The Sheet with Jeff Marek - On the Sheet: Erin Ambrose is Named PWHL First Star of the Week

Episode Date: January 23, 2025

Erin Ambrose joins Jeff Marek on The Sheet after being named PWHL First Star of the WeekShout out to our sponsors!👍🏼Fan Duel: https://www.fanduel.com/Reach out to [e-mail] to connect with our Sales Team and discuss opportunities to partner with us!If you liked this, check out:🚨 OTT - Coming in Hot Sens | https://www.youtube.com/c/thewallyandmethotshow🚨 TOR - LeafsNation | https://www.youtube.com/@theleafsnation401🚨 EDM - OilersNation | https://www.youtube.com/@Oilersnationdotcom🚨 VAN - CanucksArmy | https://www.youtube.com/@Canucks_Army🚨 CGY - FlamesNation | https://www.youtube.com/@Flames_Nation🚨 Daily Faceoff Fantasy & Betting | www.youtube.com/@DFOFantasyandBetting____________________________________________________________________________________________Connect with us on ⬇️Link Tree: https://linktr.ee/daily_faceoff💻 Website: https://www.dailyfaceoff.com🐦 Follow on twitter: https://x.com/DailyFaceoff💻 Follow on Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/dailyfaceoffDaily Faceoff Merch:https://nationgear.ca/collections/daily-faceoff Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

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Find your push. Find your power. Peloton has everything you need. Whenever you need it. Find your push. Find your power. Peloton. Visit Peloton at OnePeloton.ca Getting dressed should be simple. If you're like me, you want to look good, feel comfortable, and be ready for anything. That's why I love Dürer. It's not active wear, but it's not just fashion. It's the best of both worlds, where performance meets style.

I wear my Dürer pants to work, out with friends, on hiking trails, and everywhere in between. If you haven't tried Dewar, you've got to feel the difference for yourself. Head to Dewar.ca slash Comfort and get 20% off your first purchase today. That's Dewar.ca slash Comfort. The first star of the week in the PWHL, five assists will do that, Erin Ambrose of the Montreal Victoire, or should I say Erin, the first place Montreal Victoire. How are you today, Erin? I'm a little bit mad that I didn't get invited to this Jasper Pond hockey event.

I can get you in. We're playing all afternoon on Saturday. What are the Victoire doing? You can come on my ticket, my dime. We've got a week off here, Jeff Merrick. Do you really? I will meet you in Jasper. I will be doing the show in Jasper on Friday.

And then we will be driving early Friday morning from Edmonton to Jasper. So you are very welcome. You can be the ringer on my team. I haven't seen my team yet, but I can't, I can't. What's that? Why have I not gotten the invite? I'm actually like pretty hurt by this.

It's embarrassing. We'll talk off here and I'll pull some money off the tree in the backyard and we'll, I could use a good right shot defenseman. Use a good right shot defender on the team, specifically one that registered five assists last week in the PWHL. Congratulations, come on Dionne Franciel-Lapierre-Rétoile,

the first star. Oui, yeah, that was, it was needed. But I think more than that, that was a big six points for us as a group. You kind of looked at takeover tour. It was a lot. I think like when we talked we were, we were heading to Denver when you and I talked.

You were, yeah, you were in the Vancouver airport on your way to Denver. So we had four points in our two games. And I mean, four out of nine points, not ideal, but also not awful. But to come back and get six points, I think was huge for us at home. Well, at home, and then in Quebec City as well. Let me ask you about Quebec City. You know, it's the... I'll just be fully transparent here.

Every time, like every takeover tour game, afterwards I say, oh yeah, that's got to be the expansion market. You know, I can see like the US record broken in Denver. I'm like, oh yeah, yeah, yeah, they got to go to Denver. I see the crowd in Vancouver is like, oh yeah, yeah, yeah yeah no-brainer and then I see Quebec City and I'm like oh yeah yeah Videotron Center yeah that's that that that's got to be the spot let me ask you about Quebec City because you know I grew up in a WHA and NHL that had their Quebec Nordiques and the rivalry between Montreal and Quebec to me was, and no offense to the

Battle of Ontario or the Battle of Alberta, but the Quebec City Montreal rivalry cut down so many different lanes. It wasn't just team versus team, you know, it was like brewery versus brewery. It was like Molson versus Carling O'Keeffe. It was like different forms of Quebecois citizens against one another. It cut down so many different lines and I just kind of like fantasize in my hockey world that in the PWHL, there's a Quebec versus Montreal.

How many of your teammates and maybe how many conversations did you have about, this would be a cool rival for the Victoire Yeah, I think we have the mayor of Quebec City come in after the game we actually met him on the Saturday night a bunch of us went in to Quebec City and After the game the mayor came into the dressing room and he said like I don't know if I've ever actually cheered for a Montreal team before Which is 100% fair, but I also think like, it just kind of showed the support that we had there,

but I do think that there is a very, it was definitely evident that it was hard for people to cheer for a Montreal team. Like we had a lot of support, but I also think it was almost like, is this right? Should we be cheering for Montreal team? Like we are Quebec City. It was pretty interesting to see. I mean they 18,000 plus they showed up,

that's for sure. I've only been to that rink once. It was for a CHL top prospects game. I was at the last game ever at La Colle Se was Memorial Cup, was Oshawa versus Colona. Leon Dreisle had all the stars for Colona, but Anthony Sorelli, someone that you know, was the star of that game for the Oshawa, general scored the last goal ever. You okay there? What are you dropping Ambrose? Yeah, it's Henry. He wants to say hi. Oh, is that your pooch? I was gonna say like, how do you get through a day Ambrose? How do you make it through? Anyway, so Anthony Cervelli scores like the last goal in the history of the Coliseum and I remember leaving and taking pictures and then Videotron

Center sort of right across there. What do you think about Quebec City as a, I asked you about Vancouver last week, what do you think about Quebec City as an expansion market for the PWHL? I think it makes a lot of sense. I think that, I mean, we were fortunate enough to do the three West Coast cities and three West Coast stops, but I think that we all know the logistical side of that happening. That is a little bit more of a nightmare. So I think that's interesting. Just get a travel sponsor. Just get a travel sponsor to come along. Just get a travel sponsor. Let's go Seattle Vancouver travel sponsor done. There you go. You're not wrong. You're not wrong. But you also have the people aka the Jeff Merricks

of the world that say it's probably going to be expansion probably East Central first and then make your way out west. So in that sense, yeah, Quebec City makes a lot of sense and I think that there's a lot of, the rivalry of Montreal, Quebec City could be kind of brought back to life with us in the PWHL, which I think would be fantastic for the game. So I think it makes a lot of sense. Henry is making a ruckus, I apologize.

Can we get a Henry cameo here on the sheet? Can Henry come in? Yeah, he's, yeah, hold on. Hey, let's get a Henry cameo here. This is Aaron Ambrose. This is near and dear to Aaron's heart is is is Henry. You've heard her talk about Henry before. Now, you can hear Henry in the background and now we're gonna like the I think the first time that I think Ambrose like the first time

that I spoke to you. Uh yeah. When me and Elliot was during COVID and we're talking to you and I think Henry was the star of the interview. He was, see now he's gonna act camera shy and won't look in the camera. Oh, Henry. Henry, over here bud. Henry, yo, what's up bud? Come on bud, bud, over here.

No, no, look in the camera, look in the camera. Here we go Henry, mom's the star. Directly in the camera. Mom's the star, mom's the star, but right over here. So this is the infamous Henry. Okay, this is the, we have the real first star. Mom's a star, mom's a star, but right over here. This is the infamous Henry. Okay, this is, we have the real first star, no offense Ambrose. You know, one of the great things last season,

we've talked about this a couple of different times, was the ovation at the Bell Center for Marie-Philippe Poulin. I've heard that building loud, but man, was that ever loud. In Quebec City, Catherine Dubois, that ever loud. In Quebec City, Catherine Dubois, like they obviously from Quebec City, not that I'm gonna ask you to compare contrast or anything, but like, you know, like that's gonna be a special moment

for her, like hometown again, like I've heard from so many of the athletes, never thought this was possible. And there she is in her hometown and they're just gushing Your thoughts on that moment. I think it was really special for her and then I think to go on to score a goal, too I don't think you'd write up that script a lot better for DuBois Yeah, so it was really exciting for that for her and I know she had a ton of family there Obviously Poo did as well and then Anne-Renee. And I love what Corey did.

I think just starting LaBella in there too, kind of getting that French connection out there. A nice little touch because we don't always have those opportunities to do it in our game and how limited our markets are. I did see tonight with Columbus going to Toronto that Fentelis saying he's playing a pay ho- he's pay playing- Free hockey.

Free hockey they call it. Yeah. Playing free hockey. There it is. Yeah. And that was definitely for Poo and Kat for sure when we were in Connecticut. All by and- oh, okay. So we have from Doogie in the chat.

Yeah. Hey Jeff, I have the privilege of commentating the Australian Women's Ice Hockey League, where former number one CWHL pick Sarah Edney plays. Does Aaron have any memories or stories of Sarah from the system? I do have a lot actually. As soon as he said Australian League, I knew he was going to say Sarah Edney. Sarah Edney is probably still one of the smartest hockey players I ever played with. Had a phenomenal career at Harvard University and I played with her U18s for sure. She was our captain

of our U18 team when we got silver in 2011 in our, somewhere in Sweden is where we were, and then played with her off and on with development team and stuff, and definitely one of the smartest players. Probably somebody who could have made it in this league quite successfully, to be honest. But I know that she's been tearing up the Australian league for a few years now. That's a good question.

That's something that led us to an interesting spot. How many players from the previous generation outside of the obvious ones do you look at now and say like, oh, if they just could have hung on, you know, if their birth certificate had a different, you know, birth date on it, this league would be great for them. Yeah, there's a ton.

I think first and foremost, the person that comes to mind, obviously she's having a successful coaching career, but Jess Campbell. I always kind of look at the players that were around in the national program that maybe didn't make an Olympics. And then when they didn't, it was like, okay, I got to move on with my life. I got to start to kind of, I guess just make changes. But I look back at our 2018 Centralization roster and somebody like Bailey Bram, who has gone on to have a family.

And it's not to say that these things wouldn't happen, wouldn't have happened, but like, I think of how great their careers would have been in this league. But I also know that they played a pivotal part in kind of making the PWHL come around because they were all there when the CWHL folded in 2019. And that obviously was a big Kickstarter for people to move on with their life and move

away from the game of hockey. And there's a lot of people that put in a lot of time in the CW and we all kind of joke about it now and what those days were like in the CW, but we wouldn't be here without it. Trade this week in the PWHL, Jill Sonier goes for Taylor Gerard, so that is a New York Boston trade. Did this one surprise you?

Did this one surprise your teammates? Was there a oh my gosh moment, or was this one coming for a while? I just am smirking right now cause I was at dinner with a couple of my teammates and Keppel goes, oh, there's a trait. And all of us kind of go, what with who? Um, I don't know that it was Boston. We were not a hundred percent sure.

We thought it was New York, but again, like, we don't have the insiders all the time. So things don't break or get leaked to us very quickly. But I think it's something that's going to be great for both teams. I think the only thing I'll say about New York is Jill Sonier is one of the best human beings I've ever met in the game of hockey. So I know she's going to add a ton to Boston just by who she is. And that's no knock on Taylor Gerard. I just truthfully don't know her.

Um, so I think Jill is going to be missed in that locker room. Um, and I'm excited for Jill, obviously just a lot closer with her. And I'm excited to have her get to Boston and I should say I'm excited for her as a person, not for Boston to get her. I'm excited for her and excited for her to be able to make an impact. And somebody she was able to play with, Courtney Kessel, when court was playing back in her national team days. So connection there and I'm sure she'll go to Boston

and do well and I'm sure Gerard will be great in New York as well. Okay, let me close on this one. I was just talking to Andrew Brewer a couple of seconds ago, an NHL video coach, and one of the things that he said when he was a video coach of the Toronto Maple Leafs that he would argue with DJ Smith about. Now, you're someone that loves blocking shots.

More guts than brains, Ambrose. I've told you this before, love ya, but more guts than brains. Butose, I've told you this before, love you, but more guts than brains. But you break your stick, okay? You're out there five on five, you break your stick. Do you skate to the bench to get another one when you're in a defensive zone or do you stay out there? And have you thought about, you know what, this will only take, oh if it's second period is period long change But if it's first or third that's a quick three Maybe four seconds as opposed to getting trapped out there for 30 seconds while they exploit your spot because you got no stick

What's your thought on that conversation? well Did you see your game on Friday night against Minnesota? Tell me about it. We had this situation happen. I've actually, knock on wood, it'll happen at some point now that I've said it. I've never broken my stick on a block shot ever in my career. What? Ever.

You block like a million shots every year and you've never broken a stick. I've never broken a stick in my team. What are you playing with, a crowbar? Yeah, pretty much. But Maureen Murphy blocked the shot, broke her stick. And we were in the third period, so it wasn't too far. She's also the right winger.

But we had somebody on the bench do a little javelin throw to Maureen Murphy, which I was on the ice, so I didn't see this occur, but we all know that that, should know that that is not legal. Not legal. Play went on for about two and a half more minutes. Murph ended up actually getting a good scoring chance the other end with boring stick.

And then our TV timeout, they came back and called with a penalty on us, which I don't know if that's allowed. I don't know if you can go back after the fact and call that a penalty I didn't think a line you could call that but we'll just let it slide for now But I think to actually answer your question No, I'm gonna steal a stick from a forward if I break or lose my stick Especially in the second period right winger easy switch to go get it no offensive the wingers but I think it's a little bit

more important for a defender or a center whoever it is a lower player to have a stick to be able to tie up in front and it's easier for them to go to the bench and get a stick than it would be me I I love that a defender is saying the defender is much more important than the forward, give me your stick. I've always looked at that and kind of that's like saying, when you say to yourself, the brain is the most important part of your body, then you have to catch yourself and say,

well, what part of my body is telling me that? Well, like, I mean, I also flip it around and I think, hey, offensively, if I see a D doesn't have a stick, well, whoever doesn't have a stick, what do you always tell you, like what do they always tell you when you're on offense? Exploit the person without a stick.

So if the defender doesn't have a stick, okay, we're gonna exploit the low person. Now it's, okay, we're even closer in the net. Like why wouldn't you want people around your net to be able to have a stick? Your goaltender just lost her stick. Do you give yours to her? Ann doesn't usually want it. Chooley will want want it so it depends on who I'm playing with.

How come Ann doesn't want it? That's weird. Ann thinks that we are more productive with the stick than she would be with having a stick. That's, I don't know that I've ever met a goalie who would say that. That's really, but truly wants the stick. Give it to me. I think so, I could be wrong on that, but I'm pretty sure yes. Anne is adamant to not give her our stick. Awesome. I always learn something.

Thank you and I will see you in Jasper. I think our first game is around two o'clock Saturday afternoon. Apparently, yep. My people will be in touch with your people, Ambrose. Good answer. Brighen Henry, thanks you. Congratulations, first star. Looks great on you. Thanks for doing this again Ambrose. Thank you, hope to see you soon. Every day this month I can't get out my head Lost all ambitions day to day Guess I can call it a rut

I went to the dark man He tried to give me a little medicine I'm like nah man that's fine I'm not against those methods but I knew It's me, myself and how this don't be fixed in my mind If you're looking for flexible workouts, Peloton's got you covered. Summer runs or playoff season meditations, whatever your vibe, Peloton has thousands of classes built to push you. We know how life goes.

New father, new routines, new locations. What matters is that you have something there to adapt with you, whether you need a challenge or rest. And Peloton has everything you need, whenever you need it. Find your push. Find your power. Peloton. Visit Peloton at OnePeloton.ca.

Getting dressed should be simple. If you're like me, you want to look good, feel comfortable, and be ready for anything. That's why I love Dürer. It's not active wear, but it's not just fashion. It's the best of both worlds, where performance meets style. I wear my Dürer pants to work, out with friends, on hiking trails, and everywhere in between. If you haven't tried Dürer, you've gotta feel the difference for yourself. Head to dürer.ca slash comfort and get 20% off your first purchase today. That's dürer.ca slash comfort.