Women's Hockey Takes Stage As New Pro Sports League

Featuring teams in Boston, Buffalo, Connecticut and New York City, the National Women's Hockey League has become home to some of the best players in the world. Meghan Duggan, for example, who was the U.S. Olympic Team captain in the gold-medal game in 2014 in Sochi, plays for the Buffalo Beauts.

It was that hockey final that inspired the league's commissioner and founder, Dani Rylan, to start it. The pro league launched in October. Its first all-star game is scheduled Jan. 24.

"I used to say that after the 2014 Winter Olympics was really the best time to start a professional women's hockey league. That gold-medal game out in Sochi was the most-watched event on NBC, with 4.9 million viewers," Rylan tells NPR's David Greene.

"And people weren't watching it because it was a women's game," he says. "They were watching because it was an amazing hockey game. The game is ready for the professional stage. If 2014 wasn't the best time, 2015 was the next best."

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