Montreal Victoire: Tune Up For Toronto, Back From Break, and a Christmas Elf Causing Chaos

The Montreal Victoire spent the last week of practice preparing for Saturday’s game against the Toronto Sceptres. With a physical matchup in store, head coach Kori Cheverie and company had a week of drills focused on zone entry, and staying game ready with some Christmas chaos.

Practice makes perfect

The Victoire currently sit at a record of 1-1-0-1 through it’s first three contests of the 2024-25 campaign. While notching a couple wins is seen as a positive by the team, there is still room for improvement.

“We’re still trying to find our identity and build our foundation,” said Cheverie. “But through that, we test different things and look at different line combinations, [defensive] pairings… we’re still in our build it phase.”

Experimenting aside, strategy became the name of the game this past week. With a physically demanding game against Toronto on the horizon, the week saw much of Montreal’s drills working with the speed that comprises the Montreal roster.

“Anytime that our players who have that type of speed can utilize it during the game, it’s going to be crucial for us,” said Cheverie. “We want to play fast, but we want the puck to move fast as well.”

Friday morning saw two pucks suspending a bar on both ends of the ice, the purpose of which was for two players to enter the offensive zone and make a pass underneath the bar before firing a shot on goal. Cheverie made a quick correction after a few reps, stating to her team that the drill was not meant to be two-on-zero, but emulate zone entry.

“Toronto we know is going to be physical and therefore checking is going to be good, so we’ve got to be able to breakout under pressure,” shared Cheverie. “And that’s been a focus for honestly the past two weeks.”

Last year’s results

Toronto finished the 2024 regular season with a 13-4-0-7 record, good enough for 47 points and a first place finish. To make matters worse for Montreal, the team from the six got the better of it’s opponents in their five matchups, outscoring the now named Victoire 15-6 in overall goal differential.

Despite the overall result, the historic Toronto-Montreal hockey rivalry was apparent in each game in 2024. Hits were thrown, skirmishes sparked, pushing and shoving ensued.

The game that exemplified this the msot is arguably the March 8 contest. Toronto won 3-0, but the main storyline was the viral hit from Sarah Lefort that catalyzed a full-blown scrum of players, leading to five players—three for Toronto and two for Montreal—in the penalty box.

This level of intensity is still palpable, and the expectation is Toronto’s tenacity and physicality is to be expected.

“I think anytime we play Toronto, it’s very physical,” said Victoire defender Erin Ambrose after Friday’s practice. “And it’s going to be a lot of fun. It’s going to be probably a sold out, really loud building, and I’m really excited to have our first matchup against them.”

Holiday hijinks

Less than one week before Christmas, and all through the Montreal Victoire dressing room, a creature was stirring… hijinks.

Entire locker stalls have been gift wrapped to ornaments hanging with old player photos, someone, or something, has been causing some seasonal shenanigans. Ahead of the start of Friday’s drills, both Laura Stacey and Kristin O’Neill dawned wrapping bows on the back of their helmets. The culprit, according to Ambrose, is an elf.

“We’ve got a little elf in the dressing room. So, Elfie is doing some good little Christmas shenanigans and keeping the Christmas spirit alive,” said Ambrose with a chuckle. “He’s been around I think five days now, so ‘Elfie’ is making his stay very welcome.”

The pranks being pulled is a sign that the team is avoiding boredom, and in good fashion considering the 2024 Euro Women’s Hockey Tour put a pause in play for one week, one of three international breaks appearing in the 2024-25 season. Montreal hasn’t played a match since the Dec. 8 win against the Ottawa Charge, and will not play another match at home until Dec. 30 when they take on the Boston Fleet.

Yet, it isn’t just prank pulling that is keeping the Victoire engaged throughout the hiatus. Practices have aided the team in staying game-ready.

“I think we’ve done a great job the last two weeks of having high intensity practices, being physical and making sure that we’re preparing ourselves for tomorrow,” said Ambrose. “But I think it’s just kind of something that’s a part of the game. It’s part of pro hockey life and ebs and flows happen in a season happen in the schedule as well.”

The game between Montreal and Toronto will take place at Coca-Cola Coliseum at 2 p.m. EST.