Cara Morey returns to Princeton after NHL development camp with Flyers
Hensall native is one of several trailblazing women on the top league’s radar.
Photo: Philadelphia Flyers
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The athlete formerly known as Cara Gardner stood in her skates, carved the ice at a Philadelphia Flyers Training Center in Vorhees, New Jersey, and shouted instructions at some of the best young hockey players in the world.
All the players were college-aged men, there for the Flyers’ 2022 development camp. And the fact Gardner — whose married name is Morey — was called up from the Ivy League and head coach of the women’s program at Princeton, didn’t seem to matter.
“They were great,” said Morey, who grew up in Hensall, won three OFSAA field hockey championships at South Huron District High School, and played hockey and field hockey as a two-sport star at Brown University.
“I think when I first walked into the facility, early on, they might have been questioning what I was doing there,” she said.
“Once you start skating and teaching, they don't care who you are. It didn't matter to them.”
These are the kinds of statements Morey is required to make, because the questions that precede them are as predictable as they should be unnecessary.
Morey is not merely one of the best college coaches in the game, she is part of a cohort of women leaders blazing a trail in the NHL feeder system.
A generation ago, there was a slim chance she’d be here, but here she is — thoroughly deserving, but also one of the first — and so reporters want to know if the boys bother to listen when she speaks.
“I think it's the same as all athletes,” said Morey, bristling slightly. “They have to know you care about making them better, and you have to know what you're talking about.
“There's no difference between men and women when it comes to those two things, so there's really nothing preventing these next steps [for women coaches], except people being willing to give someone a chance.
“Because they're [the players are] going to respond. If you know what you're talking about, and you truly care about making them better, they don't care.”
Trailblazing aside, the Flyers camp was a fantastic growth opportunity for Morey, who has built a formidable program in her first five years as Princeton’s head coach.
Sharing the ice with NHL-calibre players was illuminating, and gleaning knowledge from other elite coaches was the best kind of brain food for the self-described hockey nerd.
“I think the biggest takeaway for me was that these guys don't end the drill until the puck is in the net, or the goalie covers it,” said Morey, who is married to Sean Morey, a former NFL Pro Bowler who also graduated from Brown.
“Sometimes, when you're at different levels, the drill ends with a shot and they just turn away,” she added. “These guys don't let any drill end with a shot.
“So just the mentality that top performers approach every rep with, was the biggest takeaway for me — and something I want to help our players understand.”
At Princeton, Morey returns to a team she expects to contend for national championships this season, next season and perhaps also the one after that.
High-scoring junior forward Sarah Fillier, a two-time All-America and gold medallist with Team Canada at the 2021 IIHF World Championship, is back and on track to match or surpass Princeton’s all-time records for goals and assists.
Sophomore forward Sarah Paul and senior Maggie Connors, both members of the Hockey Canada National Women’s Development Team earlier this year, will provide further ballast to a freshman recruiting class that includes Toronto standout Isabel Wunder.
“The players we have are going to be really fast, aggressive,” said Morey. “It's going to be really hard to get the puck off most of our players …. We’ve got a ton of offensive power this year, but we're always one of the toughest teams to play against. That's kind of our bread and butter.”
In Morey’s tenure as head coach, Princeton has won an Ivy League championship, an ECAC conference tournament title, qualified for two NCAA quarterfinals, and is frequently ranked among the top 10 programs in the nation.
Her teams have a 73-43-15 overall record and 52-28-8 in ECAC Hockey, the conference that all Ivy League schools, and several non-Ivy teams, belong to.
(The Ivy League championship is awarded to the team with the best regular-season record, and the ECAC tournament is a precursor to the national championship tourney.)
Morey was promoted to head coach after five seasons as an assistant at Princeton and was a mainstay in the Hockey Canada development system for most of the 2010s.
Her playing days ended after two seasons in the National Women’s Hockey League with the Montreal Wingstars and the Brampton Thunder. In her time at Brown (Class of 2001), she was an All-ECAC and All-Ivy League defender despite only two years of elite high school hockey.
Though she started out in the Hensall Minor Hockey system, playing on boys’ teams, Morey transitioned into ringette around age nine.
She did not play competitive, organized women’s hockey until grades 11 and 12 with the London Devilettes. It didn’t matter.
“I had developed great skating skills and vision, and understood the game,” she said. “I was just behind in stickhandling and puck skills … in some ways it helped that I had those other skills because I never over-handled or tried to dangle. I definitely had the athleticism and the skating to do well at that level, so that part wasn't a hard transition.”
As recently as five years ago, Morey said she wouldn’t have wanted to coach in the NHL. But it’s something she’s becoming more open-minded about.
“I think after being at these development camps … these guys are college guys, the same age as what I coach,” said Morey.
“They really are the same as my players — they just want to get better. They want to develop as people as much as they do as hockey players.
“So, it changed my mindset a lot … I’m more open to it, but I still think that the college job might be the best job in hockey.”
As for Morey’s Hensall roots, she remains fiercely proud of her hometown.
“I feel so fortunate that I got to grow up in such a small town where basically we had the freedom to learn our own lessons, but there were always people watching out for you,” she said.
“We had to work for everything we got. It wasn't like we were in an area where everything was easily accessible and handed to you. My parents had to sacrifice a ton. My friends' parents sacrificed a ton.
“All the teachers worked hard to help you get where you were. And so for me, that's my family. Hensall and Exeter and South Huron, that's what made me who I am today.”