UTICA, N.Y. — The Canada—USA rivalry has been ongoing for many years now. But they’ve by no means performed one another fairly like they did on Monday evening.
“That is likely to be one of many quickest and most bodily video games we’ve performed in opposition to them ever,” Canadian defender Renata Fast mentioned on Wednesday afternoon. “It was a extremely enjoyable recreation to be part of.”
The recreation was rather more entertaining than a 1-0 rating would recommend. It was fast-paced, every group was buying and selling high-danger possibilities, there have been large hits, nice defensive performs, and the goalies have been going save-for-save till Kirsten Simms beat Ann-Renée Desbiens in time beyond regulation.
The approach the sport was performed may be credited to a couple issues. First and foremost, it’s the very best rivalry within the sport. There’s additionally a ton of elite younger expertise on each groups now (from Simms to Caroline Harvey on the U.S., and Sarah Fillier and Danielle Serdachny on Canada) which can be pushing the tempo. And after all, there’s the beginning of the Professional Women’s Hockey League.
“I feel we type of knew that was going to occur,” mentioned Canadian ahead Jamie Lee Rattray. “Now that we’ve got the PWHL, we’re coming into occasions on the prime of our recreation.”
It’s been a standard takeaway from the beginning of the 2024 ladies’s world championship: That the PWHL, three months into its inaugural season, has already raised the sport on the worldwide degree.
For a number of years after the Canadian Women’s Hockey League folded in 2019, a lot of the prime Canadian and American gamers weren’t constantly taking part in or coaching throughout the season. They’d play exhibition video games as members of the barnstorming tour (then referred to as the PWHPA) or in opposition to one another within the rivalry sequence. Games at world championships have been nonetheless good, to be clear, however having constant coaching environments and significant video games for dozens of prime gamers has appeared to amp up the standard.
“It’s elevated the extent of hockey that everybody is taking part in,” mentioned Swedish and PWHL Boston goalie Emma Söderberg. “Now Canada and the U.S. compete on daily basis at a excessive degree, and I feel that pushes the tempo for everybody. It makes an enormous distinction.”
There are a number of European gamers within the PWHL this season, too, representing Sweden (Söderberg), Finland (Susanna Tapani), Switzerland (Alina Müller), Czechia (Denisa Křížová, Tereza Vanišovâ, Aneta Tejralová), Japan (Akane Shiga) and Germany (Abstreiter).
“We see quite a bit European gamers within the league and the way robust they’re, after which they return to their nations and assist carry these nations to actually good tournaments,” Rattray mentioned. “I feel it’s going to simply proceed to develop as women begin to see how good (the league) is and the way good the hockey is.”
Söderberg mentioned there was “a great quantity of curiosity” from gamers in Europe who need to be a part of the PWHL subsequent season. When the league first launched, some gamers already signed contracts with groups in Sweden, Finland or Switzerland. Others needed to take a while to watch the early days of one other new North American League.
Söderberg is hopeful extra gamers make the bounce as a result of it could assist increase the sport for all groups, not simply the North American powers. “Otherwise it may very well be that Canada and U.S. will get extra forward,” she mentioned.
It’s anticipated that some prime gamers from Finland and Czechia will declare for the PWHL draft, however not everyone. Finland’s Petra Nieminen signed a contract extension to remain within the SDHL with Luleå, for instance. Others are nonetheless underneath contract with their present skilled groups.
But it’s clear that the PWHL has been an enormous subject on the match, for its influence now, and the way it would possibly assist develop the game in the long term.
“I really really feel that the extra gamers that may all play within the PWHL collectively — if we will get a number of the Swedish gamers, and the Finnish gamers — the ladies’s recreation is simply going to proceed to get stronger, for each nation,” mentioned Fast. “And that’s what you need, you need all the things to be an in depth match and that’s the route it’s going.”
Before the semifinals on Saturday, and the gold and bronze medal video games on Sunday, let’s empty the pocket book from the primary 9 days of girls’s worlds.
The semifinals are set
The United States, Canada, Czechia and Finland are transferring on to the semifinals of the match after every respective quarterfinal match on Thursday.
Top-ranked Team USA beat Japan in a 10-0 blowout. Japan, with an eighth-place end within the match, will keep within the prime division of girls’s worlds for one more yr, which didn’t appear like a certainty after three straight losses to begin group play.
Abbey Murphy is hockey’s subsequent nice pest: ‘There is really nobody like her’
After being pressured to time beyond regulation final yr, Canada beat Sweden 5-2 in a quarterfinal rematch. The Swedish group will end the match in seventh place. It won’t have the chance to play in any placement video games to maneuver up into Group A. Sweden has a superb — and younger — roster. Still, there’s actually disappointment within the loss, and that the group will spend one other yr in Group B subsequent season.
The Czechia match in opposition to Germany was the very best of the day, a decent recreation between the back-to-back bronze medallists (Czechia) and the highest group from Group B (Germany). Sandra Abstreiter was glorious for Germany, making 23 saves on 24 pictures. She’s been the most effective goalies, and most useful gamers on this match with a .075 objectives in opposition to common and 96.94 % save proportion. Only Desbiens has higher numbers amongst goalies within the match.
Still 0-0 after 20. Sandra Abstreiter has 10 nice saves however this one takes the cake!👌 #GERSWE #WomensWorlds@deb_teams pic.twitter.com/AHzj6lzWXV
— IIHF (@IIHFHockey) April 8, 2024
With the 1-0 win, Czechia has an opportunity to win a third-straight medal on the world championships. The purpose is to maneuver up the rostrum from bronze, however they’ll must get by Team Canada to make it to a gold medal recreation, which will probably be a tricky job. Canada beat Czechia 5-0 in group play final week.
Finally, Finland beat Switzerland 3-1 to make it to the semifinals in opposition to Team USA. The group recreation between the 2 groups was shut after two intervals (4-3) and can make for one more attention-grabbing matchup. You’d assume the U.S. will come out higher than they did final time, and the group is coming off an enormous offensive recreation in opposition to Japan that is likely to be a confidence booster for some younger gamers who had beforehand been snake-bitten.
Finland is again in Group A after a couple of disappointing tournaments and is seeking to win a medal for the primary time since 2021. Switzerland, in the meantime, has not gained a single recreation within the match and received outscored 18-3 in its first It’s been a disappointing match and now the group might want to combat to remain within the top-five in Saturday’s placement recreation in opposition to Germany.
The semifinal matchups for the ladies’s world championships are actually set. Both video games will probably be performed on Saturday.
No. 1 USA vs No. 4 Finland at 3pm
No. 2 Canada vs No. 3 Czechia at 7 pm
— Hailey Salvian (@hailey_salvian) April 12, 2024
The match format
Speaking of Sweden, the group is a wonderful instance of why ladies’s worlds is likely to be prepared for a brand new format with regards to its teams.
For context: The ladies’s match consists of two tiered teams with the highest 5 and backside 5 groups cut up up into two teams (A and B). Other IIHF tournaments — like males’s worlds or world juniors — have two equal teams, with top-ranked groups and lower-level groups combined collectively.
The concept for the ladies’s worlds’ format — which was applied in 2011 — made sense for a time. It inspired equal video games with the highest groups — like Canada, the U.S. and Finland — in a single group, and allowed the lower-ranked groups to play and enhance in opposition to like competitors. But there was sufficient development within the ladies’s recreation, and inside Group B, that it now not feels mandatory.
Sweden was glorious in Group B, outscoring opponents 17-5, and solely misplaced one recreation 1-0 to Germany. Germany can have a chance to maneuver into Group A with a placement recreation in opposition to Switzerland, however Sweden is caught in Group B for one more yr, doubtless destined for one more robust match that ends in a quarterfinal matchup in opposition to Canada or the U.S.
HILDA SVENSSON 🤯
Sweden will get one again on the facility play! #CANSUI #womensworlds @trekronorse pic.twitter.com/W2YyPLyHkF
— IIHF (@IIHFHockey) April 11, 2024
After Thursday’s recreation, Sweden’s coach Ulf Lundberg mentioned he’d solely coached in opposition to Canada 4 occasions within the final 4 years.
How is a group to enhance that approach? How are groups purported to develop to the purpose of being able to beating the likes of Canada and the U.S. after they by no means actually get the prospect to play them till the medal rounds? Going to a extra even group format would doubtless imply we don’t get a Canada-USA recreation within the preliminary rounds, which is at all times an enormous draw. But that can not be the one motive to remain on this present format.
Zsuzsanna Kolbenheyer, a longtime member of the IIHF council, and the chairperson of the ladies’s committee informed The Athletic on Thursday that “we’re having plenty of discussions concerning the format,” and “when can be the correct time to return to snake format and have the 2 equal teams.”
There is actual competitors between the third to seventh-best groups on this planet proper now. The parity in ladies’s hockey is best than I’ve ever seen it. It is likely to be time to make the change.
Catching up with IIHF ladies’s committee
Between Czechia and Canada’s quarterfinal victories, Kolbenheyer and Marta Zawadzka of the IIHF council sat down with The Athletic to debate the match and the expansion of girls’s hockey. Here are some highlights from that dialog.
Questions and solutions have been flippantly edited for size and readability.
Q: How have you ever seen worldwide ladies’s hockey develop within the final a number of years?
Kolbenheyer: There is big development that we couldn’t have imagined in comparison with what we might see again to the 2010 Vancouver Olympics. Women’s hockey is now on a very totally different degree and I’m not solely speaking concerning the North American groups as a result of all the opposite groups received higher additionally. At the previous few worlds, there are at all times groups who can shock you. This time it’s, Germany. Three years in the past, it was Japan who might beat Finland and get to the A Group.
The largest problem is the depth of the participant pool. That’s the place North America is way forward of the European nations, however for those who take a look at the gamers individually, you will discover world-class gamers on all of the groups. If we might create a group from all the opposite groups, then I’d guess they may problem the North American groups.
Q: Kind of just like the World Cup of Hockey with Team Europe in 2016…
Kolbenheyer: So that was on the desk, however then COVID got here and we had totally different priorities and challenges to deal with. I hope that we might finally have a best-on-best match with two combined groups from Europe.
Zawadzka: I feel it may very well be enjoyable. Also, we’re specializing in the highest ten groups who’re seen right here at this match, however you may fish some gamers from Division 1A, too. In Hungary, Austria, Netherlands, Slovakia, and Norway, you may nonetheless discover aggressive gamers who might simply be a part of such group and make an influence.
Kolbenheyer: I feel that dialog will begin once more quickly. The PWHL is nice, however you continue to solely have North American gamers, so how can we present that we’ve got actually nice gamers in Europe too?
Q: This yr’s match has needed to compete with March Madness, the NHL and MLB seasons, and the Masters are this weekend. Have there been discussions about an excellent time to make ladies’s worlds extra of a foremost occasion within the sports activities calendar?
Kolbenheyer: There are loads of challenges with scheduling. For instance, TSN covers each U18 and ladies’s world championship — they can not arrange two totally different crews to go to the under-18 and ladies’s, so they should have separate dates. There’s additionally the rule that seven days earlier than the boys’s match begins, there may be no different prime tournaments occurring.
Having the match in August like we did in Denmark (2022) had some positives, but in addition some negatives. We can’t at all times play hockey in the summertime as a result of in some nations you don’t even have ice rinks open.
And now we’re having discussions with totally different leagues. In the European leagues, some would love worlds to be later, some need it earlier. Now with the PWHL, ought to we begin later to allow them to end the common season and break earlier than playoffs? There are a number of discussions about what can be the very best for TV, for groups, and for the leagues.
Q: It’s my understanding there have been discussions with the ladies’s committee about ladies’s world juniors. Could this occur?
Kolbenheyer: I don’t assume it’s going to occur within the close to future. I feel it could be extra cheap to go to U22 or U23, as a result of with U20, we might have nearly the identical gamers which can be taking part in on the under-18 world championship, apart from Canada and the U.S. If we did a world juniors, I’m one hundred pc positive that we might have loads of gamers, taking part in in any respect three tournaments (U18, world junior, and ladies’s worlds). Would it make sense to have gamers in all three? I feel we want some extra time to have extra gamers within the European nations, after which they may arrange a U23 group.
Canada’s MVP
Through 5 video games, Renata Fast stands out as Canada’s most impactful participant. She’s been on the nationwide group for the reason that 2017 world championships, and has taken on large minutes on the highest pair with Jocelyne Larocque for years now. But I feel we’re seeing one other degree of influence from Fast at this yr’s match.
She appears not possible to get round, horrible to enter a board battle with, and is including helpful offence from the blue line. Her three objectives leads Canada in scoring; Her six factors is third amongst defenders within the match behind solely U.S. star Caroline Harvey and Finland’s Jenni Hiirikoski, who’s destined for the Hockey Hall of Fame.
In the quarterfinals, she scored two objectives and was named the participant of the sport. She’s nonetheless consuming minutes (22:14) and he or she’s been a bodily commanding presence on the backend.
Renata coming in Fast 🏃♀️💨
Canada is on the board early! #CANSWE #womensworlds @hockeycanada pic.twitter.com/PNjJy3cSHr
— IIHF (@IIHFHockey) April 11, 2024
Fast actually stood out in Monday’s recreation between Canada and the United States. The tempo and physicality during which the video games have been performed appeared to cater to Fast’s model of hockey.
“I assumed she was in all probability the very best participant on the ice,” mentioned Rattray. “I feel the best way she performed assured and quick and that’s constructed proper to her recreation.
“I do know taking part in in opposition to her in observe sucks, so I can solely think about being on the American aspect having to go in opposition to that each different shift. She’s simply grow to be this well-rounded, world class participant that we’re actually fortunate to have.”
Kendall Coyne Schofield’s return
This is Kendall Coyne Schofield’s tenth world championship, and her first since giving start to her son, Drew, on July 1, 2023.
“It was emotional,” she mentioned about discovering out she’d made the group. “This is the toughest group I’ve needed to make.”
The transition again to hockey postpartum, she mentioned, was tough. When Coyne Schofield stepped on the ice for PWHL Minnesota on Jan. 3, she hadn’t performed a hockey recreation since Dec. 2022. She had two objectives and three factors within the first month of the season, however her foremost precedence within the early days was to simply get her toes again underneath her.
“I needed to provide myself grace,” she mentioned. “I used to be six months into turning into a mother, I used to be breastfeeding. I used to be on my own in Minnesota as a result of my husband was in Detroit along with his job, so I used to be simply sporting loads of hats. It was fairly exhausting to be trustworthy.”
Minnesota coach Ken Klee was very supportive, and gave Coyne Schofield the type of suggestions that gave her confidence, but in addition didn’t make her really feel rushed to carry out to a sure degree immediately.
“There are zero guys within the NHL who might take a yr off the NHL and are available again and slot in immediately, a lot much less have a child,” Klee informed The Athletic this season. “She went by a complete factor in her life and didn’t play for a yr, now she’s in opposition to the highest gamers on this planet. She’s going to get there as a result of she’s an extremely pushed athlete.”
Coyne Schofield scored 11 factors within the final 11 video games of the PWHL season earlier than heading into the worldwide break. At ladies’s worlds with Team USA, she’s scored three objectives and eights factors and is third in match scoring behind her linemates Alex Carpenter and Hilary Knight. She appears like one of many quickest gamers on the ice once more, she’s been exhausting on the forecheck and wins loads of puck battles within the corners.
Kendall Coyne Schofield is on hat trick watch!
5-3 🇺🇸@usahockey | @PWHL_Minnesota | #WomensWorlds pic.twitter.com/Ctfbe0Tkip
— NHL Network (@NHLNetwork) April 7, 2024
“As I’ve clearly progressed and been extra snug and the tempo of the sport has slowed down for me I’m turning into extra myself like I used to be pre-birth,” she mentioned.
With two assists on Thursday in opposition to Japan, Coyne Schofield additionally moved into second all-time in assists at ladies’s world championships with 46 in 56 video games. She’s solely three behind Hayley Wickenheiser’s document (49 assists in 61 video games), and would wish 4 assists in Team USA’s last two video games to interrupt it.
“What I’ve gone by, to get up to now, has been exhausting,” Coyne Schofield mentioned. “It’s exhausting to elucidate except the opposite mothers on the market can relate to how exhausting it’s to return again after having a baby. But I do know this (match) will certainly be probably the most particular.”
(Top photograph: Christinne Muschi / The Canadian Press through AP)