Gosling Comfortable In Her New Home

The Toronto Sceptres hit the ice this week for their first practice sessions of the season. First-round draft pick Julia Gosling is getting a lot of interest for several reasons: she’s a power forward in the mold of Natalie Spooner (can she replace some of Spooner’s offense?), she could slot into a first- or second-line role, depending if she plays center or wing, and she’s familiar to coach Troy Ryan from the Canadian national team and will have an advantage in the trust she has earned.

Gosling mentioned that it wasn’t a surprise or a huge transition to skate with the Sceptres.

“Just practicing with the full (national) team this past week at a high pace made me a little more comfortable coming into here and already got some of those touches out of the way. So I definitely felt comfortable out there and I’m just excited for the rest of training camp.”

There were no indications of line combinations at the start of the on-ice practices. The focus was more on building the components of strong play.

“We did a lot of different kinds of drills with stick lifting and flow drills and lots of passing. so kind of just getting into it,” Gosling said. “The pace was great out there. I found everyone's being physical already and very fast and passes were tape to tape. So definitely high expectations for this group.”

The battles for roster spots will be fierce among the bottom six, but Gosling has secured her place. It will be a decision for coach Ryan as to where Gosling is placed, and who might play alongside her.

“There's a lot of talented forwards for sure, so I can't really complain who I'll play with. I'll definitely learn a lot from them and hopefully get some good chemistry with whoever I play with. So just excited to see what Troy ends up picking for the lines and to get the exhibition games going.”