World Champions

While I won't say that this should have been expected, the US streak of gold medals at the IIHF Women's World Championship has been halted by Canada after their thrilling 3-2 overtime victory over our neighbours to the south. Canada, who also defeated the Americans by a 5-1 score in the preliminary round, wasn't at their best in the early part of this game, but they pulled up their socks, went to work, and battled to the next-goal-wins overtime period where the Golden Girl of Canada, Marie-Philip Poulin, did her thing as Canada stands atop the podium once more.

Let's go to the Poulin moment because this only adds to her legend status. This woman will appear on Canadian money one day. She deserves her own wing at the Hockey Hall of Fame at this point as that's the third golden goal against the Americans in her career, and she still has a ton of hockey to play. And that pass from Jenner? That should be shown to every player at every level of hockey because that's tape-to-tape on the fly in motion that sent Poulin in on the partial breakaway. That's simply outstanding hockey from two of Canada's best players ever.

With the tournament now over and hockey reporters reflecting on what they believe to be a growing chasm between the North American teams and the rest of the world - something I addressed briefly yesterday - the focus now shifts to Beijing where the 2022 Winter Olympiad will take place. There were some changes to the world rankings that will affect the tournament and there are still spots to be filled by teams competing in the Olympic qualifying tournaments, but the stage is nearly set for the Olympics.

I bring the Olympics up because of what Carla MacLeod stated in the postgame report about Team Canada. If I may paraphrase her, MacLeod said that Canada's growing confidence in themselves, specifically after the preliminary win over the Americans, changed their mantra from "Can we win?" to "We believe we will win". For women who have been competing at the highest levels for the longest time, you'd never think that they'd have a lack of confidence against an opponent with whom they match up so well, but it would seem the Americans had put a very large crack in the confidence of the Canadians in that it affected their mental game more than they seemed to have let on.

We, as fans, often hear about how a player loses confidence in one's self when going through a stretch of poor play or bad luck, but to know the Canadians came into this tournament asking themselves if they could beat the Americans is a whole other ball of wax. Considering the last major tournament that the Americans had won was the 2018 Pyeongchang Olympics, it might be unerstandable if the Canadians knew they were going to be tested. But to hear that they questioned their own abilities when comparing themselves to the Americans going into this tournament has me a little rattled when it comes to cheering on my hockey heroes.

The Canadians, though, found the extra gear they needed in that preliminary game to restore the confidence that had been eroded following the repeated losses to the Americans. We hear terms like "playing the right way", "doing the little things right", and "attention to details" when it comes to big wins like the 5-1 victory over the Americans, but it appears that the game was a huge shot of confidence for a team that just couldn't find a way to defeat the Americans in gold medal games for the past few years. It changed the mindset from "can we" to "we will" because they played the right way, paid attention to details, and did all the little things right.

If this win leads to renewed confidence for Canada as they head to Beijing, there's a good chance that we'll see a rematch of tonight's final in Beijing when it comes to the gold medal game. With a Canadian squad believing in themselves once again, they may be a force at the Olympic tournament once again, and that should mean that the country will tune in to watch them attempt to reclaim gold from the Americans just as they did tonight.

Enjoy the victory, ladies, and congratulations to the 2021 IIHF Women's World Championship gold medallists in Team Canada! To the Americans, we'll see you soon, and we expect another exciting finish in that one. To the Finns who captured the bronze medal, we see you coming again, and we'll be ready for that battle. To the rest of the field, the biggest stage is the Olympics, and we'll be awaiting those games too.

See you all on February 4, 2022!

Until next time, keep your sticks on the ice!