The history of the U.S. vs. Canada women’s ice hockey rivalry goes back to 1990, when the two neighbors met in the inaugural IIHF World Championship. Since Canada won that first game by a 5-2 score in Ottawa, you could pretty well pencil the two teams in as finalists of any competition the two teams had entered.
Indeed, in the 31 World Championships or Olympics held since 1990, Canada and the United States have met on 29 occasions.
Though Canada had the whip hand in the early days, winning every IIHF World Championship between 1990 and 2005, the States did lay down an important chit at Nagano 1998, winning the Olympics with a 3-1 result that was televised live.
The teams have traded games, championship titles, and the occasional collision over the last 36 years leading up to yesterday’s group-stage meeting.
In a competitive sense, the game didn’t mean a lot, since, as was the case in women’s lacrosse the last few seasons, the elite pool of five teams (Czechia, Finland, and Switzerland are the other three teams) were all guaranted advancement to the knockout stage of the tournament.
But gadzooks, did the United States really beat Canada 5-0 yesterday in Milan? Was there that much of a gulf in class between the two sides?
Sure, there are some great U.S. players who came up trumps yesterday, including Abbey Murphy, Hannah Bilka, Caroline Harvey, and Laila Edwards. There are still a lot of players on the U.S. roster, including Kendall Coyne-Schofield and Hilary Knight, as well as last winter’s Final Four heroine Kirsten Simms, who are also contributing to the U.S. effort during the Olympics.
Despite the scoreline, I believe the two teams are very much at an even level, but I think Canada did have a lull in morale because team captain Marie-Philip Poulin suffered an injury that kept her out of the contest.
Thing is, the Canadian women’s national team has developed a culture in which one person doesn’t necessarily determine the course of the outcome (opposite of, say, Argentina’s national soccer team). Canada has plenty of talent up and down its lineup, and will be a formidable foe the next time these two teams meet.
Which could be for the gold medal.