Canada relying on experience to repeat as Olympic women's hockey champions

Some see them as the underdogs.

The Canadian women’s hockey team has lost its last six games to the rival Americans, dating back to last year’s world championship.

That includes a four-game Rivalry Series sweep that saw Canada outscored by the U.S., 24-7.

The Canadians are heading into the Olympics as the second-ranked team in the world, according to the International Ice Hockey Federation.

There’s no getting past the fact that Canada was outplayed, badly, at the Rivalry Series. Canadian captain Marie-Philip Poulin described it as “a hard look in the mirror for all of us.” 

There’s also no doubt this American team is dangerous, filled with young, exciting, and talented players.

They'll be the team to beat.

But a peek beyond the surface, and beyond those four Rivalry Series games, is more nuanced. This is largely the same Canadian team that won three of the last five world championships and Olympic gold in 2022. Even in last year’s world championship, both losses to the Americans were decided by one goal.

“I think we’re the underdogs, like you said, in some people’s eyes,” assistant captain Blayre Turnbull, who plays for the Toronto Sceptres of the PWHL, said on the day the 23-player roster was unveiled.

“I think if you look at our recent games against them, yeah, we got smoked. But I think if you look at our games against them throughout the last [four years], I don’t think that our recent games tell the whole story."

The Canadians are hoping that veteran experience will be their superpower when they open their gold-medal defence against Finland on Thursday at 3:10 p.m. ET. Viewers can watch all the action on CBC and CBC Gem.

Sixteen of the players on this team own gold medals from the 2022 Games in Beijing. 

Ten of those players felt the pain of losing in a shootout to the Americans in 2018.

Four were part of the miraculous, third-period comeback at the 2014 Olympics in Sochi, when all looked to be lost.