong love of it. Whether she goes on to play at a high level, professional level, or just plays for fun, it really doesn’t matter to us.”
The Bridges family didn’t initially have a rooting interest, but when they attended Saturday’s practices at the Harborcenter, his daughter met and received signed pucks from a group of New York players, “so it’s Sirens all the way.”
Mudryk, meanwhile, made sure to post up at Boston’s end of the ice for warmups. From an early age, she’s admired Fleet forward Hilary Knight, who emerged from University of Wisconsin-Madison as the school’s all-time goals leader among men or women. Mudryk laments the absence of a PWHL-like league – and a professional, post-collegiate opportunity for stars like Knight – when she was growing up.
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