When Montreal signed goaltender Ann-Renée Desbiens as one of their three PWHL foundational players, many expected her to get the bulk of the work, like you see in Ottawa with Emerance Maschmeyer or Toronto with Kristen Campbell.
As it turns out, Montreal drafting Elaine Chuli in the 13th round might have been one of the best decisions that they made. The 29-year-old from Waterford, Ontario has been the best goaltender in the PWHL this season and has provided the team an option to keep Desbiens rested. Chuli has won every one of her five starts this season and leads the league in goals against average (1.19) and save percentage (.962).
Chuli’s play when given the opportunity has made it easy for Montreal’s coaching staff to give her more time, and in turn, keep Desbiens’s workload down.
“Right now it’s pretty nice for us as a coaching staff,” said Montreal head coach Kori Cheverie. “Our group feels comfortable going either way. We have two great goaltenders that will definitely help us in the long run and they’re helping us now. We’ll keep going game by game, we don’t have plans too far down the road. It’s a matter of what our team needs now, how they are feeling, we factor in all of that plus a gut feeling.”
Women’s hockey schedules before the PWHL have been pretty standard. In the NCAA and previous leagues games were centralized mostly on weekends, with as long as a week of practice in between games. The PWHL season is only 24 games, but spread over five months with two international breaks. One might think that would provide plenty of time between games, but it’s quite the opposite.
Take this week for Montreal. They played on Saturday at home. They play Wednesday in New York, then Friday in Toronto and Sunday back in Montreal. Four games in eight days with travel means you need to split the duties between goaltenders. On top of that, international breaks don’t really apply for Desbiens as she is just as busy with Team Canada.
In the seven-game Rivalry Series, Desbiens started four of the five games she was on the roster for and it likely would have been more had she been on the roster for the two games in November when she was held out for precautionary reasons. When the PWHL had an All-Star break to take part in the NHL’s weekend, Desbiens was there and when they take a break for the World Championships in April she will likely get the bulk of the work in Canada’s net.
In many cases, because Desbiens is so important to Team Canada, the backup position becomes even more important for Montreal to not rely too much on their top goaltender. The 24-game season is both short and long, and don’t forget that this is the longest and busiest season Desbiens has had since she graduated college seven years ago.
”Not a lot of people think about that with a goaltender like Ann getting a lot of games for Team Canada, that’s a lot of stress for one goalie,” Cheverie said. “I think she has the personality and confidence to handle that but the more that we can play Chuli and the more that she can have those minutes is going to benefit our team in the long run.”
Chuli and Desbiens both won professional titles last season. Chuli won the Isobel Cup with the Toronto Six, while Desbiens won the PWHPA’s Secret Cup with Team Harveys. Montreal’s third goaltender Marlène Boissonnault has yet to play in a game, but was on Team Harveys with Desbiens last year.
”It’s been great so far,” Chuli said. “Every time I’m just trying to give the team a chance to win and it’s been fun. We’ve been building as the season has gone on and our team keeps improving and making our job easier.”
It’s likely that Desbiens will start when Montreal takes on New York on Wednesday in Bridgeport (7:00 p.m.: Tou.TV, TSN+, YouTube). Mélodie Daoust, on a 10-day contract, is not expected to make the trip. Chuli could be in consideration to start one of the other two games Friday in Toronto or Sunday at Place Bell against Ottawa.
