Familiarity an asset for PWHL Toronto heading into 1st season

It took about 14 minutes for Blayre Turnbull to make Professional Women's Hockey League (PWHL) history.

The pre-season game between Toronto and Boston earlier this month didn't count in the standings, but it felt like a milestone when Turnbull, the pride of Nova Scotia's Pictou County, scored the first, second and third goals of the pre-season. 

It marked the start of a new and exciting chapter in professional women's hockey, and a new path for Turnbull, who's spent her career with Canada's national team in more of a defensive role.

"We're all really excited and happy for this moment to finally be here," Turnbull said after that first pre-season game.

Coverage of the first PWHL regular-season game on Jan. 1 at 12:30 p.m. ET (New York at Toronto) will be available on CBC Gem, cbcsports.ca, the CBC Sports app for iOS and Android devices, and CBC TV, beginning with a pre-game show at 12 p.m. ET.

Toronto will have no shortage of offensive weapons this season. The forward group will be led by Turnbull and Sarah Nurse, two of the first players Toronto signed, with quality depth to be found on the third and fourth lines.

The team will also have arguably the best defensive pair in the league in Jocelyne Larocque and Renata Fast, who continue their partnership on Toronto's blue line after several years together on Team Canada.

Behind the bench, they've got a coach in Troy Ryan who has plenty of familiarity with a good chunk of his roster, ranging from the players he's coached on Team Canada to fellow Nova Scotians Allie Munroe and Carly Jackson. Both played for Ryan almost a decade ago on Nova Scotia's Canada Games team.

It all means a lot of players on the roster have familiarity with each other, too. That could give Toronto a slight edge at the beginning of the season, when teams across the league are still figuring out their chemistry.

Toronto seemed dominant at times over three pre-season games. But the team also let a couple games get away from them, including a blown 3-0 lead against Minnesota.

Asked to define his team's identity, Ryan described a team that sounded more like the first version of Toronto that appeared during the pre-season, a squad that was physical and hard to play against.

"Physical, but honest," the coach said. "We're not looking to cheat anybody. We're going to be an honest, hard-working team that I hope people coming into Toronto are going to know they're going to get a tough game against us."

It all starts with Nurse, a player who's transcended the sport as one of the faces of women's hockey.

WATCH | Nurse to lead Toronto on and off the ice: