By Callum Fraser
It wasn’t long ago that Chelsey Saunders was like the young girls in the stands at this year’s Clarkson Cup in Ottawa, admiring the stars of the Canadian Women’s Hockey League and national team.
“I used to be where they are and now I guess they want my autograph,” laughs the Ottawa native, now a member of Les Canadiennes de Montreal in the CWHL.
Saunders and her teammates were in quite a few important games this season. First was the Winter Classic at Gillette Stadium in Boston on New Year’s Eve. Les Canadiennes and the National Women’s Hockey League’s Boston Pride were part of a celebratory weekend that included many festivities ramping up to the NHL outdoor game between the Montreal Canadiens and Boston Bruins.
“It was pretty exciting,” recounts Saunders, 24. “We got to a change room and there were coats and hats and mitts waiting for us and then we got to get dressed and go out to the rink. Walking out there was pretty cool, just looking around at this massive stadium.”
And that wasn’t even the biggest game of the season for Les Canadiennes. On Mar. 13, Montreal travelled to the nation’s capital to face off with the Calgary Inferno in the Clarkson Cup – the first of a two-year agreement between the Ottawa Senators and the CWHL to host the league final in Ottawa.
Saunders dressed for the game but did not see any ice time, as the Inferno trounced Les Canadiennes 8-3.
Returning home for such an important weekend did provide an opportunity for Saunders to reflect on where it all began.
“I started in hockey because I wanted to be like my older brother,” recalls the current McGill University masters student. “Hockey was in my family. We’d go to the outdoor rink and I’d go one on one with my brother for hours.”
After playing four years at forward with the McGill Martlets and then her first with Les Canadiennes, Saunders made the jump to defence this season. It was an awkward transition – Saunders said she hadn’t played the position in “quite a few years” – but she’s had some help from a veteran along the way.
“(Julie’s) just a natural for coaching,” Saunders says of Julie Chu, who is a coach for Concordia University and veteran of the U.S. national team. “This year I played a lot of defence and I had a lot of help from Julie in terms of positioning and stuff like that because she obviously has a lot more experience.”
For Saunders, it’s a treat to be around players like Chu. On Les Canadiennes, she plays alongside stars like Marie-Philip Poulin, Caroline Ouellette and Charline Labonté. On the opposite side of the rink, she plays against hockey legends like Hayley Wickenheiser and Natalie Spooner.
“There’s a lot of great players that I get to play with and play against,” notes Saunders, who played a great deal of her minor hockey career with the Nepean Wildcats. “It’s pretty cool that these are girls that I grew up watching on TV and admiring.”
With Les Canadiennes’ growing popularity and the continuing emergence of the CWHL, Saunders is getting a taste of what it’s like to be one of those heroes she used to watch on TV.
“It kind of feels surreal. I just play hockey because I love it. Being able to be in these situations is weird but it’s definitely pretty cool,” Saunders highlights.
“In Montreal, we have a pretty good fan base,” she adds. “And there’s the same girls that come back to see us and they always get our autographs. So it’s pretty cool to see girls’ hockey growing and young girls wanting to be like us.”