Last year I tossed around the idea of going to a CWHL game, but the games were far and it involved leaving the house on the weekend, in the winter no less, so the farthest I got was watching parts of the All-Star Game on Sportsnet.

Over the Wild's hot run last season I had promised myself a Dubnyk jersey if I was still employed come July. Since I was still employed, and getting a women's third Wild jersey involved actually paying full-price at the NHL.com shop, I decided to put the money towards a better cause. I saved money, too. One CWHL season pass – twelve home games, two bring-a-friend vouchers, a voucher for 20% off merch at a game, and apparently ASG tickets and "other events" cost me about thirty bucks less than it would have to pick up that jersey. I will spare you my rant on how ridiculous that is.

The CWHL still has some issues around its websites. When I bought my pass in the pre-sale, I got a message thanking me for buying a streaming pass for the Clarkson Cup. I sent off a quick tweet and was assured that all was well, along with thanks for catching the issue.

Now, I live in Ajax, and I do not drive. Hauling my ass across the GTA to the Mastercard Centre is a task and a half, but I figured that I have spent much more on more ridiculous things and, if nothing else, my money was supporting the advancement of women's sport. No one can prove that equal time, equipment, opportunity and encouragement will produce female athletes who are just as good as men if the women do not *get* any of those things, and right now they don't. I want a female forward in the NHL so badly - a woman cannot live off Rule 63 fics alone.

Then elseldo suggested (again) that PPP have a Furies meetup, possibly for opening day. I committed on the internet to attending an actual game. As we all know, once something gets on the internet it will never die... and hey it's probably best for my mental health that I don't become a complete hermit in the winter, or so the extroverts tell me.

The tickets arrived about two weeks before the start of the season. They're gorgeous – each game ticket has one of the players on it, in her new Toronto Furies jersey. As someone remarked on twitter, Natalie Spooner was on the opening day ticket – her birthday. The game 2 ticket was Sami Jo Small despite the fact that she is scratched for probably the entire season due to being (and I quote) "Super Pregnant" (women's leagues are awesome). I can't name the rest because the current iteration of the Furies website does not include profile pictures, and I am not exactly an expert.

My luck and scheduling being what it is, to date I have seen two out of the possible four games this season. I also opted out of the two preseason games against UOIT and YorkU (which we won!) because I am lazy. Since I cannot tell a saucer pass from an outlet pass, and I'm still learning players' numbers and names, I can't give you a detailed breakdown of the two games I've seen so far. However, some impressions:

Opening night against the Boston Blades was Blue and White night, meaning the Leafs arena staff were involved. Andy Frost acted as announcer, Lauren Howe hosted as if there were TV timeouts, Carlton made an appearance, there were Leafs giveaways, etc. I'm not into that sort of thing, but it's nice to see the Leafs support. One thing that I did like a lot was that each of the Furies skated onto the ice with a girl from a local team.

Nat Spooner is so good. She's at 4 Nations Cup right now, so I missed her against Montreal, but on opening day against Boston, it was entirely obvious whenever Spooner hit the ice. She didn't register a point, but man, was she making things happen.

Also good, and clearly enthusiastic, is rookie Emily Fulton. Our first-round draft pick this year, I got to see her put up her first CWHL points on opening day. Against Montreal, she kept making passes that ended up just out of reach of the intended recipients. She's just a little too fast for some of her teammates.

Kessler and Lacasse were the opening night goalies for the Furies and Blades respectively and both of them were making a ton of glove saves. That's something I've not noticed much in NHL games.

Sunday against Les Canadiennes was the first CWHL start for both Olivia Ross (Furies) and Sydney Aveson (Canadiennes). First period, Ross made a save standing up, and the puck disappeared into her equipment. Cue the ref and four teammates standing around trying to figure out where it had gone to and whether she'd have to leave the ice to get it out. Eventually, Fulton managed to produce it from somewhere. Second period, Aveson appeared to have trouble with her eyes (it sort of looked like she'd dislodged a contact) and eventually switched out with Labonte to sort out the issue. She was back in net a few minutes later.

I was at the Marlies game against the Crunch on Wednesday and I definitely thought the Furies v Canadiennes game looked a lot less messy. The pucks don't hit the boards any more quietly though!

There do appear to be a lot of family and friends in the crowd. While I didn't find the Furies fans particularly loud, there were definite cheering sections for one player or another. Montreal had a few fans in attendance at Sunday's game as well. I could also tell that the new merch is selling well. Hats, hoodies, jerseys, jackets and lanyards were all in evidence by Sunday.

The next home games are November 21st and 22nd against the Calgary Inferno. While I might recognize a few names around the league, I will be all-out fangirling Hayley Wickenheiser at both games. The Inferno have been high-scoring this season, so it should make for an entertaining weekend. Come on out!

Some tips for those of you who might want to come along to the Mastercard Centre for the first time:

There seems to be a fair amount of parking around the back, although I have no idea if it costs anything

If coming by TTC, the 44 Kipling bus will drop you off right at the door.

If coming from the GO Lakeshore line, you're looking for the Long Branch stop and then either a taxi, a long walk or the 501 streetcar (which you can rely on to be late) along Lakeshore to Kipling, followed by a 2-block walk north.

There are four rinks at the centre. All of them are accessible via the main concourse, which you can enter from either Kipling or from the parking lot. So far I've seen them at Rink 1 and Rink 4 – look for the merch table to figure out what rink you're looking for. You can actually watch the action on any of the rinks while still in the concourse (I assume the ticket staff will hassle you at least a bit if you try to do that instead of paying for the game). Since this is, after all, the Leafs and Marlies' practice facility, keep your eyes peeled – I caught the very end of the Penguins' practice on Sunday after the Furies game.

Seating is limited, and for both the games I was at, the seats were pretty full. I made it just before puck drop for Sunday's game and decided I'd have a better view standing. Wherever you are in the rink you're going to have an awesome view of the ice.

With no tv timeouts and only 14-minute intermissions, games are a lot shorter in real time. It's about 2 to 2 and a half hours for a game.

The concourse includes a concession stand with a fair variety of stuff to eat at Toronto-reasonable prices. There are also a ton of vending machines, mostly with drinks (ok, mostly Gatorade), as well as some hockey and community-related displays. There's at least one TV – on opening day people were gathered around the Jays game. Let us not speak of that. However, if you're at a Saturday night game, I wouldn't be surprised if you could check out HNIC during intermission.

The merch stand does not appear to sell jerseys or the fleece jacket available at Real Sports, but you can get everything else – t-shirts, hoodies, coffee mugs, lanyards and water bottles. And yes, they do take plastic.