Nearly six months after a third consecutive overtime loss ended their season in the PWHL Semifinals against the Boston Fleet, Montreal Victoire head coach Kori Cheverie was watching a group of Montreal-based PWHL players during practice. When the topic of last season comes up, she’s still disappointed. Not in her team, but in the result.
“I’m really proud of the way they battled all the way to the end,” she said, in an exclusive interview with Eyes on the Prize. “Obviously, losing in the playoffs, in the first round, is not what anyone wants. But if you detach from the results a little bit, there was certainly a lot of great positives to take from the series. To have three games in a row, back-to-back-to-back that were our best three games of the season, I think any coach would take that and our group being able to implement what we were asking them to in the most important time of the year, any organization, any coach, wants that. We didn’t get the puck luck that we probably deserved. And Boston moves on.”
Cheverie, entering her second season as the team’s head coach with a full off-season, is using that to prepare for the upcoming season, with training camps starting this week.
“Upon reflection, [there were] so many things that were great, and then other pieces that we look to improve and work on over the summer, as a coaching staff, and that was just in preparation for the season. How we prepare our practice plans, what the identity is of our non-negotiables that we’re just not going to budge on. So lots of reflection, and I feel like we were able to prepare in the right time frame compared to last year.”
It was Cheverie’s first real experience as a head coach of a professional team for a full season after experience at the U Sports and international levels as an assistant. She was also associate head coach with the PWHPA’s Team Harvey’s but that was not a team that was together for the full season, appearing only in showcases.
She says she was able to participate in two leadership workshops over the summer, one involving hockey leaders from around the world, and another that brought some of the top coaches from multiple sports around Canada together, through Own The Podium’s Pursuit program.
“I don’t think I change all that much in terms of my effort level, my preparation, whether I’m a head coach or an assistant coach with Team Canada,” she said. “The decisions just get a little bit harder, because now it comes down to you as the final say.”
Unlike in many professional sports, the smaller front office and last year’s fresh start allow Cheverie to work closely with general manager Danièle Sauvageau, helping to build a team identity.
“I think it’s extremely valuable to have the players involved in those types of conversations about what your team looks like,” Cheverie said. “Ultimately, it’s their team. That’s the mentality that we have. We guide the environment and help shape the environment, but they also have to live and breathe it. They also have to give their sort of sense of identity. We’re well aware that you’ve got to build your identity based on the skill sets that you have. And that has also helped us in terms of, okay, what do we look for at the draft? What do we look for in free agency? What is it going to take to make this team? And so in some ways, us as a staff, we don’t have to budge on those non-negotiables, because we’ve got the players at camp put in place that will be able to live that out. They’re the ones who have to decide, is it going to be Player A or is it going to be Player B? And so I’m really looking forward to that.”
Between team captain Marie-Philip Poulin, and alternates like Laura Stacey, Erin Ambrose, and others, it does make Cheverie’s job a little easier with the leadership core they have built.
“It’s a good problem to have when you know your best players are your hardest workers. That’s an incredible environment as a starting point. All [of our leaders] lead by example, but some are more vocal than others, and some provide the voice of reason. And some are those exceptional problem solvers. And so it really is important for for us as a staff to work with our leaders, whether it be Pou, Stace, Ambrose, whoever it may be, to really help them with the difficult situations that come up. And the reason why a player like Pou can lead and her energy is felt throughout the whole team, is because there are hard situations that we have to work through as a group, and it’s about having those kind of open conversations and they’ve done a great job with the environment that we want to create here in Montreal.”
Having them set an example for young players who are becoming professionals for the first time makes their impact even more important.
“A big part of learning through experience is living it, but also watching it every single day and how different players conduct themselves and [figuring out] who do you want to be as a player, especially a young player that may be watching their every move,” Cheverie said. “They’re role models for some of the players on our team, right? Some of the players on our team would probably have been fans of theirs and now, they have to be teammates. That’s a whole other dynamic and comes with an expectation level too. They’ve got to work just as hard. So when you have someone like Pou who’s leading the way with her work ethic, there’s not much more you can ask from that perspective as a coach when you’ve got the model carrying the most weight.”
One of the biggest changes this offseason is that PWHL teams now have names, branding, and logos. Montreal’s name, the Victoire, is based on the city’s rich history of success. The players embraced it, mentioning that “Victoire” is a mindset, and Cheverie is no different.
“I love it,” she said. “I never had one ounce of doubt in the name. If you look into the dressing room and you look at our players who have the experience in that room, you look at our staff, you look at our entire organization, there are winners here, and that’s something that’s really important to me. I’m a really, really competitive person. Some people may not see it, because often times I have to hide when I’m feeling very competitive but to me, I couldn’t think of a better name for our group, for the history within Montreal, for what the expectations are, and what comes along with it.”
“I take it as a challenge. I don’t see it as something that has pressure at all and we want to be winners. We want to have a winning mindset every single day. So it speaks to the type of environment that we want to create and our name helps us create that. That’s something that we can build a great foundation on. I love the logo, I love the name, I love the colors. When all those got announced, I was like, ‘yes, this is amazing’. I had tears come to my eyes because I’m like, ‘this is perfect’. I don’t have any sort of sense of added pressure, because I put enough pressure on myself on a daily basis to win in whatever I do. It almost gives me a seventh player in my back pocket that’s like, ‘hey, this is what we’re all about.'”
A lot has been made when Cheverie was hired that she did not speak French, and quickly everyone said that she would work on it. Those promises were not hollow. By the end of the season, Cheverie’s habit of opening her press conferences with a few words of French turned into her answering some questions in French, and even a complete French interview during the women’s World Championships. After one year of coaching the team, she has a full appreciation for the city’s passion and culture.
“I certainly know what it’s like to to play in a market that cares so deeply about about their teams and their players. I’ve also learned quite a bit about the Quebecois culture and how important the preservation of that is,” she said. “It’s funny, because, I took maybe one month off in the summer. But other than that, I’ve been with my French teacher weekly, and oftentimes multiple times a week. I probably shouldn’t admit that, because I still find French very, very hard, but it’s almost like I now know what I don’t know, and it’s a lot,” she said, laughing. “But I’m committed to it. I think at the beginning, it really stressed me out and I’m not saying that it doesn’t stress me right now, because I want to be good for the community. I want them to be proud that I’m their coach, and [there’s] not just this dark shadow that hangs over my head that I don’t speak French because I’m working on it, and it’s hard, but it’s coming.
“I’m really proud to be with the Victoire and be in Montreal and be able to be part of such an amazing sports city. It’s, it’s really important to me, and I can’t imagine it any other way, to be honest. It’s been really cool to embrace it, see life from a different perspective, and I’m still embracing it.”
