POV podcast: Jillian Saulnier on fighting 'the Olympic hangover'
Canadian wants to see women's hockey merge into 1 big pro league
Professional women's hockey has hit a fork in the road.
There are two leagues in North America, the CWHL and the NWHL, which means audiences and the talent pool are unnecessarily torn. But if you ask Canadian hockey player Jillian Saulnier, who goes into detail with Anastasia Buscis on Tuesday's POV podcast, merging the two into one big pro league is the obvious answer.
The forward from Halifax also has plenty to say about why there's nothing better than the rivalry between the Canadian and American women's hockey teams.
Saulnier is known for her feistiness on the ice and she's not too proud to draw a penalty when the game calls for one. A classic example of Saulnier's take-no-prisoners approach came during the Pyeongchang Olympics, where she blew out her MCL and kept playing on a "mix of adrenaline and tape." This week's episode of the Player's Own Voice podcast is a portrait of persistence.
Saulnier also serves up food for thought on the so-called quadrennial problem.
Right after four years of hard work comes to a dramatic conclusion following the gold-medal game, it can be a challenge to find the motivation to return to peak condition. It's something athletes affectionately call "the Olympic hangover".
Saulnier's chat comes hot on the heels of the Four Nations Cup (a hockey tournament played between Canada, Finland, Sweden, and the United States) in Saskatoon, Sask., starting Tuesday and finishing Sunday.
All other conversations in our growing list of POV podcasts are available free on iTunes, Google Podcasts, Stitcher, Tune In or wherever you get your podcasts.