Canadian women relying on connection and heart to repeat as Olympic hockey champs

Eight straight losses to the Americans.

That’s where the Canadian women’s hockey team stood back in 2002, when the two teams met in the Olympic gold medal final.

The Canadians had never won Olympic gold in women’s hockey. They were the favourites at the first tournament in 1998, but fell to the Americans.

Four years later in Salt Lake City, with those eight losses on the books, the Canadians were underdogs.

It didn’t matter. None of it counted in the most important 60 minutes. When the buzzer sounded, it was the Canadians who defeated the Americans 3-2 for the country’s first women’s hockey Olympic gold medal.

It’s a moment that changed the trajectory of women’s hockey in this country. It sparked the dreams of plenty of women who’d later wear the maple leaf, including a young girl in Beauceville, Que.

That girl, Marie-Philip Poulin, would go on to write Olympic history of her own. No one has scored more golden goals at the Olympics than Poulin, who will compete in her fifth Olympics this February in Milan, Italy.

Twenty-four years after that game in Salt Lake City, the Canadians may be underdogs again. They enter the Olympics having lost six straight games to the Americans, dating back to last year’s world championship.

At a four-game Rivalry Series against the United States at the end of last year, Canada was outscored 24-7.

But to the 23 women named to the roster on Friday, just as it didn't matter in 2002, it doesn't matter in 2026.

"I think we're the underdogs, like you said, in some people's eyes," assistant captain Blayre Turnbull told CBC's Jamie Strashin. "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 through the last [four years], I don't think that our recent games tell the whole story. For me, yes, we've lost to them, but our confidence has never wavered. We believe in ourselves and we believe in our group."

The American team is stacked with speed and skill, the product of a retooling that came after several losses to the Canadians. They boast several talented NCAA players who will be stars in the PWHL soon. In other words, they’re very good.

But so are the Canadians, and if this team has an X factor, it might be the experience, culture and connection so much of the roster has built over the last several years.

“Unfortunately the results weren’t maybe in our favour, but the lessons we learned and the opportunity to grow, I believe, will have prepared us for these Olympic Games,” Canadian GM Gina Kingsbury said on Friday, as she unveiled the team.