Canadian women’s hockey team hopes change in Olympic prep yields same golden result

Canada’s preparation that has yielded a lot of Olympic gold medals in women’s hockey will change for 2026 because of the women’s pro league.

Instead of the top players from across the country relocating to Calgary for months leading into a Winter Games, the Canadian women will get together for training blocks in Calgary, Toronto and Montreal scheduled around the Professional Women’s Hockey League calendar.

“It’s a change, but it’s a great change,” Canadian captain Marie-Philip Poulin said. 

“The new league for us, the PWHL, that’s the exciting part.”

Canada opens defence of the Olympic gold medal Feb. 5 against Finland in Milan, Italy.

Of the 30 women invited to Hockey Canada’s Olympic orientation camp in Calgary this week, 27 play in the PWHL that starts its third season later this fall.

After the orientation camp, which also includes 42 NHL players and 20 para hockey players, the women will stay in Calgary for the first of three training blocks.

Centralization in Calgary provided a hockey hot house for the Canadian women in the years their leagues didn’t provide enough daily ice time and quality games.

They trained together every day on and off the ice, played a regular slate of games against local midget triple-A and junior A clubs, as well as exhibition games against the archrival United States women.

Canada has won five of seven gold medals since women’s hockey made its Olympic debut in 1998, and narrowly missed a sixth in a shootout loss to the Americans in 2018.

The PWHL expanding from six to eight teams this season provides 30-plus regular-season games, salaries and benefits. 

It features the majority of the top players in the world in the women’s game, including American stars Hilary Knight (Seattle) and Taylor Heise (Minnesota), Finland’s Michelle Karvinen (Vancouver), Switzerland’s Alina Mueller (Boston) and Czechia’s Tereza Vanisova (Ottawa).

For the first time, the PWHL now fills a role in Olympic prep in providing regular high-stakes games, as well as daily training, as the NHL does for the men.

“This group is quite close,” said Poulin, who plays for the PWHL’s Montreal Victoire. “Having the trust that each other is going to do the work on their side and with their PWHL team, knowing that we’re going to play against each other, that we are going to push each other to be better, that’s the best part of it. 

“When you play in the league against each other, you want to win that face-off. You want go hard against each other to make sure we get ready and that’s how we’re going to benefit, to push each other because knowing come February, we’re going to be ready to go.”

The PWHL has created more competition for spots on national teams. Since the league’s first year, players such Daryl Watts and Hannah Miller got noticed by Hockey Canada and have been included on international rosters.

Miller, however, played for China in Beijing in 2022 and still needs her transfer to Canada approved by the International Ice Hockey Federation.

“Having this league overall is elevating the game with how many players we have playing at the highest level, with six full teams now, girls coming out of college and getting to play in that pro game,” said forward Sarah Fillier, who signed with the New York Sirens this summer.

“A lot of players are more in the spotlight now, especially an Olympic year and everyone’s thinking about it. There’s groups of national team players on every team so it’s definitely in the forefront of everyone’s mind.

“At the same time, it’s just going to elevate the game in a different sense just because we’re playing best on best hockey in a real league, instead of centralizing per country and not playing as many games.”

Canada will play the US in a four-game Rivalry Series starting Nov. 6 in Cleveland and Nov. 8 in Buffalo. Dates for two games in Canada in December have yet to be announced.

“There’s 160 days until the women start the tournament. They’ll spend 50 of those days together. That’s pretty good,” said Hockey Canada senior vice-president of high performance and hockey operations Scott Salmond.

“I’m not sure any other country or any other federation has made that type of investment or commitment.”