It's Time For The Women!

Get fired up, hockey fans, because the schedule is set and the ten best teams in the world will land in Calgary over the next two weeks in preparation for the long-awaited 2021 IIHF Women's World Hockey Championship. After being cancelled last year and delayed this year, skates will hit the ice in Calgary starting on Friday, August 20 as the tournament gets underway!

Group A seems like it will be a bit of a war when it comes to the top-five teams figuring out who gets seeded where, but Canada, Finland, Russia, Switzerland, and the USA will go through the paces to make that happen. While it seems like there may be three teams who wil finish 1-2-3 in this pool, I would be hesitant to count anyone out after two years of not playing major international competitions. An early upset or two could be in the cards if one or more of the superpowers stumble.

If there's one thing I object to, however, it's seeing Russia as part of this competition operating under a neutral flag following their punishment for drug violations, but I'm not the IIHF and I don't have a say in the matter. I honestly think that having Russia at major international competitions like the Olympics and the Women's World Hockey Championship not only sends the wrong message, but it doesn't dissuade them from trying it again. That being said, painting all Russian athletes with the same brush seems cruel, but that's the price one would pay if I were in charge. But I digress....

Pool B is where we'll see the emerging teams battle it out for a date in the quarterfinals against the women's hockey powers. Those five countries are the Czech Republic, Denmark, Germany, Hungary, and Japan. All of those nations could win the pool based upon rosters and skills, so it will be interesting to watch which teams emerge from that group as the next potential women's hockey power throughout this tournament.

I must admit that it's weird not seeing Sweden in this event, but that country's national program needs a serious overhaul before the Swedes will return to any sort of major international competition. The 2019 Women's World Championship saw the Damkronorna relgated down to the Division-1A tournament where they'll have to work their back up by winning that tournament, but, with no relegation at this year's World Championship, the Swedish women will watch from the sidelines once again. Here's hoping that we'll see Sweden qualify for the Olympics where they can show the world that they're back on track to be a world power once more.

With the world watching the women in Calgary, here are Canada's games and opponents as they play through the tournament. Note that these games will be on TSN in Canada, so make sure you've updated your TV package if you want to watch. All Canadian games are scheduled for a 4pm MT/6pm ET start.

• Friday, August 20: vs Finland
• Sunday, August 22: at Russia
• Tuesday August 24: vs Switzerland
• Thursday, August 26: vs USA

The rest of the schedule for the tournament can be found here, but the quarterfinals begin on Saturday, August 28 while the semifinals will be played on Monday, August 30. The bronze-medal game will be played Tuesday, August 31 at 1:30pm MT while the gold-medal game will happen at 5:30pm MT on the 31st as well.

It seems like it's been forever since I wrote about the US women defending their World Championship gold medal, but we're finally going to see it happen. Mark your calendars, folks, because international women's hockey is finally back!

Until next time, keep your sticks on the ice!