It took a bit, but PWHL Toronto is now a tough team to play against

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The seeds of the PWHL Toronto turnaround came in a player’s only meeting before its fourth loss of the season when it fell to 1-4.

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Maybe not just that moment as there were plenty more in the practices that preceded it, but that 3-2 loss to Boston on home ice was a turning point for Toronto after the team’s leadership group brought the women together before puck drop that night and stressed the need to tighten things up.

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Since that game Toronto has won three of its past four, outscoring its opponents 11-7 in that stretch and now sits third in the overall standings.

The team is far from a finished product and the hold on third is tenuous given the games in hand among those in the standings behind them, but Toronto is no longer just talking about being a team that is hard to play against. They are that team.

Leading by example from the very beginning have been Renata Fast and Jocelyne Larocque, the No. 1 pairing on Canada’s National team and two players opponents don’t enjoy seeing.

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But it’s no longer just those two making life hard on opponents.

It’s the rest of the defence corps and the forwards ensuring anything an opponent gets in terms of offence, is earned, not given.

From veterans such as Lauriane Rougeau to first-year pros like Maude Poulin-Labelle, all members of PWHL Toronto have bought in to being hard on the puck and by extension hard on opponents.

“Over the past few games we have really honed in on the details,” Rougeau the 33-year-old Quebec native who made this team as a free agent said. “I think that was what was missing at the beginning of the season.”

Rougeau then gave an example of some of those details that are being adhered to now that maybe weren’t in the beginning.

“It could be as simple as angling the puck carrier,” she said. “Also being tough on sticks. Not just being one-handed (on the stick) pursuing the puck carrier but also two-handed lifting the stick and then finishing with the body and just little details like that we have worked on.”

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And while Rougeau is clearly pleased with the Toronto D corps getting its props, she says the reason it has been so stingy in both chances and goals allowed is because the whole team has bought into the approach.

“It’s not just the D corps that has been playing better defensively, it’s the entire team,” she said. “Just looking at our neutral zone forecheck and some small details we adjusted and I think that makes our job (at the back end) easier when you have those forwards helping out so much.”

Head coach Troy Ryan was pushing that agenda in practices since training camp. It was just accepted that the players they drafted together would become a tough, physical team that was unenjoyable to play against.

Unfortunately, it didn’t really start to look that way until the leadership group within the team basically said enough was enough.

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“We had a meeting prior to the (Boston) game, just the players, having those talks about how we want to play, how we want focus on the details,” Rougeau said. “The message was it was up to us. Our leadership group did a great job explaining basically, ‘We know we are better than this and we have to start now.’

“So, that’s what happened and we’ve been buying into it a little more with each game since,” Rougeau said.

The most recent win, a 4-1 domination of league-leading Minnesota on home ice saw the visitors unable to sustain much pressure in Toronto’s end with the exception of those minutes when they were on the power play.

Even then Toronto’s penalty kill, which might be one of the strongest parts of its game, kept Minnesota on the periphery allowing few quality scoring chances.

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“We’re more of a shutdown team now,” said Poulin-Labelle. “I think we learned from all our games and learned the way we had to play. We always play physically but I think sometimes we had some mistakes with it in the defensive zone or the neutral zone and we talked about it and fixed it.

“I just think it’s really hard now to play against us and that includes the forwards and the job they are doing backchecking.”

At 24, Poulin-Labelle is one of the younger members on the roster. And as an offensive defender who likes to push the pace and join the rush, she has had plenty to learn about fitting in with this group.

But a little more than a month in Poulin-Labelle’s minutes are up and her learning curve is starting to level out.

“I have to say the last month of January is probably the most I have improved in my entire hockey career,” Poulin-Labelle said Tuesday.

And the proof of that improvement and the defensive improvement collectively is in the play of this team over the past five games.

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