Squid Eats: Place Bell

The kid and I made a trip up to Montreal to watch the Montreal Victoire take on the Seattle Torrent in a Professional Women's Hockey League (PWHL) game.  It's a good thing I double-checked location before leaving the house because I totally thought the game was at the Bell Centre, home stadium to the NHL's Canadiens.  In fact, it was at the similarly named Place Bell in Laval, a large suburb to the north of the city.  After weathering the horrors of Montreal rush hour traffic and sorting out parking, we finally settled into our seats after missing most of the first period.  Fortunately, we didn't miss any goals.

If you love hockey and you don't know about the PWHL, you're missing out.  If you live in or near a city with a team - Montreal, Boston, New York, Ottawa, Toronto, St. Paul, Vancouver or Seattle - you should definitely go to a game.  Here in the States (or basically anywhere other than Canada), you can watch for free on YouTube.  Game tickets are a fraction of the cost of the NHL equivalent.  

The hockey's great and the energy is electric.  The arena was packed, even on a random Thursday.  The crowd was young, overwhelmingly female and noticeably queer-friendly.  Loads of girls' youth hockey teams came in jerseys.  They sing along with the piped in music, even after it stops.  And since women and girls are encouraged to sing in a way that men and boys are not, the singing sounds a lot better than it does at, for instance, Liverpool soccer games.  Professional DJs entertain during intermissions.  

If a new hockey league is going to succeed anywhere, it's going to thrive in Montreal, to be sure.  All of the cities in the league are undeniably hockey-crazy.  No Phoenix.  No Florida or Texas.  All northern cities with genuine passion.  Keep it that way.  I think keeping at least half of the teams in Canada would be a solid plan moving forward.

Food is standard stadium fare.  We got two hot dogs each.  I got beer - an American IPA - in a can.  It's Canada so the the servers were very friendly indeed.

Right, the game.  Montreal handled this one easily, 4-1.  The first star of the game was Laura Stacey with an assist and two goals, including an empty-netter to seal the win.  Stacey is a three-time medal winner with the Canadian national team.