The art of hitting in women’s hockey: How are PWHL players adapting to a more physical game?

The Professional Women’s Hockey League, hoping to educate players on the art of taking a hit, brought in a big name.

Ex-NHL player Ryan Getzlaf was one of his generation’s best combinations of skill and physicality. He was an elite playmaking center — who won a Stanley Cup and two Olympic gold medals — and a punishing 6-foot-3, 220-pound presence.

The former Anaheim Ducks captain now works in the NHL’s department of player safety, which hands out suspensions or fines for on-ice incidents in the league. It was in that capacity that he spoke to PWHL players during the league’s November preseason camps.

Since the launch of the PWHL in January, women’s hockey has become more physical than ever before. And while the increased contact has largely been celebrated — by both players and fans — there have been some concerns about injuries and ambiguity about how to interpret the PWHL’s rulebook. Getzlaf’s goal was to teach players how to better protect themselves on the ice.

“Through no fault of their own, a lot of them never played contact hockey before, so they’re learning a whole new set of rules and a whole new style of play,” Getzlaf told The Athletic. “(The league) saw the benefit for me to go in and talk about spacing on the ice, how to use your body properly along the boards (when) defending against contact, as opposed to putting yourself in some tough spots.”

Over 1,157 NHL games, Ryan Getzlaf was no stranger to making and taking hits. (Bruce Bennett / Getty Images)

Women’s hockey has been played the same way for decades. But now athletes are having to adjust to a new style of play once they hit the professional ranks. Navigating that change is going to take time for many players, league officials and executives.

“It’s unprecedented to have your first professional game be the first time you’re allowed to be physical,” said Toronto Sceptres coach Troy Ryan. “You’re going from 0 to 100.”

Physicality has been a hot topic in women’s hockey for years, especially among players.

In April 2023, The Athletic conducted an anonymous poll in which the majority of players said that if they could change one rule in women’s hockey, it would be to allow more contact.

According to the International Ice Hockey Federation rulebook, “bodychecking” in women’s hockey is allowed when there is a clear intent to play the puck. What that typically meant in practice, however, was players being penalized for making contact. That has made women’s hockey conspicuously different from the NHL, where hitting — and fighting — is very much a part of the game.

Women’s hockey players have long believed they should be able to get away with more contact, particularly at the net front and along the boards — not so much in open ice, where hits get more dangerous.

Before the PWHL launched, league leaders were deciding what PWHL games should look like; making the games more physical was an easy change.

“The players want this,” said Jayna Hefford, the PWHL’s senior vice president of hockey operations, who played 17 years for the Canadian women’s national team. “We think it’s a great brand of hockey. (The players) are strong, they’re fast, they can play this way.”

The PWHL’s initial rules around bodychecking were written similar to the IIHF’s — where gaining possession of the puck was a requirement to make contact — but it was clear early on that the interpretation of the rules and the way games were officiated was going to be different. There were more hits on the boards, and more contact was allowed in puck battles.

There were injuries last season, but according to Hefford, the number of injuries did not hit an alarming level. If at any point the increased physicality was creating more injuries, the league’s chief medical officer, Tina Atkinson, was instructed to flag her concerns with hockey operations. Over a number of check-ins, Hefford said that was never the case.

But there was inconsistency in how games were called last season. And for many players, the increase in contact was a first in their career.

Some players grew up playing boys hockey, where bodychecking is introduced at the under-14 level. Those players would have learned how to absorb contact, or how to throw a good hit — albeit years ago, especially for veteran players. Bodychecking has never been permitted in youth girls hockey, which means those skills are not typically taught.

“We’re figuring it out as players,” said Toronto defender Renata Fast. “There’s going to be bad hits because players are learning how to play physically. Not only are you learning how to take a hit, you’re learning how to give it and there’s going to be instances of doing it at the wrong time.

“I think for our league it’s been a work in progress.”

Defenders like the Sceptres’ Renata Fast can now add physicality to their arsenal, but it’s a learning process. (Troy Parla / Getty Images)

That work has taken on a few different forms.

Before the start of the 2024-25 season, the PWHL announced several rule clarifications regarding bodychecking.

The rulebook now more clearly states that bodychecking is permitted when players are moving in the same direction and that hitting an opponent straight on — with “opposite-directional force” — is prohibited. The league also introduced strict guidelines around head contact; any illegal checks to the head will result in a major penalty and a game misconduct, pending a video review.

Hefford said the league sent out multiple educational videos to officials, players and team staff on things like boarding (which many around the league found to be inconsistently penalized last season), hits to the head and bodychecking, with examples on what is permitted and what should be penalized heading into the season.

“We’re all adapting to this new standard,” said Hefford. “After season one, we felt the need to really try to clarify where those lines are.”

Getzlaf was brought in to help players better protect themselves on the ice for the times when an opponent might cross those very lines the league is trying to make less blurred. He hosted two short video sessions in Toronto and Montreal, where the league’s six teams were split up for preseason.

The main areas of concern Getzlaf identified in clips was player awareness and positioning. With no contact in women’s hockey for so long, players were accustomed to turning their backs to opponents along the walls to protect the puck. Now, that could put a player in a vulnerable position.

“If somebody is coming to make a hit and you turn your back at the last second, you’re going into the boards head-first,” Getzlaf explained. “Those are certain things we have to get out of the game.”

Getzlaf also told players he’d like to see them stop either five feet from the boards, or right up against them.

“When you’re standing at three feet, you can go in pretty hard on your head,” he said. “If you get closer to the boards, your shoulders and the boards can absorb some of the hit and it allows you to be safer.”

The importance of being more aware of their surroundings on the ice — and where contact might be coming from — was perhaps the biggest takeaway for players.

“It was interesting to have someone with an outside perspective and I totally agree with it,” said Minnesota forward Taylor Heise. “In this league (players sometimes) get away with being complacently not aware of what’s going on. Whereas in the NHL, your life is at stake at that point. You’re not going to turn and not know where you’re going because you’re going to get your ass laid out.”

Player awareness on the ice was a big takeaway for the Minnesota Frost’s Taylor Heise. (Michael Chisholm / Getty Images)

Some teams had already taken the onus on themselves to help teach players how to safely get hit. The Ottawa Charge brought in former NHL defender Marc Methot to run a hitting clinic ahead of the inaugural season. Minnesota coach Ken Klee, who played 934 games in the NHL, instructed players himself.

“I don’t want anyone to get hurt,” Klee said. “I’m more concerned with can we absorb checks, can we get out of the way, can we protect ourselves, rather than us being the big bad (Philadelphia) Flyers.”

And while protecting yourself is important, Klee has also emphasized to players the lines that should not be crossed, particularly when it comes to dangerous boarding penalties, which are called when a player hits an opponent violently into the boards.

“If you see numbers (on the back of their jersey) you have to let up,” he said. “If you see numbers, you can’t go finish them and say it’s on her because she didn’t look.”

At a recent Toronto Sceptres practice, Ryan spent most of the skate working with players on angling while on the defensive side of the puck. Having a good angle, he said, is critical for proper defensive positioning, but it also allows for safer contact versus going straight at an opponent.

“I want physicality. I think it’s a big part of the game, but I don’t want it to be reckless,” he said.  “It’s our job to make as many adjustments as we can to get athletes ready for physical play – it’s no different than helping an athlete get ready for our power play or penalty kill.”

With more contact looming, many players took a different approach to training in the summer to prepare for the 2024-25 season.

Around 20 PWHL players spent the summer at Shield Athletics — a facility in Burlington, Ont., 35 miles from downtown Toronto — with a more holistic training plan that included rehab, mobility, strength training and on-ice sessions.

“Last year opened a lot of players’ and trainers’ eyes into all those little rehab exercises that needed to be implemented in our programming,” said Fast.

At Shield, players spent several weeks working on their mobility and any nagging injuries or weaknesses in their body before moving onto any heavy lifting.

“If you’re not dealing with these minor weaknesses, when there’s contact, all of a sudden they catch up to you and they catch up to you very fast,” said Shield founder Brandon Coccimiglio, who worked with the PWHL players.

In the gym, players focused on building strength more than they’d done in previous offseasons, especially in their upper body. On the ice, Coccimiglio ran drills that simulated the kind of in-game contact situations players are most likely to be in, like escaping pressure while carrying the puck or taking a hit and making a pass.

“When you build that confidence in that body with that athlete,” Coccimiglio said, “all of a sudden they’re going into the boards and it’s not even fazing them.”

Despite all the adjustments, there have already been controversial hits this season.

Fast was boarded hard in Toronto’s first game of the season. Sarah Fillier, the No. 1 pick in this year’s draft, was needlessly hit into New York’s open bench door in a game against Boston. Last week, Minnesota defender Maggie Flaherty was suspended for two games after what the league’s player safety committee called an “unsafe and dangerous” hit on Boston forward Alina Müller.

Flaherty was initially given a major penalty and game misconduct for an illegal hit to the head, which was downgraded to a minor after a video review. The officials believed Müller’s own stick hit her in the head, not Flaherty.

But the league still handed down a suspension for multiple infractions: a north-south hit with no intent to play the puck, an extended elbow and avoidable head contact.

“We just went over this with players,” said Hefford, who is on the player safety committee. “All of those things cannot be part of the game. And we wanted to make sure we didn’t allow any sort of gray area.”

The hope for many stakeholders in the women’s game is that some form of body contact is introduced at lower levels so players are more prepared as they move up the ranks and eventually get to professional hockey. Nobody wants dangerous bodychecks in girls youth hockey. Instead, the focus would be on teaching players how to use their body safely and how to defend against contact. That way, when they get to the PWHL, it’s a more seamless transition into contact hockey.

“I think it has to be addressed at younger ages,” said Coccimiglio, who said he’s been working with some youth female hockey players on controlled contact scenarios. “The game is getting more physical and they have to be prepared for that.”

While it’s still a work in progress, most players ultimately see this increased physicality as a good thing for the game.

“It allows for the game to be played at a higher level,” said Fast. “It brings more fan engagement. There’s a lot of benefits to it.”

(Illustration: Dan Goldfarb / The Athletic. Photos: Chris Young / The Canadian Press via AP, Bailey Hillesheim  Icon Sportswire via Getty)