Who are the Boston Pride, the NWHL team that is home to 7 Olympians?
Team USA’s Women’s hockey team is full of tremendous talent, but seven of their players come from one team, the Boston Pride. But just who are they?
The NWHL is the first ever professional women’s hockey league in North America. The inaugural season took place in 2015-16 with just four teams, known as the founding four, consisting of the Boston Pride, Buffalo Beauts, Connecticut Whale and New York Riveters.
The Boston Pride are one of the NWHL’s most recognizable teams, being the home of seven team USA Olympians and some of the most recognizable stars in women’s hockey. Among those stars include captains Hilary Knight and Brianna Decker, both of which were named to the American Olympic roster.
The Pride won the NWHL’s first ever Isobel Cup over the Beauts in the league’s inaugural season, and they did not slow down there. The Pride would go on next season to a nearly perfect regular-season record, but lost the final game of the season to the Metropolitan Riveters. Boston would return back to the Isobel Cup in the postseason, but this time they were defeated in the finals by Buffalo.
However, things aren’t as great this year for Boston without its stars. Its record sits at 2-6-3 in 11 of 16 games, good enough for seven points and third place in the league.
The Pride also played in the first ever women’s outdoor game on Dec. 31, 2015, tying with the Montreal Les Canadiennes of the Canadian Women’s Hockey League in a 1-1 game. The matchup was also the first women’s hockey game sanctioned by the NHL and the first game between the NWHL and the CWHL.
The captain of the Pride, Hillary Knight, is the most common household name in all of women’s hockey, and rightfully so. In just 27 games over two seasons with the Pride, she has accumulated 48 points, not to mention 14 points in six playoff games. Recently, Knight was present at the NHL Skills Competition and participated in the accuracy contest. If her time was officially counted, she would have finished third behind only Brock Boeser and Brian Boyle.
Other players on the Pride roster named to the U.S Olympic team include Brianna Decker, Kacey Bellamy, Meghan Duggan, Gigi Marvin, Amanda Pelkey, and Haley Skarupa.
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In this year’s Winter Olympics, Team USA will be on the hunt for retribution. In the 2014 Winter Olympics, the USA finished with a silver medal after a heartbreaking overtime defeat to Team Canada in the gold medal game.
In 2010, they also fell short of the gold medal in the final game after a loss to Canada. This year they will look to erase the bitter memory of the last two Olympics, as anything less then gold will be a failure.