SUMMARY
In January 2024, the Professional Women’s Hockey League kicked off in an attempt to finally give the best female hockey players in the world an actual professional league. Prior to the launch, women did have leagues to play in that called themselves professional but the players had to work other jobs just to subsidize their playing careers. Basically, they weren’t as “professional” as they declared they were. After years of hard work behind-the-scenes, highly decorated players Sarah Nurse, Brianne Jenner, Hilary Knight, Liz Knox and Kendall Coyne Schofield banded together to lead a collective toward founding a new league. With the guidance of tennis legends Billie Jean King and Ilana Kloss, as well as Los Angeles Dodgers owner Mark Walter and former CWHL commissioner Jayna Hefford, the PWHL launched in six North American cities to an incredible amount of fanfare and success. From the motivating origins through the inaugural Walter Cup, this a recap of the historic year not only for hockey but for women in sports.
REVIEW
Good documentaries teach you something. Great documentaries prompt you to action. THE RISE: THE INAUGURAL SEASON OF THE PWHL makes you want the league in your city. Admittedly, if you don’t care about hockey, the angle may be lost on you but, regardless, you can’t help but root for young girls everywhere through the stories of these incredible women.
Director Patty Ivins Specht successfully pieces together footage from the season to weave the story of how the league came about and how each team went through peaks and valleys while key talking heads like Coyne, Knight and Poulin (among others) provide invaluable insight.
The documentary covers a lot of ground but the lack of explanation as to why each team didn’t have individual names or logos was a glaring omission. In sports, merchandising is such a huge component when it comes to league, teams and even players growing and thriving. But, in that first season, the PWHL chose to go with city names only. Even if the reason for the unified look between the six clubs was because they wanted to show the world that they were, in fact, unified is fine but that wasn’t explained either.
Nit picks aside, THE INAUGURAL SEASON OF THE PWHL documentary will inspire a generation of girls while the league that these incredible players have built will inspire generations (plural) of hockey players and young athletes everywhere. If you have a young athlete in your house — regardless of gender — seek this out. Furthermore, if you coach a young girls hockey team, this should be required viewing.
THE RISE: THE INAUGURAL SEASON OF THE PWHL is now streaming on Peacock.
JKG SCORE: 8.0
Untitled Film Project 