Natalie Spooner was the PWHL's leading scorer, goal scorer, top forward, and MVP. But her season didn't end with a championship, it ended with an injury, now she'll need to walk before she can run into season two.
Natalie Spooner was the PWHL's leading scorer, goal scorer, top forward, and MVP. But her season didn't end with a championship, it ended with an injury, now she'll need to walk before she can run into season two.
It’s been a season to remember for the PWHL’s leading scorer, and now Forward of the Year and Most Valuable Player, Natalie Spooner. The irony of seeing her balance on crutches to get to the stage (several times as her name was called again and again) during Tuesday’s PWHL Awards was emblematic of the entire inaugural season of the league.
Here was a player who came back last year from having a child, working to return to form, taking the new league by storm, amazing fans and observers alike. Spooner embraced the challenges and excelled like no other. During interviews, she consistently lauded the work that had gone into this endeavor (mirroring her own determination and perseverance).
After the ceremony, she said of the awards, “I think it’s a testament to our team success this year and just how good we were in the regular season. It allowed me to excel and do what I do best and I’m just really thankful that I was nominated and voted for these awards. It was a dream come true just to be able to play in this league and to have a professional league for us to play in.”
And now she fights a new battle, showing that even in celebration and ceremony, there are struggles. The journey doesn’t end with a single season, with a championship, with all of the firsts that were achieved this year. The work continues for everyone in the league, including its best player. Spooner cannot relax and enjoy the off-season, basking in her accomplishments in the way that she deserves. She has to push through again. Rehab. Caring for her son. Smiling through interviews on her “bedazzled” crutches and promising to come back stronger. Posing with her crystal awards while balancing carefully on one good leg.
“It puts a little bit of a damper on things,” she said of the injury, “but at the same time I think there are way more people that have suffered this injury than people who have come back from childbirth to play hockey.”
“There’s definitely a much better rehab protocol; people understand it a lot better so in that sense, I’m very optimistic and staying really positive because obviously coming back from childbirth, everything was so unknown, there were a lot of things that people hadn’t seen before that were going on with my body.”
“So now at least it’s a pretty standard injury that a lot of people unluckily suffer and I’ll come back strong, so in that sense, I think I’m just going to do the rehab, put the work in, and be ready to go next season.”
The poignancy and emotion of seeing Spooner knocked down and getting back up, again, walking with her son Rory to the awards ceremony – where she easily became the most decorated player in the fledgling league – takes a minute to register. Players, fans, executives, coaches, staff, press, investors – everyone’s story has an arc, and sometimes the quiet struggles embody the real narrative and we may never know what it has taken to get here. And what it takes now to keep going.
The off-season won’t be long for many of those involved. There are contracts to work out, logistics to be planned, marketing and training, one step at a time, sometimes with setbacks that make the work difficult. For Spooner herself, she said the summer “will be a lot of rehab, a few family trips planned, but just spending time at home, spending time with Rory, some swim lessons, some soccer lessons, lots of fun.”
And always one to look on the bright side, she emphasized, “It’s been a whirlwind really this season, but if I think back even a year ago, I would’ve never thought I’d be in this position, standing here having played a professional season, having won awards, having led the league in goals and points, let alone was I going to be coming back to play post-partum, how was my body going to react.
“There were so many unknowns in my journey. Was I still going to even be playing by the time we got the league? was the other one, so all of these things just led up to this moment and it makes it really special to know what we’ve had to go through to get here.
“Coming out of 2012 and joining the CWHL and having that fold and the whole journey that we’ve been on, I think that this is a dream come true and you couldn’t have asked for anything better from a first year – how it went, all the records we broke, all the people that showed up to cheer us on. I think it just shows that women’s hockey is thriving and it’s only going to keep getting better from here.”