Lou Orlando
WEST ORANGE, N.J. — Tempered frustration filled Essex County Codey Arena as the New York Sirens filed in for exit interviews Monday morning, just two days after a disappointing close to the 2025-26 season.
“Obviously, we’re not where we want to be,” rookie center Casey O’Brien stated. “I wish we could be playing in the playoffs. I think we had the group to do it. It just didn’t come together for us.”
The Sirens were eliminated from playoff contention in their penultimate game of the season after failing to secure a regulation win against the Toronto Sceptres last Tuesday. New York finished seventh out of eight teams with 36 points (9-3-3-15), missing the postseason for a third consecutive year.
“Certainly some ups and downs throughout the year. You can look at the body of work, and there’s lots to reflect on,” coach Greg Fargo noted. “We knew coming into the season we had a young group. We were going to put some of our young players in really important situations. And while they did well, I think there’s still some moments where we left something on the table, and that seemed to be the difference.”
The Sirens earned nine out of a possible 45 points on the road, good for a .200 points percentage that ranked second-worst in the PWHL. Special teams were marred by inconsistency, as was an offense that slowed to a crawl down the stretch.
But nothing stuck more with players than a lengthy 10-game skid (1-0-2-7) from Jan. 20 to March 28, capped by four straight regulation losses to end March. New York was in playoff position at the Olympic break in February, but its second-half struggles proved too much to overcome.
“We know that it came down to these last couple games, but really it was that losing streak we had after the Olympics,” alternate captain Jaime Bourbonnais pinpointed. “I think you go back to that, and if we would have been able to find ourselves out of that, it would have been a completely different end to the season.”
New York clawed back into the playoff picture with a string of inspired efforts at home, galvanized by a torrid stretch from star forward Sarah Fillier — but it was too little, too late.
“We take accountability for that. We know that was a really hard part of our season for us, and I think that we’d obviously love to change that,” Bourbonnais added. “But I think the push we made at the end, even despite having a losing streak like that, really proud of the group for how close we came.”
That doesn’t erase the sting of a season that will be remembered as a missed opportunity for the Sirens.
“It sits with you,” Fillier acknowledged. “We’re all competitive. We all want to win. It’s my second year here not making playoffs. Some players, it’s their third year.”
“I definitely will think about it a lot,” said Micah Zandee-Hart, concluding her third season as New York’s captain. “And as a captain, too, I think it’s natural to take a little bit more responsibility for that happening as well. So I’ll definitely think about it. It definitely motivates me to come back better next year.”
As far as Fillier is concerned, reflecting is the only path forward.
“You have to reflect,” the second-year forward explained. “If you’re not reflecting after losing and not making playoffs, you’re really not learning, and you’re not growing.”
Kristyna Kaltounkova shares update after season-ending injury
A season-ending injury for 24-year-old phenom Kristyna Kaltounkova added another obstacle to New York’s path. The 2025 No. 1 overall pick missed the final nine games of her rookie campaign, leaving the Sirens without their leading goal scorer.
“I injured my knee, been dealing with it since the Olympics,” Kaltounkova disclosed Monday. “And I felt like at one point, it became too much — being in pain constantly, playing in pain constantly. We decided to take some time off to see if it would improve.”
After representing Czechia at the 2026 Milan-Cortina Olympics, Kaltounkova appeared in five games with the Sirens before coming out of the lineup on March 20. She was placed on long-term injured reserve (LTIR) on March 31 and underwent surgery on her right knee for the second time in two seasons.
“At that point, it was medically the best decision to take care of that, undergo surgery, and recover the best that I could, so that I am not in pain,” she explained. “But also at my age, I personally feel it’s really important to take care of my body if I want to have a long season. So I felt that was the move to go.”
Kaltounkova expressed optimism that the injury would not significantly delay her offseason training plans.
“I’ve been recovering now, doing [physical therapy], working out, really just trying to get back to where it was,” she noted. “Obviously, no need to peak in June, but we have some national team commitments coming up back home, so I’m going to make sure that I don’t rush anything, but I feel good, and I feel like I can get back to work once it fully heals, pretty soon.”
Kaltounkova was one of three Sirens forwards who ended the season on LTIR, joined by Taylor Girard and Savannah Norcross. Fargo could not divulge specific injury information about any other players, though he did note that multiple players will require offseason attention and possibly surgery.
Greg Fargo, Sirens coaching staff expected to return in 2026-27
The Sirens missed the playoffs for a second consecutive season under Fargo and regressed by one point from 2024-25, when New York finished dead last with 37 points (8-4-5-13) in his first season at the helm.
All signs point to Fargo and his staff returning for the 2026-27 season.
“We’re going to sit with each and every staff, we’re going to have to look if the structure can be pimped,” general manager Pascal Daoust explained. “But I don’t see any reason for people not to be part of the New York Sirens.”
Daoust backed Fargo in his season assessment, citing his satisfaction with New York’s offensive process in particular.
“When you watch the game, everybody agrees that we were exciting to watch. Everybody feels the data [was] on our side, except the standings,” Daoust noted. “But the vibe that we get, the culture that we get from the staff, coaches — we’re building something that is aligned with good people, and Greg is a great head coach to work with.”
Sirens lament finishing woes: ‘We needed to be better’
New York’s offensive metrics didn’t match its on-ice results in 2025-26. Take the regular-season finale, for example, where the Sirens outshot the Boston Fleet 24-8 through the first two periods, but couldn’t solve Aerin Frankel. Boston scored four times in the third, completing a 4-0 shutout win in regulation.
“I think there’s a lot of games where we look at the stats after and are kind of happy with what things say. But ultimately, you gotta score in this League to win games,” Fillier stated. “There are periods where we had a lot of good looks, a lot of Grade-A chances, but we couldn’t find the net. And when you play teams like Boston, who have a world-class goalie, we know we have to put games away early. It’s always better playing with lead, especially when you need those crucial points at the end of the season.”
“I think it’s always going to be an obstacle,” Fargo said. “So I don’t think we can look at opposing goaltenders and look at that as any kind of excuse for a lack of scoring. The onus falls on us to find ways to convert.”
According to their internal data, the Sirens led the PWHL in expected-goals-for, Grade-A chances, and Grade-B chances. But the Sirens shot a meager 7.1 percent on a diet of 883 shots — the second-worst conversion rate in the League, ahead of only the Toronto Sceptres (6.0 percent).
“This is not normal,” Daoust asserted. “Just give us, I would say, eight or nine percent — it means nine to 18 goals more. Nine to 18 more coming from the same shot, same quality, same things that you’ve created on the ice.”
Raising that shooting percentage by even one or two points is easier said than done. Only three PWHL teams reached a nine-percent clip or better in 2025-26.
“You get a lot of shots on net sometimes, but maybe they’re not Grade-A chances. And you look at the numbers, you’re like, ‘wow,’ but maybe you actually watch it, and it’s not as glaring as you might think,” O’Brien noted. “I think there’s some games that we had that [shot] difference, just getting a lot there, but maybe we’re not getting people to the net, driving the net, getting in the dirty areas.”
“And so I think that’s definitely room for growth for us, especially on the power play,” the rookie added. “We get shots to the net, but we wouldn’t be cleaning up our rebounds. And that’s the difference between winning some games and not. That doesn’t fall on one person or one line. I think we needed to be better at that as a whole.”
New York’s finishing woes were no more apparent than on the power play, where the Sirens endured multiple 0-for-20 skids and finished with the third-worst conversion rate (12.7 percent) in the League.
“I think it’s probably reflective of our overall group,” Fargo assessed. “We’re putting a lot of that pressure to convert and have a great power play on some young players.”
“There’s areas we need to clean up — how to recover pucks, and take care of the puck, and just ensure that our pass quality is on point,” he added. “But going back to the injuries, I think that also plays a part into it too.”
New York lost two key sources of offense — Girard and Kaltounkova — to long-term injuries. The Sirens averaged 1.6 goals and went 2-for-33 on the power play with both out of the lineup over the final nine games.
“I think it’s significant,” Fargo acknowledged. “Not only the scoring, but just the presence of those two players from a size and strength standpoint. When you’ve got Kalty and Girard at the net front, it changes how you have to think about defending in a power play.”
To make matters worse, the power play faltered defensively at the end of the season, surrendering four jailbreak goals over the final four games.
“Us on the power play, we definitely own that,” Fillier stated. “We can’t let jailbreak goals happen — especially twice in one game. So there’s a lot of accountability there too.”
Sirens optimistic about ‘what we’re building’
The standings year to year don’t reflect it, but the sentiment in the New York locker room is that the Sirens took an important stride forward in 2025-26.
“The good thing is, we’ve laid a really good foundation in terms of a team identity and how we want to play,” Fargo explained. “Now, we want to make sure that how we want to play is matching up with winning hockey games. We know we’ve got some areas to improve on.”
New York emphasized improving the culture at training camp in November. By season’s end, the verdict was a resounding success.
“I think culture-wise, we definitely took steps in the direction we wanted to take,” Zandee-Hart said. “We knew we had a young team. So I think for those of us coming back, the important thing was creating an environment where they could play their game and bring what they needed to bring. And I think if you look at the season of a lot of our rookies, I think they did that.”
The Sirens led the PWHL in rookie goals (28) and rookie scoring (62). O’Brien topped all rookies with 22 points (seven goals, 15 assists), and Kaltounkova paced the pack with 11 goals.
“Obviously, the end result of the team not making the playoffs isn’t what we wanted,” Zandee-Hart added. “But I think from a culture perspective, we took a huge step forward, and I’m excited to see where we take that next.”
Keeping that rookie class together is just the latest obstacle for the Sirens amid swirling PWHL expansion rumors.
“When you look at the team that we have, if we’re able to keep it together — that’s a big if,” Fargo admitted. “But if we’re able to keep it together, or some core components of it, there’s a lot of excitement about what we’re building.”
What New York is building includes a fanbase that surged in 2025-26. Home attendance jumped 84 percent, highlighted by a United States women’s hockey record crowd of 18,006 at Madison Square Garden on April 4.
“Our fan base broke so many records this year — weeknight records, weekend records, MSG game,” Bourbonnais said. “Obviously, right now, it feels dark, and it’s sad because we would love to be playing in playoffs, but on a whole, the season was incredible. We did make a lot of strides.”
Zandee-Hart cited New York’s home finale at Prudential Center, when the Sirens rallied from a 2-0 deficit to defeat the Sceptres 3-2 in regulation behind three unanswered goals in the final 10:30.
“Our last home game on a Wednesday night, we had 6200 fans,” New York’s captain recalled. “We were down by two going into the third. I don’t know if we come back in that game if we didn’t have those fans on a Wednesday night, because that was a different atmosphere for us, and you felt it.”
“I’ve been in this market for such a long time,” said Fillier, who spent four seasons at Princeton University. “I know what it’s capable of, and just excited to bring in more fans to our community.”
