Laurel Hill: Doctor Of Defense For The Connecticut Whale

If you followed the Whale at all during Season Five, you will recall that they were compromised on defense by injury. Starting out the season a little light on the blue line, injuries to Erin Hall and Jordan Brickner put a lot of strain on our remaining defender by mid-season. Hanna Beattie moved from forward back to defense, and did a great job, but some more numbers were needed. As the new year started, the help had arrived, and one of them was our #20 Laurel Hill, a CWHL veteran from Huntsville, Ontario. Laurel arrived with a splash, and her first two games skating for the Whale were victories for the Pod. And in her second game, our 2-1 shoot-out road win vs the Riveters, she had her first NWHL point on our only regulation goal. So in many ways, Laurel was just what the doctor ordered. And in fact, Laurel is a doctor herself, earning her DPT from San Angelo State in Texas. Laurel currently works with Melissa Reed Fitness here in Danbury. And, that is primarily how Laurel became a member of the Connecticut Whale.

I never thought I would be living in Connecticut. I’ve actually never been to Connecticut before this year. After you graduate (as a DPT) you have to study and take the national board exams, so you can be licensed as a physical therapist. So I was at home studying for that, and I ended up taking a continuing education course. In the profession, you have to keep educating yourself to keep learning and stay up to date with everything. And I really, really liked the company that was giving that course. It was really important to me that I was working for a physical therapy company that really values their patients first and wants to help patients in a good way. Kind of a clinic that would align with my values as well. So I contacted the teachers of that course that I was taking and just asked if they knew of anyone that thought along the lines that they did. Because I really appreciated the way they approached physical therapy and treating patients. So they ended up putting me in contact with Melissa Reed. She’s a physical therapist who also owns a CrossFit gym in Danbury.,She has a little clinic that she runs out of her CrossFit gym. So that kind of got me looking in that direction, and I stayed in contact with her. She wasn’t really in a position to be hiring a full time physical therapist, which I didn’t think would be the case at the start. So she put me in contact with Physical Therapy Sports Medicine Center, which is another physical therapy clinic throughout Connecticut. She used to work for that company, and it’s a pretty good company. So I ended up going to work there.”

Laurel continued “And kind of as this was all happening, I remembered that the NWHL had a Connecticut team. I wondered: where that’s located? So I looked it up one day and it was in Danbury:) It really just fell into place . The other really crazy thing is that the Whale were not in Danbury prior to this year. If it hadn’t been in Danbury, there no way I could have made it with my schedule, it just wouldn’t have worked out. So I was.pretty excited that the team was there. It was kind of in the back of my mind, but I was going there for the work and career opportunities in physical therapy. And then I just reached out to the team to see what that opportunity could be as well, and things kind of fell into place there too. I was pretty excited for that to happen.”
We mentioned Laurel’s first couple of games with the Pod, earlier and the great impression she made on the fans. But a few games later there was a play that highlighted Laurel’sphysical style of play, and delighted the Pod fans, Chasing down a pick in the defensive zone Laurel and an opposing skater came together, and the skater bounced off like she’d hit a brick wall. Laurel commented
"I do remember that play, partly because I was frustrated with it being a penalty! It can be frustrating to be strong sometimes because of that, not that it’s a bad thing at all, but sometimes people fall a little harder than you might expect, and it makes it look like a hit when they kind of just ran into you. But that also just stresses the point of staying fit off the ice, lifting weights, and being solid on your ground. That’s definitely been one of my advantages, I really enjoy playing a physical game. I definitely don’t like to be dirty with how I play, take cheap shots or anything, but it can definitely be satisfying to knock a few players over” she laughed.

Laurel is not only tall and strong, but showed good quickness and explosiveness as well. And she told us that will get even better.
“Probably in the past it’s been better than this season showed. Coming off being down in Texas where I really wasn’t skating at all throughout the year except for maybe a couple of times, I had not been on the ice very much for 3 ½, almost four years. Every once and awhile at Christmas I’d play some pickup hockey with my a Dad, bit it’s not quite the same :) Those first few practices with the Whale I definitely was rusty, so I’m really glad that Colten and the team gave me a chance to show what I’m capable of. So I think towards the end I was starting to get my legs back a little bit. Working out in he gym was definitely helpful, but there’s nothing quite the same as skating. So I think it was starting to come back, but I wasn’t quite where I usually am. But hopefully if next year works out well, I’ll be in a little better shape, skating fast, being quick on my feet and everything.”
Laurel also offered her opinion on the huge Whale play-off win, saying
That was a fun game to play against Buffalo, and recognizing the importance of being that physical presence when we played them. That was my first time playing Buffalo, and they certainly have some big physical players over there. So it was kind of a fun challenge. Coming off having a few recent wins in the season and getting a little bit of a turnaround for the season going into that game, I think we had a lot of confidence that we could beat Buffalo, and it played out that way. But having that confidence was probably helpfipul having that mindset going in.I think that coming into the season late, I don’t know all of the background, but it seems that this last season we were able to build off something towards the end. And to start to create something that was moving in the right direction for sure. It makes sense to build off what we have rather than try to create everything.”

You can find out more about Laurel and what's happening with your Pod on our website www.nwhl-cetaceans.com and by following Cetacean Nation social media sites on Facebook (Cetacean Nation Hockey), Twitter (@nation_cetacean) & on Instagram (cetacean_nation_hockey) As we say around the rink in Danbury, Fins Up!