The Boston Pride were the team to beat in the NWHL last year, and that still appears to be true for the upcoming season.
The Pride were unable to compete for the Isobel Cup against the Minnesota Whitecaps last March due to the COVID-19 pandemic. Boston went 23-1-0 during the regular season and was competitive on all levels, but its season ended with a canceled Cup Final game.
The women now get set to head to Lake Placid to play a condensed season at the historic Herb Brooks Arena. And with how last season ended, the Pride, understandably, have a chip on their shoulders.
"We definitely have a little bit of a chip on our shoulder, I would say," Kaleigh Fratkin said Tuesday during the team's media availability. "Not being able to play for the Isobel Cup last year, I think for a lot of the returners, is something we're still hungry for. I'd say we have this chip on our shoulder, but we're also confident in the group that we have with the newcomers, the veterans. And we're there to accomplish our mission. And that's winning the Isobel Cup."
It won't be easy, though, and head coach Paul Mara knows that.
“We still have to show up and play," Mara said. "No one is going to hand us the Isobel Cup.”
The Pride welcome a slew of new rookies to the team, including 2020 No. 1 overall draft pick Sammy Davis. And Fratkin knows to carry over the momentum from last year, the veterans will need to "lead by example."
"We never got the chance to play the final game," Fratkin said. "We had a lot of momentum last season and built upon some great stuff, but there's a lot of players in this locker room that are hungry to win the Cup. That's kind of the goal at the beginning of the year is you want to win the Cup. And it's really tough as a player to know that the last time we played a hockey game was at Warrior Arena, semifinals, and we had our entire crowd there. ...
"We know what it feels like to lose that one game to Minnesota. We also know what it feels like to win some great hockey games and string together some good hockey," she added. "So, it's really going to rely on the veterans to lead by example ... and let everyone else in the room know that we know what we went through last season and to carry it into this season."
Jillian Dempsey, who's entering her fourth season with the Pride, said despite not even knowing how this season would play out, they still were working toward that ultimate goal.
"Obviously we had no control over what happened last year," Dempsey said. "We were ready to go, ready to compete for that Isobel Cup. Then not having that opportunity just made us more motivated and eager to put in the work in the offseason. And we didn't even know what this season was going to look like at the time with the pandemic and everything just up in the air. So, we weren't even sure what we were working toward, we just knew we wanted the next opportunity at the Isobel Cup. ... We are hungry and ready to compete and just fired up to get in there and get everything started."
The Pride's "revenge tour" begins Saturday at 4 p.m. ET against the Whitecaps. Regular season games can be watched on Twitch.
