The name and the game

Not a big fan of the Toronto Sceptres moniker? Wait a while, it just might grow on you

- GILBERT NGABO

To local hockey fan Tara Honywill, the Toronto Sceptres isn’t a name that’s particularly catchy or rolls easily off the tongue.

But that doesn’t mean she has a problem with the new moniker for Toronto’s professional women’s hockey team.

“I think we’re going to get used to it, and it’ll be normal and we’ll like it,” said Honywill, a season-ticket holder who attended almost every home game last season and is eagerly awaiting the start of the PWHL’s second year.

“I remember when they named the Raptors when I was a kid, and I was like, ‘What kind of name is that?’ And I was thinking about the Leafs. If they had named it now, I probably could have felt like: How clichéd could you be?” she said. “Obviously we love the Raptors and the Leafs names now, so I think it’ll take a little time to get used to (Sceptres).”

Catchy or not, that’s the name after considering hundreds of options. Their rivals will be the Ottawa Charge, Montreal Victoire, Boston Fleet, New York Sirens and Minnesota Frost.

The leaguewide branding process was unusually lengthy, but intentionally so, according to Amy Scheer, the PWHL’s senior vicepresident of business operations.