USA Hockey captain Hilary Knight opened up this week, telling CBS Mornings on Monday that she played with a torn MCL at the 2026 Winter Olympics — and skated through the injury to a gold medal.
"To be able to play through injury was definitely a mental sort of gymnastic challenge for myself — and also physical," said Knight on the morning show. "We've got some amazing support staff that did their best to get me out there and perform at my best, as best as I could."
Knight's best translates to the USA's best, as the 36-year-old became the all-time top US scorer during last month's Olympics when she slotted in the game-tying goal that sent the team's 2-1 gold medal win over Canada into its decisive overtime.
"I'm not walking around the best," Knight said about her injury. "I'm missing a few games for the Seattle Torrent now."
Her club team placed the PWHL pioneer on their long-term injured reserve, with Hilary Knight joining her USA teammate and Minnesota Frost captain Kendall Coyne Schofield on the third-year pro league's injured list for the foreseeable future.
The Torrent currently sit last in the 2025/26 PWHL standings, while the two-time reigning champion Frost are currently in third place — just five points below the league-leading Montréal Victoire — with just under two months left in regular-season play.
The PWHL is back in action on Thursday night, as the Winter Olympics' brightest stars rejoin their club teams just one week after the gold-medal game — with the third-year pro hockey league racing toward the 2026 playoffs.
With two months remaining in the 2025/26 regular-season, the Boston Fleet currently tops the PWHL standings with 30 points, trailed by the No. 2 Minnesota Frost (28 points), No. 3 Montréal Victoire (27 points), and No. 4 New York Sirens (24 points).
While no team's been officially eliminated, the No. 5 Ottawa Charge, No. 6 Vancouver Goldeneyes, No. 7 Toronto Sceptres, and No. 8 Seattle Torrent all have post-Olympics ground to make up if they want to keep their postseason dreams alive.
Thursday night's matchup will see two Olympic foes team up, as Canada captain Marie-Philip Poulin joins US star forward Hayley Scamurra on Montréal's line for the Victoire's clash with New York.
Then on Friday, US captain Hilary Knight and Team USA's 2026 Olympic leading scorer Hannah Bilka again join forces for Seattle as the Torrent host Toronto, before US veteran Kendall Coyne Schofield takes the ice for back-to-back champion Minnesota’s Sunday showdown in Montréal.
With 61 players — 30% of the entire league — returning from Milan, the PWHL is anticipating a further boost in interest after the Olympic tournament garnered record viewership this month.
"It's just the reality that women's hockey isn't going to go silent. It's not going to go dark," Coyne Schofield said ahead of last Thursday's gold medal final. "You'll be able to see every one of these players in tomorrow night's game a week from now, which is pretty awesome and hasn't been the case for the existence of women's hockey."
How to watch the PWHL on Thursday
The 2025/26 PWHL season returns to the ice on Thursday, when No. 3 Montréal visits No. 4 New York.
The puck drops at at 7 PM ET, live on YouTube.
PWHL fans can now own a piece of history from Team USA captain Hilary Knight, as the PWHL partnered with The Realest on an authenticated memorabilia collection.
The result is described as the first fully-authenticated collection of game-used and player-sourced PWHL jerseys, equipment, and other artifacts. However, Knight's game-used Boston Fleet stick and her game-worn jersey headline the drop.
Regarded as one of history's greatest players, Knight is competing in her fifth Olympic Games as Team USA captain. The 36-year-old finished last season tied for PWHL points leader with 29, becoming a Forward of the Year and Billie Jean King MVP Award finalist. She joined Seattle as the franchise's inaugural captain ahead of the 2025/26 season.
"As we enter our third season of unprecedented growth and record-shattering fan support, it was important to preserve our league's history," PWHL VP of merchandising Kate Boyce said.
The collection features memorabilia from all six original franchises plus this year's two expansion teams. Beyond Knight, fans can subsequently browse Montréal captain Marie-Philip Poulin's 2025 PWHL Playoffs jersey and Minnesota defender Natalie Buchbinder's helmet.
"We set out to make women's sports memorabilia a true category, not an afterthought," said The Realest CEO Scott Keeney.
How to buy PWHL memorabilia featuring Team USA captain Hilary Knight
The PWHL collection is now open for bidding via The Realest at therealest.com/pwhl.
PWHL players made their voices heard this week, as The Athletic published the results of the third-year league's first-ever anonymous player poll on Wednesday, surveying athletes on everything from the best trash-talkers to which nation's team will win Olympic gold at next month's 2026 Winter Games.
Leading the poll's individual accolades is 34-year-old Team Canada and Montréal Victoire captain Marie-Philip Poulin, dubbed the PWHL's best player by 80% of respondents.
Poulin's Team USA counterpart, Seattle Torrent forward Hilary Knight, snagged second as each standout prepares for a fifth career Olympic run.
As for who will win gold in Italy, all but one player predicted a Canada vs. USA Olympic Final, with a 50/50 split on the eventual victor.
Athletes also answered overarching questions about the growing league in the player poll, with Detroit earning the most nods as a PWHL expansion city — though Denver and Chicago also scored double-digit votes.
As for the future face of the league, current New York Sirens forward and 2024 PWHL No. 1 draftee Sarah Fillier narrowly edged out current University of Wisconsin senior and Team USA Olympic defender Caroline Harvey in the players' poll.
Toronto Sceptres forward Emma Maltais beat out Montréal's Abby Roque by one vote for the title of top PWHL trash-talker, though most players tapped her for quantity over quality — an assessment Maltais herself agrees with.
"I'm not trash-talking," clarified the 26-year-old Canadian. "I'm just yapping."
New York Sirens forward Taylor Girard made PWHL history this week, earning a record four-game suspension for leaving the bench to join a line skirmish at the end of Sunday's 2-1 win over the Montréal Victoire.
The brawl occurred at the the final buzzer of the PWHL's record-breaking Takeover Tour stop in Washington, DC, with eight players — four Sirens and four from the Victoire — subsequently issued 10-minute misconducts in addition to Girard's infraction.
As the sole player not originally on the ice to join the skirmish, Girard was the only player to receive an additional 20-minute charge.
Even more, Girard's actions immediately triggered a four-game suspension, as the PWHL Rulebook dictates that exact punishment for "the first player to leave the players' bench illegally during an altercation or for the purpose of starting an altercation from either or both Teams."
The four-game ban marks the longest punishment in PWHL history, doubling the two-game suspension that Seattle Torrent defender Aneta Tejralová received for an illegal check to the head last month.
With the PWHL on break after January 28th as 30% of the league's rosters compete in the 2026 Winter Olympics, the four-game suspension means that Girard — who sits second on New York's scoring sheet with five goals on the season — will not be available for the No. 2 Sirens until March 5th.
The PWHL is continuing to break records, as Sunday's 2025/26 Takeover Tour stop in Washington, DC, saw 17,228 fans pack into Capital One Arena to see the No. 2 New York Sirens top the No. 4 Montréal Victoire 2-1 — setting a new US women's hockey attendance record in the process.
The benchmark surpasses the previous US record set this past November, when the Seattle Torrent welcomed 16,014 fans to their inaugural home opener.
Sunday's DC crowd also sees the US mark inch closer to the overall professional women's hockey attendance record, set in April 2024 when 21,105 PWHL fans sold out Montréal's Bell Centre to watch the Victoire take on the Toronto Sceptres.
"Washington, DC, showed up in such a big way, and the energy our fans brought into the arena turned this game into something truly special," PWHL EVP of business operations Amy Scheer said of the first-ever PWHL game in the nation's capital. "Moments like this capture the joy of our sport and the momentum behind the league."
The third-year league is currently racing through its best-attended month on record, drawing more than 154,000 fans across the last 16 games while averaging crowds of 8,726 across all 49 games so far this season.
The PWHL is coming to the Garden, as the No. 2 New York Sirens announced on Thursday that they'll host the No. 6 Seattle Torrent at Manhattan's legendary Madison Square Garden (MSG) on April 4th.
While MSG staged a fan-less PWHPA game in February 2021, this year's PWHL takeover marks the iconic arena's first-ever ticketed pro women's hockey event.
"Madison Square Garden has a storied women's sports history," said Sirens GM Pascal Daoust in the team's announcement. "New York doesn't just watch moments; it lives with them. This is one of those nights meant to be experienced together, in the building, as part of the history of our team, our league, and everyone who helps bring it to life."
The April showdown will serve as the pair's final regular-season clash, with the 2025/26 series currently tied at 1-1.
Seattle took the first meeting 2-1 behind goals from captain Hilary Knight and Alex Carpenter on December 3rd, before New York stole the second game 4-3 as NYC local Casey O'Brien's hat trick lit up the league's Takeover Tour stop in Dallas on December 28th.
The Torrent and Sirens will next face off in Chicago on March 25th before closing out their four-game slate by making history at MSG at 8 PM ET on April 4th.
How to attend the PWHL clash at Madison Square Garden
While New York season ticket-holders can currently access tickets to the MSG clash, the presale for Sirens newsletter subscribers will begin on Monday before general sales opens at 10 AM ET on Tuesday via Ticketmaster.
The No. 3 Minnesota Frost are looking to skate up the PWHL table, as the reigning back-to-back champs hope to make up ground before the third-year league breaks for the 2026 Winter Olympics.
Eight games into the 2025/26 season, the Boston Fleet top the PWHL standings with 19 points, trailed by the No. 2 Toronto Sceptres with 14, while the No. 4 Montréal Victoire sit one point behind the Frost with 11.
"Our league is good. Every game is going to be close," Minnesota head coach Ken Klee said last week. "It's just about getting better and keep accumulating points."
With the league's original six teams largely off to a hot start, there's only a few weeks left before players hang up their PWHL jerseys for February's Winter Games.
Teams outside the current playoff chase are also making a statement, as New York Sirens forward Casey O'Brien scored her first pro goals to power the sixth-place squad past the No. 5 Seattle Torrent 4-3 on Sunday — becoming the first rookie to record a hat trick in PWHL history in the process.
"We've been putting in a lot of work in practice and video, focusing on the little things," O'Brien said postgame. "Tonight felt like the payoff."
How to watch this week's PWHL action
The puck drops on the final 2025 PWHL matches on Tuesday, when the No. 3 Minnesota Frost visit the No. 2 Toronto Sceptres at 7 PM ET, airing live on Prime.
Closing out the year on Wednesday, the No. 6 New York Sirens will host the No. 7 Vancouver Goldeneyes at 1 PM ET, with live coverage airing on MSG Network.
The puck dropped on the 2025/26 PWHL Takeover Tour on Wednesday, when the No. 2 Montréal Victoire took down the No. 5 Toronto Sceptres 2-1 in an overtime shootout in front of a sold-out crowd in Halifax, Nova Scotia.
Packed into Scotiabank Centre, 10,438 fans watched Team Canada and Victoire captain Marie-Philip Poulin score the shootout's lone goal, handing Montréal their third straight win.
"It was amazing to see the young girls and boys in the crowd wearing our jerseys, saying our names, and wanting our autographs," said Victoire head coach Kori Cheverie. "It's just extremely special."
The PWHL's 16-stop Takeover Tour is just beginning, with nine games planned for Chicago, Dallas, Detroit, Washington DC, Denver, and more before the league pauses for the 2026 Winter Olympics.
"We hope that the impact is a positive one. Everywhere we go, that's the impression we want to leave — for little girls to know that they have a dream and that their dream can become a reality," said Sceptres captain and Nova Scotia product Blayre Turnbull following Wednesday's Tour stop.
Halifax marks the third-year league's fourth sold-out stop, joining fellow Canadian cities Edmonton, Québec City, and Vancouver.
How to attend the 2025/26 PWHL Takeover Tour
The PWHL will next pull into Chicago's Allstate Arena for a Takeover Tour stop on Sunday, when the No. 8 Ottawa Charge will take on the No. 6 Minnesota Frost on at 2 PM ET.
Tickets are currently available for purchase via Ticketmaster.
The PWHL is rapidly looking to ramp up expansion, with EVP of business operations Amy Scheer saying this week that the third-year pro hockey league could welcome "two to four" new teams as soon as next year.
"If I was a betting woman, I'd say it'd be four teams. And then I think we'll hold at 12 for a bit," she told CNBC Sport, noting the league's immediate success with 2025/26 expansion sides the Vancouver Goldeneyes and the Seattle Torrent — the latter of which shattered the US women's hockey attendance record in their Friday home opener.
Accordingly, the PWHL will continue testing possible new markets using the league's historically packed Takeover Tour, with this season's 11-city route expanding to feature seven new host venues.
"What does the support of women's sports look like there?" Scheer said, outlining the league's criteria for assessing potential markets. "If there's an NHL team, what does that look like? Or from the building, is there government support there? How does it impact travel? So there's a lot of factors."
As for the league's notably speedy expansion pace, Scheer told Front Office Sports that the PWHL has "proven that time is overrated."
"The more our numbers grow, the more value we have as a league, the more value we have against our partnerships we sell, the more merchandise we sell," Scheer explained. "Those two things — growth and profitability — are not separate."