Bench Management Matters

The PWHL final is set as the last two teams standing in the competition to claim the first Walter Cup have been determined. Boston has been waiting to see who they play for a few days after eliminating Montreal, and Minnesota completed an unbelievable comeback after being down 2-0 in their series to win against Toronto to win 3-2 and advance to the final. Both teams earned their berths in the final as all three games in the Boston-Montreal series went to overtime while, as stated, Minnesota won three times while facing elimination. Not having a Canadian club compete for the Walter Cup in Year One kinda sucks, but the first championship will be decided on American soil.

One could make the claim that this final might be a bit of a letdown considering that the third- and fourth-place teams are the two squads in the final, but I'd argue that the parity on the league has shone through in ensuring that every team had a chance at winning. For the first season of play, that's what every league wants for its fans in each of its member cities, and I'm not sure many had Boston and Minnesota meeting for the PWHL's championship.

Despite Toronto being the top team in the league and choosing Minnesota as their opponent, Troy Ryan's group will have to figure out what went wrong. Losing the league's top scorer in Natalie Spooner in this series certainly didn't help, but having Victoria Bach on the ice for just 45:10 in five games seems like Ryan wasn't managing his bench well. In Game Four, she played a series-low 5:20 in a pivotal game that Toronto lost 1-0, and I struggle to understand why Bach wasn't on the ice more often.

It was the same story for Ryan in his deployment of some of his bottom-six players. The combination of Alexa Vasko, Samantha Cogan, and Kaitlin Willoughby didn't play more than 35:45 total in the five games for each of them, and one has to wonder what Ryan was waiting for in having these women dress, but barely play. You can point to the fact that they had just five assists combined during the regular season, but we saw how important depth players were in each of the games. In Game Three's 2-0 win for Minnesota, Maggie Flaherty and Denisa Křížová scored for Minnesota - they had a combined four goals all season. In Game Four's 1-0 win for Minnesota, Claire Butorac scored the double-overtime winner - she scored once all season. Minnesota's usage of their depth players won them games.

The same can be said of Montreal who relied far too heavily, in this writer's opinion, on a handful of players while Boston used its depth to keep its stars fresher. You can make a case that Susanna Tapani is one of Boston's stars as she ended Game One in overtime, but did anyone have Taylor Wenczkowski scoring her first professional goal in triple-overtime in Game Two to win the game? One has to wonder why Kori Cheverie played Jillian Dempsey just 4:15 in a game that lasted 111:44. Or why Leah Lum was played just 1:37. Or why three of six defenders played less than six minutes in the entire game. Montreal played 11 players more than 30 minutes in this game while dressing 19 skaters - that's baffling!

In all fairness, I expect some of the better players in the league to have a larger proportion of ice time, especially when an offensive zone face-off is awarded or there is a swing in offensive momentum. However, if players are being stapled to the bench regardless of the situation, why are they even being asked to dress? And what does that say about players who may have been scratched for that game? I'm sure Marie-Philip Poulin has no trouble playing 50:33 of a 111:44 game, but what's left in the tank midway through the sixth period when she's out there again?

I'll credit both Boston and Minnesota for better bench management in their series because they seemed to find the right mix of keeping players in the game. As I said above, depth scoring showed up for them because they were given more opportunities for that to happen while their stars were in on the scoring despite often being keyed on defensively, and that effort to spead the ice time throughout the roster now has both teams advancing.

Were depth scoring and bench management the only reasons for Boston and Minnesota advancing? Heck no, and I'd be naive to suggest that. They got timely scoring, good special teams play, solid defensive efforts, and phenomenal goaltending which helped them as well. Every team that wins has that mix, though, so there's usually something in the details that may have helped one team advance past another, and that's where depth scoring and bench management work hand-in-hand. It's not a stretch to suggest that games were won later in each contest, and that could be due to having fresher players coming over the boards for the winning teams.

Congratulations go out to PWHL Boston and PWHL Minnesota as the Walter Cup will be won on American soil this season with Boston hosting Minnesota in Game One on Sunday in their best-of-five series. Keep an eye on which team keeps their depth players involved as this series progresses. It's not a guarantee that team will win, but the old adage of "we win as a team" has both Boston and Minnesota on the cusp of hoisting the Walter Cup in the PWHL's inaugural season.

Until next time, keep your sticks on the ice!