After giving birth to her son, Drew, in July, Kendall Coyne Schofield put on a Team USA sweater for the first time in more than a year on Feb. 7 to play in the Rivalry Series.
Coyne Schofield, 31, said she came back mentally tougher than she’s ever been before, which helped after Sunday’s 6-1 defeat vs. Canada at the Xcel Energy Center in St. Paul, Minnesota.
“I’m going to leave here, and the greatest gift in the world is going to be excited to see me and not know mom lost a hockey game,” Coyne Schofield said. “He’s going to smile. He’s going to light up my world.”
“The balance that becoming a mom has provided me has actually made me more mentally strong as an athlete.”
She’s physically stronger, too, because she’s “constantly carrying around 20 pounds all day, every day,” she said, lightheartedly, referring to her 7-month-old son.
Coyne Schofield’s teammates were thrilled to have her back on the ice.
“It’s incredible to have her back,” said Hayley Scamurra, adding that she “hasn’t missed a beat.”
“You really feel her energy on the ice out there, and it’s contagious,” Scamurra said. “And it kind of helps propel me. When I go out on the next shift, I see her buzzing out there. It makes me want to keep going.”
The Rivalry Series wasn’t the first time Coyne Schofield returned to competitive hockey since her son was born. She’s also the captain of the PWHL Minnesota team after she was instrumental in helping to get the league started. Coyne Schofield has three goals and one assist in her first nine games with PWHL Minnesota, which dropped the puck on its inaugural season in early January.
“Each game I’ve played in the league, I feel like I’ve gotten better and better each game,” Coyne Schofield said. “I knew it wasn’t going to be perfect. If I had that expectation of myself, I was crazy.”
She spent a lot of time skating by herself, and sometimes other people, before and after her son was born. But getting reps with the unpredictability, pace and contact of the game were important for her to get back into form.
Coyne Schofield is also known for her speed, an element she said is back within her game. While she doesn’t have any specific benchmarks for her return to play, she wears a tracking device on her shoulder pads that’s shown her speed is where it was in the past, which she said is reassuring.
“For me, there’s no reason I can’t…
Click Here to Read the Full Original Article at Team USA Hockey News with tag(s): Women's…