Knight & Poulin: A Picture Worth A Thousand Words

The saying a picture is worth a thousand words has never rung truer than for this picture taken right after the ceremonial face-off of the PWHL's Takeover Tour in Seattle on Jan. 5, 2024.

My main criticism on the PWHL launch was the fact the inaugural game was played between Toronto and New York. No offense to both teams, but I would have liked it to be between Montreal and Boston. Why? Simply because the faceoff would have featured the faces of the sport in Canada and the United States in Marie-Philip Poulin and Hilary Knight.

These two women have been through so much together and against one another. They are two of the big reasons why we are currently experiencing what I would describe as the golden age of women's hockey. From 2008-09, like clockwork, they've faced each other at the World Championship. With their team vying for world dominance, more often then not, they've faced off in the final. Knight has the upper hand in those meetings with nine gold medals and five silver medals while Poulin has four gold, seven silver and a bronze (from 2019 when Finland and Noora Raty upset Canada 4-2 in the semifinal with Poulin nursing an injury).

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On the biggest stage of them all though, at the Olympics, it's Poulin that has had the upper hand with three gold medals and a silver one while Knight has one gold and three silver. Every four years, these women go at it and give it their all, battling as hard as they can to win the ultimate prize for the pride of their country,

You would think that after all that, they would hate each other's guts but they don't, you can see it in the above picture. Look at their expression, there's so much love, respect and admiration going both ways in that image. That's not just because they played together with Les Canadiennes for a game in 2017-18 and for 23 more in 2018-19 before the CWHL folded, it doesn't hurt, but it's not the main reason.

That look of respect and admiration comes from the fact that game recognizes game. These two great players are fully aware of what they've done for the sport and they've done it together even when they were facing each other. Those nail-biting USA vs. Canada literally put women's hockey on the map. Not that it didn't exist before or that there weren't brilliant players before, but they've become the face of the heated rivalry and it got people's attention.

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Nowaday, nobody says Poulin is the female version of Sidney Crosby anymore, no, today she's just Marie-Philip Poulin, known as the best female player ever. When a journalist tried to ask Erin Ambrose a question last season saying Poulin was playing like Crosby and Ann-Renee Desbiens was tending net like Price, she stopped him in his tracks and made it clear to him that they didn't need comparisons anymore, they are athletes in their own right and their body of work speak for themselves. The same can be said about Knight as well.

Congratulations ladies, you've made it and watching you after that ceremonial faceoff on Sunday, I felt lucky. Lucky not only to have witnessed all those great battles, but lucky that women's hockey finally got a professional league with the appropriate financial backing before either of you retired, it just wouldn't have been the same without you. Here's to hoping you're both there for the next Olympic games and for a few more seasons.