PWHL Expansion Jerseys REVEALED, KK Harvey’s 3-Year Deal & What Training Camp Rosters Tell Us About Season 4 · At Even Strength: A Women's Hockey Podcast · Radar

Conferences and Expansion Teams0:42 – 3:00

Rachel DonnerHost

0:42

I mean, I definitely like it.

Rachel DonnerHost

0:43

I think the one thing that I didn't dig too much into last week on that was the fact that we have more of the expansion teams in the West.

Rachel DonnerHost

0:58

versus the East.

Rachel DonnerHost

1:00

And so is there an unfairness to that? And I think no, because I think, you know, everything got upended a lot more with the number of expansion teams this time around.

Rachel DonnerHost

1:12

And so I feel like, you know, as we saw last season, things are more at a level playing field here.

Rachel DonnerHost

1:18

And I think there, there's something to that, but ultimately I think it's going to be okay in the end.

Erica L. AyalaHost

1:25

Yeah, I think it's, you know, I know in our Slack channel, people were like, oh, which conference is going to be quote unquote easier or whatnot.

Erica L. AyalaHost

1:32

I think if you're looking for wins or established teams, what you're saying makes a lot of sense.

Erica L. AyalaHost

1:38

I think what's also going to be Interesting is, are there challenges that come along with competing in a conference that is packed with expansion teams? I loved what the Golden Eyes looked like on paper, right? What Vancouver was going to look like on paper.

Erica L. AyalaHost

1:56

Very intrigued to see what Seattle looked like on paper or how it was going to go from paper to on the ice.

Erica L. AyalaHost

2:02

And both teams struggled.

Erica L. AyalaHost

2:04

That's not...

Erica L. AyalaHost

2:06

That's not outside of the norm.

Erica L. AyalaHost

2:07

There are outliers, of course, including in men's hockey.

Erica L. AyalaHost

2:11

But overwhelmingly, we see that expansion teams have to work a little hard.

Erica L. AyalaHost

2:17

I mean, I guess the other expansion team on the women's sports side of things, the Golden State Valkyries.

Erica L. AyalaHost

2:23

I mean, man, they're one game away from getting to the WNBA finals in their second season.

Erica L. AyalaHost

2:28

But I'm curious to see if and how that is going to impact what we see in the regular season.

Erica L. AyalaHost

2:35

Yeah.

Rachel DonnerHost

2:36

Yeah, it's certainly going to be interesting.

Rachel DonnerHost

2:39

I think, you know, the other thing that I didn't really get into was the schedule release videos.

Rachel DonnerHost

2:48

They were all great, but Hamilton, of course, wins because they went to the heated rivalry shooting locations for theirs.

Rachel DonnerHost

2:55

And so, you know, that was obviously going to be the best.

Erica L. AyalaHost

2:59

So we got a look.