Muller's Injury Overshadows Boston's Home Opener

What was supposed to be a special night for the Boston Fleet, their first home game of the 2024-25 season in their new jerseys and new team identity, did not go as planned.

According to captain Hilary Knight, the 3,811 fans on hand showed their support for the new identity and new members of the team in an "electric" environment, even thought the team came up short in a 2-1 loss to the Minnesota Frost.

“It’s special. It’s part of the identity and the legacy we want to build here in Boston," said Knight. "Not saying the crowd was any lesser last year, because it was electric, but looking forward to continuing to build on the Fleet identity. We have great fans, and we really want to win in front of them. We came up short tonight.”

Despite the positives, Boston fell to 0-2-0-0 on the season, as the only team in the PWHL without a win in the young season. A big part of that has been Boston's inability to generate offense, having scored only twice in their first two games, with both goals coming off the stick of Hilary Knight. Minnesota got goals from Michela Cava and Dominique Petrie.

Offense won't get any easier if a head check to last year's leading scorer Alina Muller leaves the Swiss star sidelined.

Coming in the second period, Minnesota's Maggie Flaherty cut across the middle of the ice before extending her left arm to hit Muller. Originally deemed a five minute major and game misconduct for head contact, officials reversed the call claiming it was "accidental" head contact, reducing the call to a two-minute minor.

"They said that it was Muller's own stick that hit her in the head," said Boston head coach Courtney Kessel in the post game press conference.

It was the first incident falling under the PWHL's new central evaluation guidelines and rules implemented this offseaosn. The league stated regarding their new head cotact rule that "the PWHL will become the first professional hockey league to assess a major penalty and game misconduct as a default penalty for all illegal checks to the head that occur during play.... application of Rule 48 – Illegal Check to the Head will automatically initiate a further review with the PWHL Central Situation Room, by which referees may confirm their original call, reduce the penalty to a minor if the hit was accidental, or rescind it entirely if the review determines the head was not the main point of contact."

The hit however, which clearly showed Flaherty extending her arm, not body, to make contact with Muller, was not legal. As for Muller, who did not return to the game, Boston said she is still being evaluated by medical staff.

"You never want to see anyone get hit like that and you don't want to see anyone get hurt," said Kessel. "Hopefully it will be re-evaluated, our hands are kind of tied at that point, but hopefully it's looked at and we never want to see anyone get hurt."

For their next game, Boston hosts New York Sunday, December 8 at 4pm EST.