Natalie Spooner has not played a lot over the past three seasons, but she's playing a lot now, feeling and getting better each day, even if she's not looking too far into the future.
Natalie Spooner has not played a lot over the past three seasons, but she's playing a lot now, feeling and getting better each day, even if she's not looking too far into the future.
Last year, Natalie Spooner played in 14 games between the World Championships and PWHPA. In 2022, she put in a dominant performance at the Olympics, but for the most part, that was it for her year.
It's not a lot of hockey for a player who has walked into the PWHL, the unrivalled best league on the planet, and catapulted herself into the league lead for goals, scoring in dominant fashion night after night. Spooner herself didn't know how the season would play out with PWHL Toronto, but she does now, and so does the rest of the hockey world.
"I think there was a lot of unknowns for me coming into the season," Spooner told The Hockey News. "Obviously coming back from pregnancy, and taking time off the ice after worlds, quite a bit to start feeling better, but I've started to feel better and better each game and have been able to build my game back close to what it was in 2022."
Gina Kingsbury, who is the general manager of PWHL Toronto and for Team Canada, agrees with her leading scorer.
"Great to see Natalie back in form prior to her being pregnant, I think she's back to that player we saw at the Olympic Games in Beijing, which is great to see," Kingsbury told The Hockey News.
"She still has that incredible knack around the net, she's just a power forward that has a really great ability to create space and jam in pucks, and it's great to see her success."
Without Spooner's success, PWHL Toronto wouldn't be in the win column as often as they are. Spooner has scored 35.7% of Toronto's goals through 12 games. She's also tallied important markers that don't show on the scoresheet, like a pair of shootout goals to lift Toronto over PWHL New York on February 23. In a league with so much parity, having a game breaker like Spooner is the difference on most nights.
"Every team is so close, we've got to bring our best game every game," said Spooner. "I think our team has definitely really honed in on our systems and been a hard team to play against, which I think has given us a lot of success and given us those offensive opportunities. I still think we can be a lot better, which is the exciting part."
As for Spooner, she's doing it all while raising her one-year-old son Rory. In the stands of Mattamy Athletic Centre, Rory is often there cheering on his mom, but while many athletes focus solely on their on-ice performance and recovery away from the rink, Spooner is still giving her energy and efforts to someone else before herself. And while she says her mom has given her unquestioned support, it's still a balancing act.
"I don't know if I'm balancing it well," said Spooner. "I'm looking only a day ahead and running around and making it work. At the same time it's been awesome to have Rory at the games when we can and to have him around and every time I go home just to see him let's me forget about the rink and be present wherever I am, which is something I've learned and to put into perspective this season."
And while a lot of attention has been rightfully paid to the impact the PWHL will have on women and young girls, the league will also change the view of men and boys for generations to come. Boys like Rory will grow up not knowing a world without a unified professional women's hockey league.
"When I was little I had three older brothers, so I thought I was going to play in the NHL," recalled Spooner. "Then you tell your classmates that and they're like 'there's no way, that's for boys.' So now the amazing part is that Rory is going to grow up not knowing any different. He's going to know that women play professional hockey and men play professional hockey and that's just the way it is."
"His classmate could want to play in the PWHL, and I think that's the best part about it," she continued. "Obviously we've seen more little boys, older boys, and men even following our league, which is amazing, we're getting a well rounded fan base. I know Rory is already a fan and hopefully he's a fan for life."
On the ice, Spooner is certainly making new fans fall in love with the PWHL and PWHL Toronto every day. The power forward has been a driving force in Toronto and looks primed to claim a top line role with Canada's national team again this spring. Despite her success, Spooner even remained humble in her response to the upcoming Worlds, saying she feels ready to be back, "if she makes the team."
As Spooner says, she's only able to look one day ahead.
"Continuing to get better and feel better every single game and not really looking too far ahead," she said. "I don't think I have the capacity to look too far ahead just yet."
Whether it's one day at a time, one week at a time, or a season at a time, Natalie Spooner is on a mission.
"Coming into this I think our team was right away like, that's the end goal, if you look at our team we have so much talent, I think we also have the grit factor and work ethic," Spooner said. "That's something we're striving for. You can't look too far ahead though, you have to focus on the process and every game making sure we put ourselves in a good position to be there at the end."