Daryl Watts on dogs, onion rings and trying to win it all with the Sceptres

Daryl Watts had just finished an off-day practice, and as the Toronto Sceptres leading point-getter looked around the Ford Performance Centre, she shook her head and smiled as she thought about how familiar this particular arena is to her. 

“This was my home rink growing up,” Watts said. “It’s so crazy.” 

The 26-year-old’s childhood home is minutes from the Sceptres practice rink, though she now lives downtown, closer to where they play their home games at Coca-Cola Coliseum. Her professional career is literally happening right at home, where Watts is on a nearly point-per-game pace with a Toronto team that’s clinging to the fourth and final playoff spot with eight regular-season games to go in in this third year of the PWHL.

On Friday, the Sceptres will be looking for a third straight win as they host Boston (7 p.m. ET on Sportsnet), and Watts will be looking to help her team get it by extending her five-game point streak.   

Ahead of that home tilt, Watts caught up with Sportsnet to talk about a range of topics including her dogs, the part of her debut Olympic experience that keeps her up at night, the world’s greatest onion rings, and why winning with this Sceptres team would be extra sweet. 

[This conversation has been edited for length and clarity.]

SPORTSNET: When did you realize you had a real scoring touch?

WATTS: I think when I was pretty young. I've always loved to score, ever since I was little. That's kind of why I fell in love with hockey.

How little were you when you started regularly working on your shot and skills? 

I remember being four or five and having skills coaches come out to a backyard rink my dad would build, working with my brother and I. So, I feel like really from Day 1 I was working on skills and scoring with really great coaches. I'm lucky that I was fortunate enough to have that… 

I remember the backyard rink, and my mom just loving it, and when I was in school always during lunch hour coming home and getting on the ice, and after school til bedtime. And then later on, in middle school, waking up at 5 a.m. to go work with a great skills coach before school. So, yeah, I worked really hard.

What is it like to score in your hometown and have a sold-out arena cheer for you?  

It's definitely one of the cool parts of playing when you score a goal and the whole arena erupts and your teammates are so pumped. It’s a great feeling, and whether you score or just help out on the play, you definitely feel a high that you want to keep repeating. 

Representing the city you grew up in, can you describe what that’s like? 

It's crazy. I grew up a huge Leafs fan. Hockey is everything to the city, so to play for a pro women's team, I never would have dreamt of that growing up, you know? It was beyond my wildest imagination that we would have a pro team here, and the success and the fan support that the Sceptres have. And the PWHL is mind-blowing, so I feel really lucky. It’s honestly crazy. 

What’s the playoff atmosphere like?

It's super cool. I mean, last year, my first year here, the Leafs were also in the playoffs. I'd say the whole city was buzzing for the Leafs, and I think our fans were buzzing for us. I think this year will be interesting because it doesn't look like the Leafs will make playoffs, so we don't have to compete, because last year we played on the same night as the Leafs twice in a row… I feel like that was poor planning to put us on the same night. So, this year we won't have that issue. And yeah, it will be great — if, hopefully, we can make the playoffs. 

Does it feel like this year could be different for Toronto in the playoffs? [The Sceptres were upset in the first round in each of the league’s first two seasons by the eventual-champion Minnesota Frost.] 

Yeah, we still have eight games left, which in the PWHL is like an insane amount of games [due to the 30-game schedule and the three points awarded for a regulation win]. We could literally come last or we could come first [depending on what happens in] eight games. So, I don't think any of us are thinking too far ahead… But obviously we want to win the Walter Cup and not get eliminated by Minnesota in the first round. That would be ideal [laughs]. 

Do you have a favourite restaurant in Toronto? 

I have a soft spot for the neighbourhood I grew up in, the Kingsway. There's a spot called Magoo's. Have you heard of Magoo’s? I love Magoo’s. I usually get a four-ounce burger, or a six-ounce depending on how hungry I am. I get alfalfa sprouts, ketchup, honey mustard, and then mixed cheddar with mozzarella — it's so good. And their onion rings are the best onion rings in the world. 

What else do you like to do in your spare time around the city? You have two dogs, right?

Yeah, I've got an older little dog named Dexter. He’s a 15-year-old Jackapoo. And then a bigger, younger dog named Charlie, and he's got so much energy. I'll take him along the Lakeshore trail [which runs along Lake Ontario] — he loves to run along the Lakeshore, I'll take his leash off, which I'm probably not supposed to do, and then he'll just run and run. I love that. 

[Holding up a photo on her phone:] This is Dexter. He's so cute. He’s like my brother, because I got him when I was so young, and then Charlie is like my son. Charlie’s really crazy. He’s an Aussie doodle. His birthday is coming up. He’s turning five in April.

Big party?

Huge party. Everyone's invited. The whole city is going to go.

What was the Olympic experience like for you? 

It was the coolest experience of my life, for sure. Obviously losing sucked and it's absolutely heartbreaking and I've never felt that type of pain from a loss before. It was just gut-wrenching, like, the worst pain ever. Not to be dramatic, but for my whole life all you want is to win gold. And then to be so close, being in overtime, and to lose, it was just heartbreaking. It still hurts. I still think about it and stay up late some nights thinking about it. 

What specifically do think about? 

The gold medal game. Moments where we could have scored, just how close we got, how well we played. Yeah, it just stings, but it's okay. 

Considering Canada got pumped 5-0 by the Americans in the round robin, did you expect the gold medal game to be so close? 

Honestly, we did. We knew that the gold medal game would be one game, and anything can happen in one game. We just had a feeling. I really can't explain it more than we just knew we were going to give it our all and that we could beat them once. Like, we probably weren't going to beat them back-to-back or beat them multiple times, but we knew we could be them once, and we really felt like the gold medal game was the game where we were going to beat them. 

Obviously, we were so close, and we played the best game of the season. It just sucked how close we got. But we played so well, so we're so proud of how we played. 

What did you learn about your captain at the Olympics [Marie-Philip Poulin] that you maybe didn’t know before? 

There's so much I could say about Pou. She's the greatest women's hockey player to ever play. And beyond that, she's the greatest leader, the greatest person. We're so lucky to have her. We're so lucky to be led by her. And obviously she struggled with an injury, and just the resilience and the way that she played through it was incredible. And that's just her. She's always kind of been able to play through injuries, no matter what it is. I don't think a lot of women could play through an injury the way she played through the injury. I just wish we could have won it for her. She’s just the best. 

Do you recall going kind of viral recently? 

Oh, for the Tina?

What? Who’s Tina? 

At the Olympics, they handed us the stuffed animal — like, when they hand out the medals, you get a stuffed animal. Her name is Tina. We all love Tina, but they handed me Tina and I just looked really not impressed. But I was actually so pumped to get Tina, like we couldn't wait to get Tina because she was sold out at all the stores. So, we knew we would get Tina in that game, but, you know, obviously I was pretty upset in the moment. 

Where's Tina now? 

Tina's in my bedroom, I think on my bedside table. 

Your dogs won’t chew Tina up? 

I'll make sure they don't. Tina’s off limits. 

The video I mean was of you cross-checking a Frost player [Katy Knoll] to the ice and then casually jumping onto the bench. Do you remember that? 

I don't have Twitter, but one of my teammates sent me the clip, and it was pretty funny. It’s so funny, the way [Knoll] just slides on her knees. What you don’t see is she blew up one of my teammates seconds before. She was just kind of bothering me the whole game and then she did that to one of our teammates, so skating to the bench I just got a bit too mad, and I probably should have got a penalty but thankfully, I didn’t. 

What’s the best part of playing for this Sceptres team? 

It's really such a great group of girls and we get along so well and there's so many girls that keep the locker room vibes high and light. An example of that would be Emma Woods. Everyone loves her, she's hilarious, she is the most genuine person you'll ever meet. There's Maggie Connors, who’s just incredibly kind and positive, loves hockey and would do anything for her teammates. Gamers like Emma Maltais and Jesse Compher, who do anything to win and anything also for their teammates and they just bring great vibes and really fun energy to the rink. 

What does your goalie, Elaine Chuli, add to the dynamic? 

We're all obsessed with her. I'm obsessed with her. She's so funny, she's so cute, she is so nice. When she gets fired up, she's like a cute little squirrel. Her voice is so funny. She's the best. We really just adore her, truly, and she's an incredible goalie. She won a few games for us at the beginning of the year. She stood on her head. She's just an incredible person.

What would it mean to win with this group that you clearly love? 

Oh my gosh, it would be amazing. Winning in this league is so hard. Winning a Walter Cup would be so challenging, but when it's hard like that, it's just so sweet. When you think about college hockey, in the past four years, two teams are in the finals every year.

And at the world level, it's Canada and the U.S. every year, and the PW is full of great teams. So, it's kind of the hardest trophy to win when you think about it that way. With that in mind, it would be the sweetest win, other than Olympic gold. It would be so, so cool. And to do it with our best friends would be amazing.