"Every time we come here, we're treated very well," said Poulin, the Team Canada captain. "Obviously, it's a great facility. The people are great here, and it's always special coming to Pittsburgh. I remember first coming a couple of years ago, it was amazing. It just shows the Penguins are always there for women's hockey."
This is the third time that the Penguins have welcomed women's hockey to Pittsburgh since the PWHPA first launched in 2019. Prior to this, they held a joint training camp for the U.S. and Canadian women's national teams that year, and hosted the Rivalry Rematch for the players returning from the Beijing Olympics back in March.
That means most of the players on the PWHPA's rosters have skated here before, and it's become a special place for them. They all appreciate the Penguins providing an opportunity to keep their momentum going, and to have some consistency, with events like these.
"To see all the young girls and families that were in the stands this weekend, it's a fun atmosphere, and we love coming back here as long as they'll have us," Keller said with a laugh. "It's been a great city to be able to come and play and showcase our sport."
The rivalry between the U.S. and Canadian women's national teams is one of the best in all of professional sports. For them to put all of that aside for the good of the game was something really cool to see.
"It's a big group here that we push forward to create a league," Poulin said. "You see all these girls, like they work hard, and we're all in this together. And obviously, you see these great games, and it's been great. It's been a fun weekend."
Poulin said she hopes that Pittsburgh will house one of the teams whenever a league does form, saying that she thinks there will be something concrete on that front next year.
"Right now, we're trying to just showcase what we have and really put things forward," Poulin said. "We have great people behind us doing the hard work behind closed doors. We trust them, and we hope it's going to come up soon."