For most of Dara Greig’s life, she’s been the big sister to Ridly Greig, who is two years younger than her.
This season, as Ridly is on pace for a career high in both goals and points with the Senators, he’s offered some big brother-like reassurance to his older sister, a winger for the PWHL’s Montreal Victoire, about having patience for that kind of production to come as she enters the second half of her sophomore season.
“We’ve talked about it before, talked to my dad a little bit about it too. Numbers kind of come and go,” said Greig about his sister, who picked up her first career goal back in December.
“I think it’s a little bit different with women’s hockey, a little more low scoring… she’s probably too hard on herself, I mean, I probably would be too. But I definitely think she’s got good things bound to come her way. But you know, I can appreciate her sticking with it, it’s easy to get frustrated.”
Drake Batherson had similar encouragement for his younger sister, Mae Batherson, as she embarked on her rookie season with the Minnesota Frost last season.
This year, the younger Batherson ranks second in league scoring amongst defenders at the midpoint mark of the season, with two goals and eight assists in 15 games.
“She’s having an amazing year, obviously last year was her first year, kind of feeling out the league a bit, and then with the expansion draft some of [the Frost’s] best D got picked up, which kind of gave her a chance to play power play and play a little bit more,” said Batherson, himself on pace for career highs with the Sens.
Just under a year ago, Mae dropped the puck on the Senators’ annual Women in Sport night, which takes place this year on Thursday night when the Detroit Red Wings come to town. Drake still looks back on that night as an incredible experience.
“It was great, I think we were playing the same team, Detroit,” Batherson remembers. “It was awesome. We had a lot of family up, because she was playing here the day after. It was a great day, she’ll never forget that, dropping a puck at an NHL game.”
Just two months prior to that game at Canadian Tire Centre, Mae and Dara had actually played against each other in Denver, when a new attendance record was set for a professional women’s hockey game on U.S. soil.Greig picked up her first career point in that game, an assist on a Catherine Dubois goal in the first period.
The Greig siblings and the Batherson siblings share a rare support system in each other. Both sets of siblings can talk during the season and act as sounding boards for each other as the grind of a professional hockey season takes its toll.
With Batherson’s hot start, she’s also been mentioned online as a possible replacement for some Canadian defenders as they age out of the national team in the coming years.
“I think she’s just finding her step in the league, and the more comfortable she gets — I know the feeling, coming into the best league in the world — it always takes a little bit to get your feet under you and figure it out,” said Batherson.
“The quicker you can do that, the more success you can have, and I think she’s been doing that, so yeah, I think she’s going to work as hard as she can in [these] four years to give her the best shot to get invited to training camp or make the [Olympic] team, for sure.”
Mae won’t be in attendance for this year’s event, but the significance is still meaningful for Batherson.
“I know how much it means to my sister to be playing professional hockey, on a day-to-day basis, as a job,” said Batherson. “It’s always an awesome game to celebrate.”
