Is Canada’s women’s Olympic hockey team in trouble after big losses to USA?
Baseball hall of famer Yogi Berra once said, “It ain’t over, til it’s over.”
However, for those who watched the first three games of this year’s Rivlary Series between the United States and Canada, the Olympic champion might as well be decided.
The annual exhibition between the bordering countries usually gives an insight into what to expect in upcoming major tournaments. This year’s four-game series is serving as the precursor to the Winter Olympics in Milan, and if anyone was unsure who the favorite would be heading into February, how things have played out over the past couple of months might sway their opinion.
For context, Canada had won each of the previous four Rivalry Series, famously coming back from 3-0 deficits in the 2022-23 and 2023-24 seasons, before winning last year’s best-of-five battle. This year, the United States has made sure to leave a mark, and then some.
The first two games Stateside last month saw the Americans roll over Canada, scoring 10 goals to the Canadians’ two. However, many believed that proved little, as the red and white weren’t at full strength, with Ann-Renee Desbiens and Brianne Jenner among the notable names missing from the first leg.
Canada bolstered its roster for the final leg on home ice, but it ended up in disaster on Wednesday night. Though Sarah Fillier scored in the opening minute of the game in Edmonton, the U.S. dominated. The reigning world champions scored four unanswered goals and tacked on another four in the third period, running away with a 10-4 win, clinching the Rivalry Series for the first time since the 2019-20 campaign.
It marked the first time Canada had ever given up 10 goals in a game…ever. It was also the first time in the history of the rivalry that either side had hit double-digits against one another. The most dominant nation in the sport was humbled in its own barn by its fiercest rival, just two months before trying to defend its Olympic gold.
It wasn’t just the fact that Canada lost, but how they lost. Defensively, they were out of sorts, leaving anyone in a white sweater open in dangerous scoring areas. It seemed like any mistake they made resulted in the puck ending up in the back of the net. The Canadians outshot the U.S., but it hardly fazed goaltender Gwyneth Philips, who received more goal support than she probably expected.
Veteran defenseman Jocelyne Larocque made it known that the players in the locker room understood the magnitude of the loss.
“There were a lot of words said after the game,” Larocque said postgame on Wednesday. “It’s one of those things where right now we have a choice to learn to get better, to compete harder, to just playing Canadian hockey and that wasn’t Canadian hockey today. There was moments, but the consistency just wasn’t there.”
The Canadians didn’t have any answer to the U.S.’ onslaught. Sure, the home team outshot the red, white and blue, but the scoring chances certainly felt in favor of the visitors. Abbey Murphy led the Americans with four points, while Kendall Coyne Schofield and Kelly Pannek had three points as well.
Dating back to last year’s IIHF Women’s World Championship, when Team USA swept the two meetings against Canada for the first time since 2017, the Americans have won five straight meetings against their rivals.
The lopsided affair is also the culmination of a concerning trend that has been brewing over the past couple of years. You see, in the first legs of the previous Rivalry Series, the U.S. has heavily relied upon its youth, with college stars Kirsten Simms, Murphy and Tessa Janecke showing they belong with the best in the world. Canada has clinched the Rivalry Series thanks to wins later in the series, when the university players were not participating because they were staying on campus for essential parts of their NCAA seasons.
While Canada has established stars in Desbiens, Fillier, Marie-Philip Poulin and Laura Stacey, they don’t have anywhere near the same amount of firepower outside of the pro ranks, and it’s starting to show. Even with Kendall Coyne Schofield and Hilary Knight still playing at a high level, there’s a definitive core of players ready to take the torch into the future. Canada has Caitlin Kraemer, Chloe Primerano and Eve Gascon, but that trio is far from being the stars of the show.
What’s hard to fathom, if you’re a Canadian fan, is that, if you match the teams up by position, Team USA has a clear advantage. While Desbiens and Emerance Maschmeyer are still great in goal, they sure aren’t playing at the same level as Philips and Aerin Frankel. Defensively, Caroline Harvey is quickly becoming one of, if not the, best blueliner in the game. She leads an exceptional D-corps that’s only going to get better, while Canada is still shelling out Larocque, Renata Fast and Erin Ambrose (though Sophie Jaques and Claire Thompson give some hope. Up front, there’s so much speed and skill on the American side – Murphy, Knight, Taylor Heise, etc. Even with Poulin and Fillier being more than capable of taking games over, the Canadians don’t feel like they have the offensive edge like they used to.
Yes, there’s time for adjustments to be made, and you know Canada will have a chip on its shoulder heading into Italy based on how the Rivalry Series has played out. However, if things stay the same, the gold medal might change hands, and it might not be as close as we’re accustomed to.
Canada has a chance to earn a little bit of redemption on Saturday night, as they wrap up the Rivalry Series at Rogers Place.