Catherine Dubois’s up-and-down hockey career had another rollercoaster moment before training camp even started. The 29-year-old dealt with an ailment that kept her away from the team for the beginning of camp, including the team’s two pre-season games.
She didn’t go into detail regarding this latest health incident, but did talk about the impact it had on her.
“It’s going well, I’m happy to be back with the team and finally return to the sport I love,” Dubois said at practice on Thursday, her first with a regular jersey permitting contact. “It was something unexpected that happened. Illness doesn’t discriminate. It can happen to anyone at anytime. It’s another challenge for me that I’ll have to overcome.”
The Montreal forward thanked the team’s medical staff and her teammates for their expertise and support. She says without the highly qualified medical staff, she wouldn’t have been able to return as quickly as she did while her teammates were her second family and helped her through it.
Dubois’s hockey career has never been easy. In 2016-17, a health issue kept her out for most of the college season, leaving her unsure if she would ever be able to play again. When the PWHL started, she made the team as a reserve player, playing through two 10-day contracts before earning a season-long deal and then signing a new contract for this season. Despite starting as a reserve player, she played in 21 of the 24 regular season games, and all three playoff games.
“I’ll be honest with you, it wasn’t easy. You get the feeling that life is testing you,” she said. “It’s another lesson, even if I had no control over it. If this happened to me, it’s because someone somewhere thinks I’m able to get through it.”
“Catherine always comes out of things stronger,” said Alexandra Labelle, who played with Dubois for five years at the University of Montreal, and spent time with her at the professional level with the PWHPA, PHF, and at the Centre 21.02. “She’s going to come out of things positively and smiling and I’m not worried about her.”
Dubois said previously that she comes from an emotional family, and near the end of her time talking to the media, the emotions came out.
“I’m ready to turn the page,” she said holding back tears. “I just want to play the sport I love and be on the ice.”
When Alexandra Labelle came out of her exit meeting on Tuesday with the news that she made the Victoire roster, a group of teammates were outside the room: Laura Stacey, Marie-Philip Poulin, and Kati Tabin. She says that they were the first people she told, but the smile on her face would have given the news away regardless of what words came out of her mouth.
When she got in the car, she called her parents. After choosing to come to Montreal’s camp after an offer came from New York, where she spent last season, her gamble to stay at home was a winning one.
“I’m happy with my work,” the 28-year-old said. “All the work I put in this summer paid off. It’s fun when you work for something and it works out at the right time. I had two good [pre-season] games, I had a good camp, so I couldn’t ask for anything more. But the work is not done. My goal is to win the Cup with this team, and I have other challenges.”
Defender Anna Kjellbin knew she wanted to challenge herself when she declared for the PWHL Draft. The 30-year-old is the captain of the Swedish National Women’s Team, but didn’t think anything would be guaranteed for her. After being drafted in the sixth round by Montreal, she showed up to camp ready to fight for her spot.
“I’m pretty humble, I knew I was going to come here and do my best and see how far I could get, play my best and do my own thing,” she said. “It worked out this time, and I’m happy about that but it’s nothing that I took for granted.”
Montreal general manager Danièle Sauvageau says that Kjellbin brings a leadership that is at “another level”.
“I’ve been playing in the Swedish league for 15 years now,” Kjellbin said, “so I was super happy to hear that this league started last year and my decision to go into the draft was very easy.”
Kjellbin says that the pace of play hasn’t really surprised her because she showed up expecting every battle to be like going against Canada or the United States in international hockey. She has over 100 games of senior international experience. For the first time, however, she’s playing and practising with some of those North American players.
“It’s awesome,” she said. “I love it, to be honest. They’re such skilled players and I’m just enjoying every day.”
Cayla Barnes, Montreal’s first pick in the 2024 Draft, skated at practice in a non-contact jersey and took part in most of practice until the five-on-five and more physical game-style drills took place. The team considers her day-to-day and made sure to not rule her out of Saturday’s season-opener. A lot of her status depends on how she feels after Thursday’s practice.
It was her first practice with the team, and the Team USA mainstay took regular reps with the second power play unit.
